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Do You Know What Your Customers Don't Know?

questionandreannaThis is the question that every business asks themselves (or should) – What do our customers not know?  It is vitally important to know the answer to this question because that is the very information you need to have on your website and in your brochures.  Potential Customers come to your website to get the answer to their questions.

The hard part is that the question is not the same for everyone.  But there are some easy ways to find out what customers want to know.  Most obvious and easy is just to ask them.  Much of this information is also already known by employees of your company.  Anyone who takes sales or support calls will have information about what customers have questions about.

Helping customers answer their questions will lead to higher customer satisfaction and an improved sales process, plus provide you with better content on your website and brochures.

(photo by Andreanna @ Flickr CC)

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Twitter – The Most Effective Social Network?

conversationdragunskThere’s been a lot of news lately about companies using Twitter successfully.  Sure, you can micro-target an audience which has already told you they’re interested just by following you.  But is Twitter really an effective social networking tool?

We’ve been using Twitter since late 2007. I think it’s constantly been evolving as people find new and different uses for 140 character conversations.  At first, people would just talk about what they were doing – which could be pretty boring.  Then people expanded that to share what was going on and their opinions of it – Twitter is often the first to report large events.  Now people are using Twitter to have conversations and connect with new people.

Our use of Twitter has been similar in terms of evolution.  We’ve connected with some really great new people – even people locally and even gotten some business from it.  Best of all, we’ve had some really great conversations on Twitter.  In some ways, networking on Twitter has been more effective than other social networks because of the conversations.  The number of readers via Twitter, RSS and our blog continues to rise – in no small part from our Twitter connections.  I like to think of it as a giant instant messenger (IM) for the world.

What have your experiences been with Twitter?  Please share in the comments below.

(photo by Dragunsk @ Flickr CC)

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Take the Time to Connect with Your Customers

dotserixAfter dropping my daughter off at school this morning, I stopped by the local bagel shop.

“Sausage, egg and cheese on wheat.  Salt bagel, double toasted, extra cream cheese. Coffee refill, please.”

“Do you have a daughter who goes to school?”

“Yes, she’s seven.”

“And your husband has a beard?”

“Yup.”

“Tell him I said hi.  I recognized this bagel must be for him from the extra toasting, extra cream cheese.”

The bagel shop owner took an extra few seconds to connect with me on a more personal level than just saying hi.  Not only did I mention this exchange to my husband, but it also struck me as important enough to blog about.  In this tight economic times, spending a few extra seconds connecting with your customers, remembering an extra little personal detail, can go along way to providing you with good referrals and future business.  All it takes are a few extra seconds and bit of effort to connect the dots.

(photo by erix! @ Flickr CC)

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