I was planning on writing a blog post arguing that if you don’t love your customer, all the data in the world won’t make it right. Then I realized that Tyler Douglas, CMO of Vision Critical, had already explained the concept far better than I ever could. So here’s an excerpt to Tyler’s excellent article for The Economist Group, with a link for your convenience. Enjoy!
3 ways to love your customer – they know more about the business than you do
by Tyler Douglas
In a widely-shared essay by New York Times writer Mandy Len Catron, the author describes a study where researchers devised a system to make two people fall in love. The main idea was to nurture a connection by getting two people to learn deeply about each other and to simply be together in an open and honest way. In today’s world of the tech-savvy, mobile, always-on customer, the walls that once separated companies from those who buy their products are gone. Brands that don’t treat customers with love and respect risk losing them forever. The good news is that, as the love study shows, love isn’t all magic and mystery. It’s a relationship cultivated through dialogue, commitment and closeness. Done right, it has transformative potential for your business.Here are some ways to love your customer that will benefit your business:
Stop seeing customers as (big) data points: Brands are living, ever-evolving entities. To succeed and stay competitive they have to stay nimble, grow and change with the times.Over the last few years, the empowered customer has disrupted the innovation curve and many marketers have mistakenly gotten hung up on optimizing metrics without much context. Yet understanding customers’ true motivation—said differently, the “why” behind their actions—is the first step in knowing their preferences, and in keeping them coming back.
Don’t turn to social media analytics for insight: Companies swim in a plethora of data about their customers, and social media analytics were touted as a way to know customers as individuals versus data points. Over time, however, social media analytics failed to live up to its promise as a panacea for customer-centricity.
Treat customers like they’re part of your business: According to a recent IBM study, second to the CEO, the C-suite cares most about what customers think. Why? Because today, they have the power to influence innovation and drive companywide success. So who better to tell you what customers want than your customers?
I highly recommend you read the entire article. To do so, visit economistgroup.com here.
