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There is a lot of music you can dance to out there. You can dance to "the economy is so bad" -- a slow dance? Or "things are great in my world" -- some old disco tune? Or "we're all in this together" -- a circle dance? But the tune that should make you pick up your feet and boogie is "my market needs me" -- shake it baby!
Your best current customers -- the ones you wish you had more of -- are a great place to start. What are they ordering? What requests have they made that you couldn't fill? Where is their future taking them? Figure out the questions you need to ask yourself -- the answers will feed into your strategic marketing plan -- either through product development, sales/messaging, or customer service.
Listen to the Music
Criticism often comes to us as subtle hints or cloaked as compliments, but even when it's put to us bluntly, and even when we request it, it can be difficult to recognize as valuable. We are sensitive to criticism of our business, our brand, our staff, our leadership/management skills, and our selves. But if we listen closely we may find the magic answers we're always seeking from "them" -- our elusive market.
Turn up THEIR volume
In some instances it's crucial to the quality of our product/service or brand to ask for criticism. We can't be everywhere nor can see our own business from all perspectives, nor can we test every product the way our customers can. Therefore, we need to have mechanisms in place to solicit feedback and criticism, whether they be feedback forms or person-to-person chats.
Unsolicited or negative feedback and criticism
This is the feedback we tend to shrug off or that brings out our defensiveness. "How dare they!" or "We know best - we've always done it this way." Many times this is true -- we run our business our way because it does work. The rest of the world is not running our business. But the important thing here is to consider the content and not the source of the feedback, or you may be missing out on useful information. How we respond to criticism is a customer service matter, but what we do with criticism is a leadership matter, and listening to the music of the world around us is just as important to our brand as beating our own drum.
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