As you deliver products & services and your marketing gets out there – don’t lose sight of them, ever. Here’s how.
Let their feedback & insights guide you.
If you want to know what a real, live, potentially-paying customer thinks or wants or needs from your brand, you don’t have to wonder. You can ask them directly.
Or better yet: you can become so in tune with them, their lifestyle, and the cultural and societal forces working for and against them that you can actually anticipate what they want and need, maybe even before they realize it.
This feels like a no-brainer (“know what your customer wants from you”) but you’d be surprised by how easy it is to lose this kind of clear connection, how it can happen slowly over time, and the combination of factors that may be involved.
Let’s look at some examples from real-life clients of mine:
You could be physically removed from your customers, as you make all of your decisions from a 650,000 square feet “support center” 20+ stories up in the sky.
You could be unclear about what you really offer and want to be everything to all people, with Brand Pillars that range from “craftsmanship” to “value” to “style” to… 8 other things. (True story.)
You may not actually, truly value your customer. You know she’s more “look for less” than Louis Vuitton, but you still want to exude the status of a luxury brand.
Understanding what your customer wants helps you gain and maintain the kind of clarity that‘ll make your communications much more effective. But what are some ways to do that, in tangible way?
Here are some real-life examples where clients have done this very successfully:
Hire someone to do informational interviews with real customers who will tell you the truth about what they like — and don’t like — about your brand and what it offers.
Email online surveys out, to collect this type of information in a more budget-friendly way.
Take this to the next level by creating VIP / Insider online communities — another place where you can send out questions and get regular feedback. (But, please make it worth their time and reward them with discounts or “points” for their involvement.)
Invite real customers to your offices for product line reviews, so you can get their input early in the product development process.
Create personas, yes. Give them real names, yes. But take it to the next level, like the discount retailer I worked with who created table tents and signage of their top 3 personas and plastered them all over their corporate offices. It made making a decision without them in mind almost impossible.
Especially in organizations where getting close to the customer isn’t a real priority, this can be an area where you shine. I’ve heard many conference room conversations stop for meaningful reflection after someone busts out a “But what would really resonate with the customer?” Those with their ears to the ground end up having the clearest voices.
Get close to them. Stay close to them. And let what really matters to them help guide you. It’s the kind of simple clarity that can make all the difference in the work you do each day.
