Are you listening, really listening?
What is your brand doing to listen to your customers? Listening doesn’t mean doing random sample survey of customers. Sure those are good, but are you really listening?
As the economy takes its roller coaster ride, brands have to find a way to ride it out. How are they going to do that? Listen to their customers, and deliver what they want. I’ve been thoroughly impressed by companies that are listening online and using that to drive strategy. It’s the agile response that is going to make you better than the other guys. It begs the question how can you listen and act?
Listen
First use your listening skills. Genuine listening skills like you were taught long ago.One of my favorites is using a media monitoring tool. Something like Radian6. This tool will help you listen to the market better than you ever have before. You can get a grasp on the hot buttons for you customers and potential customers.
Look for trends in the conversation online. Keywords being used, their tone, who they are talking to. All things that are important but often overlooked. Just because they might be saying something you don’t want to hear doesn’t mean you should sweep it under the rug. Use it to your advantage, and do it quickly.
Then Act, and quickly
You don’t have to wait until your next big campaign to act. Start small, but do it fast. The faster brands act on a strategy the greater the opportunity to pursue and keep customers. Those are the brands that will win and big.
This doesn’t mean that you have to always be selling to them. Enhance their life with your brand. This could mean that you are giving them information on how to use your product in a way they didn’t think about. Maybe they need some customer service? Use a tool like Twitter to do that. Maybe your product could use some adjustments, and they are small. Get it into the product development cycle.
Gary Vaynerchuk said it very well when he said, “Improvise, be resourceful, do whatever it takes to care for your community. Tough times require creative solutions.”
Bottom line here is that you have to get creative but if you actively listen, you can act quickly and win big even in these down times. If you aren’t listening, your brand could walk into a minefield that your brand might not be able to recover from.
Great post, Damian. A brand is now the sum of conversations about it. Without listening, it will be difficult to really understand the perceptions of your brand. Also, as you say, acting/responding is just as important and a huge opportunity for your brand/company to become more personal, responsive, and build relationships with customers.
Thanks for mentioning Radian6.
Regards,
Marcel
Thanks Marcel, you guys make listening really easy. That insight into what customers are saying can make the message go much further, and faster. Ultimately build a good relationship with the customer because as you said, build a good relationship by providing good service.
Also no the point of listening, Marcel your team is doing a great job. After I made the comment yesterday I gained a number of followers from your team very quickly. I also gained followers from what looks to be competitors of yours. Very smart of them as well.
It’s nice to see that your team doesn’t just say they listen, they actually do it.
Listening is definitely the key, then getting involved is easy.
We have a Freemium version of Techrigy SM2 that makes it easy for everyone to monitor & build brand. http://sm2.techrigy.com
Connie @ Techrigy.com