Today has been declared “Get to know your customers day.”
I’m not sure who decides why each day has to have a particular theme, but so be it.
It goes without saying that customers are the lifeblood of any business and, as is the case in any relationship that matters, client relationships need to be nurtured, nourished and cherished.
We get to know our customers in three distinct ways:
1.) We take a deep dive into their business model and, in the instances where they’ll allow it, tag along on sales calls so we can hear, first-hand, what THEIR customers’ wants and needs are. It’s an extremely effective way of fine-tuning our communications programs.
2.) We put ourselves in our customer’s customers’ shoes and experience a client’s value proposition from the outside in. So, we examine each and every virtual and physical client ‘touchpoint’ and evaluate the experience. Our employees become the target audience and, more often than not, uncover one or more serious disconnects between what our client promises and the end user actually experiences.
3.) We meet on a regular basis with CCOs and CMOs from various industries and ask them what’s keeping them awake at night, how mobile is influencing their decision-making, etc. We then put these findings together in an anonymous white paper and share it with our customers, who are often too tied up in their own worlds to keep track of what their peers are doing.
It’s a three-step process that seems to work very well. It’s also been central to our maintaining so many client relationships for so many years.
So, tell me, how do you get to know your customers?