How Do You Communicate With Customers?

Above: Another great cartoon drawn on the back of a business card by Hugh MacLeod.

How Do You Communicate With Customers?

I love this Josh Bernoff quote from “Why Marketers Have Trouble with Full-Duplex Social Technology” (June 30th 2009):

“The people in charge of talking are in the marketing department. The people in charge of listening are in the research or service or sales department. They hardly ever talk to each other, let alone have full-duplex conversations with customers.”

No truer word has ever been said. And it’s the companies and marketers who have realised this and are making changes in order to bridge this gap that are booming, often thanks to social media.

Have you ever received a marketing email from a company telling you how important you are and how much they value your opinions; only to discover that the email is ‘do not reply’?… Unless of course you want to place a huge order with us right away, in which case, click here.

Companies like Threadless have bridged the gap between supplier, customer, and marketer by allowing the customer to converse with the supplier in order to get the exact t-shirt design they want. You often see comments asking for a different colour t-shirt or for the designer to move the image an inch to the left and half an inch up. Potential customers then get to vote on the design and whether they would actually purchase it… This message then goes straight to the marketers who have the most popular designs printed.

That is full-duplex social technology at its best.

So how do you communicate with your customers? Are you asking for their opinions but not really listening? Is it a one way communication? Are the messages of your customers getting to the right people within your organisation? In fact, are the right people within your organisation having the right conversations with the right people?

Whether you’re a hotel manager, a motel owner, or a hotel booking system supplier, you need to be having full-duplex conversations using social media. That means using Facebook, Linked In, Twitter, Flickr, etc, and actually engaging in meaningful conversations with the people that matter… Your customers!

For a great explanation of social media, take a look at THIS presentation called “What the F*ck is Social Media: One Year Later” by Marta Kagan from Brand Infiltration

Thanks once again for reading,

Emma

For more information on hotel booking systems or corporate training for the hospitality industry, don't hesitate to leave a comment here or email me on eharradine@hotmail.co.uk