The Lost Art of Customer Conversation
The following is adapted from Getting to Aha! by Darshan Mehta.
In today’s world, whether you’re a fledgling startup or an established brand, you’re operating in a world of hypercompetition. Whatever products or services you sell, you’re up against not only the company down the street but also the one across the state, the one across the country, and the one halfway around the world.
To stand out and differentiate yourself from your peers, you must establish strong emotional connections with your customer base. Companies that understand their customers’ needs, fears, desires, and problems — and what they are willing to pay to fix them — will survive. But those that chase insights — and put them to use — will thrive.
Insights are combinations of observations and facts, influenced by overarching sociocultural and technological trends — they’re things that make us say “aha!” Arriving at insights is both a science and an art. And ultimately, it relies on the one elusive constant technology that remains hard-pressed to replicate or replace: humanity. To truly understand humanity — and thus your customers — you must practice the lost art of conversation.
You Need to Chase Insights
I’ve been working as a brand strategist and marketing researcher for more than 15 years. I help clients figure out what ultimately drives consumers to buy their product or service — the why behind customers’ decision-making processes. In my experience, the most successful companies are the ones that actively seek out insights.
I’ve come to realize that insights are multidimensional. They incorporate not only quantitative data but also a deep understanding of consumers’ needs and desires. They speak to the societal trends influencing consumers’ purchasing habits and brand sentiments.
Fortunately, technology has made it easier than ever to square insights’ quantitative and qualitative components. With just a few clicks, these new tools can track responses to advertising, map website behavior, conduct digital surveys, compile audience trends, and much more.
But while quantitative data is inarguably useful in business, it can’t offer a true picture of consumer behavior. It delivers the what but rarely the why.
To get a firm grip on your customers’ purchase decision-making behavior, you must pair quantitative data with its qualitative counterpart. These non-numerical assessments can take you to the emotional heart of consumers’ decision making — to the why. And the ideal vehicle of qualitative data? Genuine, human-to-human conversation.
Your Customers Are Already Talking
Mastering the art of customer conversation begins with this realization: you’re going to hear from your patrons whether you want to or not. Whether you’re a clothing retailer, a consumer products manufacturer, a technology platform, or even a health-care facility, your fans and detractors will plaster their thoughts about you across any number of channels, including Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and an ever-growing number of specialized sites and blogs.
Your customers will do all of this without warning and without your permission. Whether you invite it or not, you are going to hear from your customers.
The only way to deal with this is head-on. Engage your customers where they are. Understand their grievances so that you may limit future ones. Ask what drives them nuts about your product and brand. Listen when they tell you, “I really hate it when X breaks down, and I have to keep fixing it,” or “I can’t believe I have to hold this button down with my right hand in order to turn on this machine with my left.” Your customers may not know how you can solve their problems, but they’ll happily tell you what those problems are.
Engaging with negative feedback can be easier said than done. But there are two rules to remember. The first is that negativity happens. Not everyone is going to love your product or service; no matter what you do, you won’t make everyone happy. The second is that negativity itself matters less than your response to it — and you must respond to it. Leaving unfavorable comments unaddressed allows them to become “facts,” while sharing thoughtful, genuine responses can mitigate the impact of negative ones. Your customers understand that “s*@! happens,” and they’ll appreciate your responsiveness and willingness to own up to a mistake.
The Power of Conversation
Positive or negative, addressed or not, customer feedback is out there. Businesses that enter into exchanges with their fans and detractors alike are those that pull critical insights into reach. They are the companies that constantly challenge themselves to deliver the experience their customers want, refining their products and services and differentiating themselves from their competitors.
At the end of the day, your brand can only be validated by its customers — not by you. You control the product or service you offer, your mission and values, and your customer communications. But only your customers can appreciate your product, mission, values, and communication. It’s a synergistic relationship. And the way to build a maximally productive one is to get to know your audience through conversations.
For more advice on gaining valuable insights through conversations with your customers, you can find Getting to Aha! on Amazon.
In 1998, Darshan Mehta pioneered online focus groups and surveys and founded iResearch, an online insights platform that enables companies to quickly, easily, and affordably extract consumer and employee insights worldwide. He draws upon more than twenty years of marketing strategy experience to help business leaders understand and leverage changing consumer preferences. In addition to his role at iResearch, Mehta is an adjunct professor at universities in Thailand, Sweden, France, and the United States. Through his work, Mehta has traveled to more than eighty countries and been recognized in publications such as Forbes, Inc., the Journal of Advertising Research, Quirk’s, and IdeaMensch.com.
