As part of the transition from the 1900′s to the 2000′s and more specifically the last few years, we all have to get over a major obstacle in order to move forward. The major obstacle as made famous by Adam Sandler is the fear that “they’re all going to laugh at you!“. As individuals, many have been held back because they were afraid of consequences, they were afraid of what people would think and they were afraid that people would laugh at them. It may not be those specific fears but pretty much, they were afraid that what they produce would not be accepted as well as they would hope. Growing up, we have all heard the saying “better to remain quite and looked a fool than opening your mouth and removing all doubt”. We are trained to keep quite until we are certain that everyone else will agree with us.
On a corporate level, every department fears what other departments will think, what their superiors will think and even more what the public will think. This thinking leads to being less productive, less innovative and more boring. Before doing anything at a large company, a department will have a meeting, then propose it to other departments or superiors and then test it out on a small sample of the public before even thinking of moving forward. During this time, they can be losing out on potential profit and allowing their competitors to get ahead.
Obviously there are times when you need to test things out to make sure that they are on target and won’t damage the company image but that doesn’t mean that internally they have to shlep on forever. By keeping things to yourself and hiding forward thinking from your company or target market, you are doing yourself a huge disservice.
Companies and organization now have the tools to connect with their audience and to communicate on a daily basis in real time. They can blog, connect on Facebook, Twitter, Youtube and many more social networks. Your audience is waiting for your thought leadership. They are waiting to hear about your organization, what you are thinking about and what you can do for them. There has never before been a time that you can give your audience more than you can right now. If that’s the case, what are you waiting for? Nobody will laugh at you for jumping in. The only time they will laugh is if you don’t take advantage of this amazing opportunity to connect with them.
What are you waiting for? Jump in and leave a comment.
*photo thanks to Linny http://www.flickr.com/photos/linnybinnypix/
Joseph Jaffe, Chief Interruptor at Crayon and one of the leading specialists in conversational marketing and social media, recently had a really bad experience with American Express and took the time to rant about it for a few minutes on his online TV channel. He got upset at American Express for doing something to him that any credit card company or business would do in that situation. The only difference is, that Amex differentiated themselves as a company who cares.
Watch this video and you’ll see what I mean:
You’ll notice that he was upset because they claimed to be “Open” for small businesses, that they understand their customers, the spirit of the entrepreneur and the American dream. American Express opened their arms and offered friendship to small businesses and Jaffe accepted.
After the friendship started and his credit card and limit were in hand, Amex came over to him and began to act like a business by asking for all of his personal information and tax records. Multiple personalities if you ask me and nobody wants to be friends with someone that’s only your friend some of the time.
At the end of the story, his credit card was declined because he was $16 over his limit. For a business, over the limit is over the limit. They have rules and must follow them. For a friend, $16 is nothing and would quickly be forgiven. Jaffe was not upset that a business was following rules, he was upset that his good friend just stabbed him in the back and made him look like a fool when he was checking into the Renaissance Hotel in Orlando.
Jaffe points out that there “was no courtesy call, no courtesy message, no courtesy text message”, all things you would expect from a friend, or a business you consider your friend. A company that cares would never do this to their customers.
If a company says “we’ll give you the world” and then disappoints you on even one point, they will lose their customers. If a company says “i’ll give you ‘X’” and then gives you “X” and “Y”, they have made a friend, possibly for life if they keep it up.
Consistency is a Must
Consistency is extremely important. People want to know what they are getting when they make a purchase. Michael Gerber in the E-myth Revisited mentions that the success of McDonalds is because of their system and consistency. When a customer visits the store, they know exactly what they are going to get. If the customer has a great sandwich the first time but the same sandwich the next time is not as good, he will subconsciously stop going to that restaurant.
We are in a world where social relationships rule and traditional one-way company monologues are on their deathbed. Customers would always prefer to give their business to a friend as opposed to a corporation. As a company, becoming friends with your customers is a smart move and the friendship will gain their loyalty. Just make sure that if you become friends with your customers, you act like a friend and not a business.
