Today is my 2nd guest blogger. Tony Hines is a friend of mine. He spent 9 years at Microsoft and has recently started up his own agency Promethium Marketing. He agency is focused on building and evangelizing customers for brands in the gaming industry. They have quite a niche and I’m exciting to see what they do next. Here is Tony in his words offering his perspective on the value of your customer.
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I’d like to introduce you to someone who can help you with your business. She is high-energy, she’s a great communicator and she already cares as much about your brand as you do. She’s never put together a resume, and probably doesn’t care about your corporate culture or benefits package, but once you get to know her, I guarantee she will be your most important strategic partner.
She is your customer.
I’ve been working in evangelism for almost a decade – recruiting, empowering and listening to the most vocal power users of technology products, first for Windows, then Office and most recently for Xbox. I just launched a social media agency specializing in igniting customer passions, so I like to think I’m a pretty good partner, but nobody will ever come close to the raw energy and power potential of your customers.
We’ve all been power users of one product or another, and over our lifetimes we’ve probably written a letter to the editor here, or placed a call to a customer service line there. Technology now allows customers to provide feedback immediately, and with nearly limitless amplification. We’re in an era where opinions are trickling UP as often as down and where customer complaints are just as likely to end up on Engadget as they are to end up in a call center log. If one customer has one bad experience with your brand – and she happens to be a decent writer – a blog post about it on Facebook could get picked up by a large blog, and eventually wind its way to USA Today. (I’ve seen it happen).
Now that I’ve stated the obvious – your customer is important, and louder than ever – let me point out a few ways in which your customer’s voice can be a huge boost to your business.
Customer Service
Customers WANT to help each other. In the technology space, there’s no more cost effective way to provide widespread customer support than to arm your customers with the tools, access and information they need to help each other. Customer support forums, power-user programs, fan certification, and good old fashioned meetups over waffles can help provide the sense of community that urges your fans to offer a helping hand to other users. I still think my time with the MVP program at Microsoft provided some of the most long-lasting financial benefit for the company.
Honest Feedback
As much as we want to think our colleagues will be straight-shooting and unrelenting in their quest for constant improvement… we have to accept that as insiders we will always have a blind spot when it comes to some product flaw or brand promise unmet. While working on the community program for Xbox, I came across a power user by the name of Chris Paladino, who ran his own video game podcast. Chris was vocal, well respected, and not shy about pointing out the things about our product he wanted to see improved. His views gave us early warning about issues that the broader customer base would eventually raise a cry about. So valuable were his insights that my boss hired him onto the team.
User Powered Content
As much as companies have relied on big budget PR campaigns that seek to influence A-level journalists and “thought leaders”, they’ve been missing opportunities to harness the collective power of the thousand smaller voices permeating the public discourse. Opinions are no longer passed down from on high. Especially in the high tech industry, we’ve seen the last several years produce new taste-makers almost weekly, as previously anonymous users find their voices on Twitter or in the comment section of a major blog. Increasingly these customers are eschewing the approved messages coming from the polished, professionally produced media, and are making their own. In July of 2006 Nelson Rodriguez powered on his Xbox 360 for the first time. 6 months later he was producing the fastest growing video game podcast, and his Xbox-centric show featured on the front page of iTunes. Whether we liked it or not, tens of thousands of people were enjoying Nelson’s entertaining take on our product, often skipping our own “official message”.
I’ll admit we enjoyed his content so much we hired Nelson onto our team as well – ok, so we REALLY like our customers. I’m not asking you to hire your best customers. I’m asking you to listen and to break down the glass wall standing between you and them. It’s no longer OK to just watch and study them. Engage with them. Ask them questions. Amplify their voices, even when you don’t like what they’re saying. I promise they will repay you by spreading the message that you are genuine, trustworthy and that you love your customers.
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