Practice The Art Of Managing Customer Involvement.

I watched a CEO and his retail manager discuss the idea to print out a simple suggestion request for customers to fill out.  They decided to keep the request simple.  They wanted to place the request on some tables where a few of their regular customers come into the retail store and have coffee.  Later, I picked up the note and read the request.  The request was a simple one.  It read, "What kinds of products would you like to see our retail store offer?"  Below that question were a few blank lines for the customers to use to fill in their answers.  Very simple.

I asked the manager a few days later, did you get any answers from the 'survey' you guys placed on the coffee tables?  He said, "No."

I was not surprised.  Customer involvement is not a practical process.  Success is simple.  It is the mind that is difficult.

To approach a customer in such a pragmatic, direct and impersonal fashion, such as this, is simply a part of projecting how insensitive we can become with our thinking process.  The survey request note had absolutely no indication how the customer was able to win by offering its expertise to the owners search for valuable information.  It was so simple it appeared as if it was a one-way road.  It appeared as if the request might easily have said, "Just give me some really good suggestions of some products I can sell to you and off I go."  Maybe it might have been nicer to say, "You are here so give me some suggestions...fill them out."

When my business model reaches the part of its production that requires me to write a note of request, given to my regular customers instead of sitting down and chatting honestly with them, I reveal to them how I have not been on the correct path of observation in the first place.  It shows.  Customers will immediately 'clam up' when they sense we are insensitive with our relationships.  Customers can make very keen observations when this is true.  Laying a request for suggestions on 'their' table in 'their' territory for 'them' to fill out is a rather insensitive move.  Missing this perspective is wrong on so many levels I am surprised a few short remarks were not made about the effort.  Managing customer involvement is an art, not a science.  To practice the art of customer involvement is to learn how to quietly know what they are looking for without putting them on the spot.  Customers want the spot light of their involvement to glow rather than being put immediately on the spot in the light.  There is a huge difference.

The request that was left on the table where the customers have their daily coffee was destined to fail.  It set a tone for failure.  I may have been the only one who was happy to hear that the request failed.  I was able to quietly confirm my suspicion for results and thereby be accurate with my expectation.  I was able to feed my ego and continue to increase my knowledge.  I could get all puffed up about being correct when no answers came in.  My last post on this blog cautioned us about practicing the art of allowing our ego's to get out of control.  Truly, nobody won this one.  There was no win, win situations developed with this kind of product survey.  Everybody lost.

Let me provide an example why this marketing request note failed with the regulars at the coffee table.  While this small 'product request' note was resting on the tables where the small group of coffee crowd congregates, I heard a little lady at the sales register tell one of the clerks, while she was paying for her purchase, that she wished this store would carry some organic garden seeds.  The clerk responded exactly as quoted, "We brought this seed line in last year and they nearly sold out.  They seem to be better than the line we carried before.  I planted some of their seeds last year and I think all of them came up!"  I stood quietly behind this exhibit of insensitivity and wondered, what?  Market insensitive responses set a tone of 'no support' from your customer base.  A better answer for the clerk to offer might be, "What brand of organic seeds have you seen that you like?"  Once the question is asked; shut up...take notes...and listen to the answer.  Tell that customer you would look into the possibility to examine that line of organic seeds.  Take her phone number down and call her when they come in.  Find out what particular plants she was interested in and if you do not secure the line for resales in your store, at the very least make sure you purchase those seeds where they are offered at another retailer and call her to tell her you at least found her seeds that she wanted.  You will not make any money when you practice this move.  However, you will win the heart of that customer who will increase their trade activities with your store.  Practice the art of managing customer involvement.  When you acquire the hearts of your customers in this way, you can ask them a simple question on a simple note like the one that failed on the coffee crowds table.  Your results will be different this time.  Your customers will get involved this time because you have proven you are involved in caring about how they are treated.  It was not the method that failed.  It was the art of projecting how much you cared that failed.  Do you see this difference?

A while later I had a chance to refer to the organic seed conversation with the register clerk.  I described a seed company that was very famous for producing organic seeds.  I shared how customers have become very active in trying to do more things in life that represent some form of organic living.  I also shared with this clerk how this same organic seed company was one of the only remaining producers of seed that do not genetically alter its seeds.  I shared with the clerk how I think customers would like that information more than the fact that the seeds are organic.  I shared how the seeds on display in 'our' store are good ones, unfortunately, they cannot satisfy the needs organic customers want to buy.  We should be the place where they can get organic seeds, also.  One one hand, this retail outfit placed a marketing request note on the table of the regular coffee crowd area, looking for new products to add to the store inventory.  Yet on the other hand, did not listen to a customer product request that came unsolicited at the sales counter.  The clerk missed this golden opportunity.  On the platter of 'free marketing advice' was a customer who was completely willing to share what they were willing to purchase in this store if the store was interested in selling something new to them.

To practice of the art of customer involvement is a philosophy, not a job task.  A business cannot produce a list of things it must follow and check off each day in order to become consumer driven.  A business cannot successfully pull off success in this fashion.  It will not work.  If you are trying to perform this type of consumer involvement approach, quit it.  It is not helping you very much.  In fact, I believe it is killing you more than you recognize.  Poor techniques are measured more seriously by the consumer than no technique at all.  Pay close attention to that statement.  It is a truism that can make or break your growth efforts.  Consumers do not notice 'no technique.'  They notice 'poor techniques'.  That concept should raise your eyebrows.  If you decide to practice a new concept for marketing, make sure you exhibit a good technique.  Otherwise, forget it.  You will be better off doing nothing as opposed to doing something very wrong and insensitive.

What Is Your Next Move?

Yesterday my wife and I traveled to the heart of another big city.  We were driving into a new and large retail center.  Up ahead of us about 50 yards away were three vehicles that had mounted some very large marketing signs onto their moving vehicles.  They were apparently traveling around this busy area in a circle trying to advertise whatever those signs were trying to say.  We could not read them from where we were.  They had too much color contrast in the wording and too many smaller words to see from the distance where we were.  However, the huge signs moving together in that area did catch our attention.  We thought it was strange.  Being the analytic business people we are, we decided to get a closer look at who would do something silly like this.  I maneuvered my automobile to get a closer look at this set of moving signs.  We got close enough to read the advertisement.  It was a sign that informed the reader that a local furniture store retailer was going out of business.  It had their name on the advertisement.  My wife said, "Who are they?  Where is that store?"  I immediately responded, "That's probably why they are going out of business."  She laughed with a giggle that confirmed my comment.  Keep in mind, my wife and I have owned a furniture store business for nearly 30 years in this region.  We are very familiar with who the retail furniture stores are and how they do their business.  This particular name was a new one to us.  If you keep your business a secret...you will not attract enough customers to remain open for business.

A short while later my wife asked me another question.  She said, "Why would you spend money hiring three drivers with three large signs to advertise your sale without placing your address on the signs?"  We noticed no address on the signs.  The signs had the days of the sale and the name of the business, that's it.  We shook our heads.  She said, "No wonder."  A little while later she asked another question, "Why would you pay three drivers to circle around the same area all single file and grouped together?  Wouldn't you want to reach out to three areas with three drivers?"  I answered, "Maybe they are not very smart."      

If you were the owner of the retail store going out of business, you will notice some marketing flaws to overcome.  If you were the owner of the retail store that tried to hand a simple survey request to its coffee crowd, you will need to improve upon the artful practice of managing customer involvement.  These steps witnessed above were real.  Seeing them in action was a real experience.  If you own a business, and you do not immediately see the flaws in these marketing mistakes, go get help.  With each flaw of this nature you will eventually notice how much they will begin to irritate your efforts to grow.  You will discover how each little negative effect these mistakes produce will work like a tree growing in your yard.  Eventually the roots will begin to destroy the flow of your traffic pipes under ground.  Every business has the ability to develop a flow of regular traffic that works like water running through the pipes of the business under ground.  It becomes steady and accountable.  When the bad roots grow large enough to destroy those flowing pipes, traffic begins to disappear quietly.  The leaks in the relationships begin to tear away at the pipes that hold the routine patronage once enjoyed.  Sooner or later the business volume suffers.  Learn how to manage the art of customer involvement with your business model.  Practice that art.  Help your business model 'get it' and make sure you understand what can hurt those relationships.

Work on becoming more observant for these particular concepts in marketing.  These are the kinds of things that cost very little to do yet produce a great set of attractive outcomes.  Building healthy relationships with your marketing area is vital to your success.  Before we left the area after we shopped around yesterday, we stopped in a popular eating establishment to get some food.  On our table was a marketing table top folder.  It was a 'marketing' story about how the food establishment worked to help some disadvantaged people get a new bicycle for their child.  Included in the 'press release' marketing table top folder was a way for more customers to get in touch with the marketing department of this eating establishment and how they can place a request for their special needs.  I told my wife, "Now this is how you do a marketing research project."  She said, "What?"  I said, "Gain the customers trust first, then ask them what they would like to see.  The consumer response would be more effective when you gain their trust."  She said, "I do not know what you are talking about."  I said, "Read my next post on my blog and it will become more clearer."  She replied, "Well that's crappy marketing, tell me now, I am here right now."     

Observation.  What kind of tool can observation be?

In order for a business to succeed, it must find a lot of supportive customers.  A good business needs a lot of good customers.  Most people can agree upon the fact that we can do a better job of listening to our customers as we work so hard on doing the million things we must get done.  Make sure we learn the art of practicing customer involvement.  My wife was involved at that moment and wanted to remain involved, for that time being.  We talked about the next blog idea.  She was satisfied when we were done.

Practice the art of customer involvement.  Sit down once in awhile with the coffee crowd and listen in.  Observe.  You will eventually earn their trust and hear what you need to hear about what they prefer you to offer them for their future purchases.  You will not need to drop them a note of request.

Until next time...