A couple of weeks ago at a funeral, I met a friend of mine whom I hadn't seen for a while. "This is not an optimal way to get together," she remarked.
"I agree," I replied. "Let's set a time for lunch so that the next time we meet is under happy, not sad, circumstances."
"Good idea," she responded as we walked into the room to sit down for the service.
Unfortunately, we have not set that lunch date yet.
I remembered this incident today as I was scrolling through my past e-mails. I was suddenly struck by how keeping in touch with friends is similar to keeping in touch with customers. Yes, I realize that your customers are not necessarily your friends, although some might fall into that category. Many of mine do.
However, the point is the same. In order to maintain friendships, you must make the effort to keep in touch with your friends via some sort of communication, whether telephone, e-mail, letter, or lunch. It's the same with your customers. To retain their business, you must make the effort to keep in touch with them.
Why?
We all think that we are unforgettable. If we have done business with a customer once, served the customer well, and received feedback that the customer was happy, we think that we are set for future business with that customer. We think that our good service had an indelible imprint on the customer which will never disappear and to which the customer will always respond.
That's not the way the real world works. In reality, the customer does business with you, is satisfied, and goes on with life. Some time in the future, whether the next day, the next week, the next month, or the next year, another opportunity arises when the customer could do business with you again. Does the customer contact you?
Maybe, maybe not. Whether the customer contacts you or not depends on your position in the customer's mind. The last time that you had contact with the customer, you had a favorable and, thus, a high position in the customer's mind. Since that time, however, many things could have happened. Your customer may have been exposed to another business which offers what you offer. Your customer may have had a friend or colleague recommend another business which offers what you offer. Your customer may have had a change in what your customer wants, and, not knowing that you can fulfill that want, your customer goes to another business which says it can. As a result, your position in your customer's mind may have changed. You may have slipped from first position to third, fourth, or last. In fact, you may have slipped off the ladder in your customer's mind altogether. Your customer may not even think of contacting you.
All of this happened not as a result of your past interaction with the customer but due to the position of your business in the customer's mind.
Positions are fluid and subject to change because your customer is busy. In this busyness, your customer grabs the first business that comes to mind for a particular want. Just like you and me, your customer is bombarded everyday with messages and other opportunities. These give your customer lots of choices and chances to change which business occupies a position in his or her mind. The best way to achieve a position in your customer's mind is to have conducted business with him or her and left your customer satisfied. Realize, however, that this position is not guaranteed to stay yours forever.
Once you have achieved a position, you only retain it by keeping in touch.
Watch next week for Keeping in Touch Part II.
Sunday, January 20, 2008
The Problem with Surveys
The pollsters were shocked last week with the results of the New Hampshire primary. Their projections were horrendously off, and, ever since, they have been attempting to explain the discrepancy. As they scramble to redeem themselves and what they do, the bottom line is that data collection is not an exact science. Asking someone a question on a survey does not give you all the answers.
Why?
The answers that you receive are subject to interpretation.
In fact, the interpretation begins long before you even ask the questions.
The way the question is formed sets the stage for the interpretation. The words used and the sequence of those words shape the ultimate meaning of the question. The question may have one meaning to the person forming it, another to the person asking it, and a third to the person answering it. All of this has a profound effect upon the data collected and, ultimately, its interpretation.
How the person answering the question understands it affects his or her answer. If the person answering the question has a different understanding of what is being asked than what was intended, his or her answer will skew the data collected. Even worse, if the person does not understand the question and just gives an answer to complete the survey, the data received from that person is bogus and contaminates all the results.
I recently had an experience in which I did this. In order to enter a Best Buy drawing for $10,000, I had to answer several survey questions. “Too many survey questions for the entry,” I thought. Some of the questions either were not relevant to me or did not make sense to me, and, although I knew that I was messing up their data collection, I picked any answer just to get through the survey. This survey created “question fatigue,” prompting me, and I suspect any person answering the question, to pick any answer, which further skews the data.
If your data is skewed to start, the conclusions that you draw from that data will be incorrect. Unfortunately, those interpreting data don’t know if it is correct or incorrect. They assume that the data is correct. Further, they assume that how they compile, handle, and review the data is correct. In any part of this process, they could be drawing incorrect conclusions from the data that they review and have no idea that they are doing so. Surveys are subject to a great deal of interpretation and, more accurately, assumptions, which always make me nervous.
That’s why I recommend face-to-face or voice-to-voice data collection. When you ask open-ended questions of your customers, you receive usable information that is relevant to improving your business. If you can’t ask these questions in person, asking them on the telephone is the next best thing. The power in this data collection is that you can ask another question to clarify the first question. You will often get better information in the second question, not the first. Through the second or even the third question, you have the power on-the-spot to fix assumptions on the part of the person answering and the person asking the question. These subsequent questions eliminate assumption and improve interpretation.
The closer you are to the collection of the data, the more interpretation is improved.
The key is talking to your customer, not asking your customer to complete a survey.
Why?
The answers that you receive are subject to interpretation.
In fact, the interpretation begins long before you even ask the questions.
The way the question is formed sets the stage for the interpretation. The words used and the sequence of those words shape the ultimate meaning of the question. The question may have one meaning to the person forming it, another to the person asking it, and a third to the person answering it. All of this has a profound effect upon the data collected and, ultimately, its interpretation.
How the person answering the question understands it affects his or her answer. If the person answering the question has a different understanding of what is being asked than what was intended, his or her answer will skew the data collected. Even worse, if the person does not understand the question and just gives an answer to complete the survey, the data received from that person is bogus and contaminates all the results.
I recently had an experience in which I did this. In order to enter a Best Buy drawing for $10,000, I had to answer several survey questions. “Too many survey questions for the entry,” I thought. Some of the questions either were not relevant to me or did not make sense to me, and, although I knew that I was messing up their data collection, I picked any answer just to get through the survey. This survey created “question fatigue,” prompting me, and I suspect any person answering the question, to pick any answer, which further skews the data.
If your data is skewed to start, the conclusions that you draw from that data will be incorrect. Unfortunately, those interpreting data don’t know if it is correct or incorrect. They assume that the data is correct. Further, they assume that how they compile, handle, and review the data is correct. In any part of this process, they could be drawing incorrect conclusions from the data that they review and have no idea that they are doing so. Surveys are subject to a great deal of interpretation and, more accurately, assumptions, which always make me nervous.
That’s why I recommend face-to-face or voice-to-voice data collection. When you ask open-ended questions of your customers, you receive usable information that is relevant to improving your business. If you can’t ask these questions in person, asking them on the telephone is the next best thing. The power in this data collection is that you can ask another question to clarify the first question. You will often get better information in the second question, not the first. Through the second or even the third question, you have the power on-the-spot to fix assumptions on the part of the person answering and the person asking the question. These subsequent questions eliminate assumption and improve interpretation.
The closer you are to the collection of the data, the more interpretation is improved.
The key is talking to your customer, not asking your customer to complete a survey.
The Lazy Man's Way
I had occasion a couple of days ago to make a presentation to a financial institution about helping them with their marketing. They had been piecemealing their advertising out to various persons and firms and wanted to consolidate it with one company. They also wanted to get more growth from their marketing. The foundation of my presentation was for them to start with a written marketing plan and to work that plan. After several minutes of involving them in a discussion about the importance of a written marketing plan, one of the participants, I assume the head guy, said, "We get it."
His next statement showed that, no, indeed, they did not get it.
"We want to take the lazy man's way," he continued. "We want someone else to handle all this for us."
While I am all for delegating parts of your marketing to others who are experts in the field, you cannot have someone else create your marketing plan for you. That's like asking someone else to dream your dream for you. To have an effective marketing plan, you must be involved in creating that plan. You must help in forming the objectives. You must help in targeting your market. You must help in deciding your message. These decisions require your input. No one else can know these for your business.
If you are not willing to participate in creating your marketing plan, you will never be happy with the results of that plan.
Why?
That plan is not your plan. It is not accomplishing what you want to accomplish. It is not saying what you want said. It is not reaching who you want to reach. It can't because you weren't a part of creating the plan.
While creating a marketing plan may seem a daunting task because you just don't know how to do it, you cannot shirk involvement and hope to get anything close to what you want. In fact, that is the problem. You don't know what you want, and, if you don't know what you want, you certainly won't get it.
I know this from experience. I've seen marketing plans slipped into drawers and never used because the owner of the business did not "buy into" the plan. He or she was not involved in creating it. Consequently, the plan's implementation was not relevant to him or her. Involvement gives you ownership. You get out of your marketing in direct proportion to what you put into it.
The lazy man's way to creating a marketing plan is a waste of time.
His next statement showed that, no, indeed, they did not get it.
"We want to take the lazy man's way," he continued. "We want someone else to handle all this for us."
While I am all for delegating parts of your marketing to others who are experts in the field, you cannot have someone else create your marketing plan for you. That's like asking someone else to dream your dream for you. To have an effective marketing plan, you must be involved in creating that plan. You must help in forming the objectives. You must help in targeting your market. You must help in deciding your message. These decisions require your input. No one else can know these for your business.
If you are not willing to participate in creating your marketing plan, you will never be happy with the results of that plan.
Why?
That plan is not your plan. It is not accomplishing what you want to accomplish. It is not saying what you want said. It is not reaching who you want to reach. It can't because you weren't a part of creating the plan.
While creating a marketing plan may seem a daunting task because you just don't know how to do it, you cannot shirk involvement and hope to get anything close to what you want. In fact, that is the problem. You don't know what you want, and, if you don't know what you want, you certainly won't get it.
I know this from experience. I've seen marketing plans slipped into drawers and never used because the owner of the business did not "buy into" the plan. He or she was not involved in creating it. Consequently, the plan's implementation was not relevant to him or her. Involvement gives you ownership. You get out of your marketing in direct proportion to what you put into it.
The lazy man's way to creating a marketing plan is a waste of time.
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