Think back through the last few marketing meetings you’ve held.
How much time was devoted to discussing the metrics—email open rates, the number of downloads, conversion rates, etc.?
On the other hand, how much time was devoted to talking about your actual customers and leads, their needs, and how to best reach them?
Technology can’t suss out the real reasons someone is shopping for a solution.
Here’s an excerpt from the complete article.
Humanity as a Brand Differentiator
My first full-time employer had a customer-first ethos like no other. On my first day, I heard the phrase, “Always be the last to say thank you.” I didn’t know what that meant. I was just an ambitious kid who wanted to get the job done. I wasn’t concerned with the human side of my work. Slowly, over the next two years, I saw the ethos come to life.
The customer service team fielded thousands of calls and letters a day. A four-inch binder took center stage on the desk of each rep. At the front of the room, a series of large binders crowned the bookcases. The representatives were charged with not just acknowledging the phone calls and letters but genuinely responding to them with deep answers. The binders on their desks contained official answers to the most frequently asked questions and the binders on the bookshelves contained every carefully worded answer to every question they had been asked in the previous 20 years of existence. Representatives were held accountable, not for the speed of the phone calls or the number of letters they replied to, but for the depth of their caring and response to the callers.
But even more than that, the phone calls would end in a grown-up version of “you hang up first.”
The representative would say, “Thank you for calling today.”
Inevitably, because they had been so well served, the caller would say something like, “No, thank you for finding the answer to my question.”
Then the rep would reply, “Thank you for being a part of our organization.”
This would repeat and repeat until the representative was the actual last one to say thanks.
It happened in the mail, as well. All the letters closed with gratitude. A percentage of those who received answers would send thank you cards—and sometimes flowers or elaborate handmade gifts—and the representatives would return a thank you card. That process would repeat until the customer didn’t reply anymore.
Now, 25 years later, I get the point of the exercise. In 1991, in the infinite wisdom of a 20-something, I thought it was a waste of resources and came off cheesy. Now, I see that this practice created two things.
- In the heart of the customer, “thank you” created an unwavering sense that “I am important. I matter to these guys. I’ll be loyal to them because they’ve done much for me and they really appreciate me being a part of their company.”
- For the representatives, instead of it being an exercise in manipulation or a contest of wills, it truly fostered an appreciation for the customer and, more than that, helped them remember at all times that the customer came first.
The advent of technology hasn’t changed the ethos; it’s changed the speed the reps can find the answers and respond to the customer.
What ethos drives your marketing? Do you strive for empathy?
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