{"id":13344,"date":"2017-09-28T08:37:47","date_gmt":"2017-09-28T14:37:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.fullcontact.com\/?p=13344"},"modified":"2021-09-02T09:10:41","modified_gmt":"2021-09-02T15:10:41","slug":"put-yourself-in-your-customers-shoes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.fullcontact.com\/blog\/customer-experience\/put-yourself-in-your-customers-shoes\/","title":{"rendered":"Put Yourself in Your Customer\u2019s Shoes"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\tIf you want to build a great, lasting business, never stop thinking about the world from your customer\u2019s perspective. Plenty of successful companies have gone off the rails at scale when they switched their focus to something other than their customers. It\u2019s important to continually demonstrate that you are thinking about them, by solving their problems and communicating in simple, thoughtful ways.<\/p>\n

Full disclosure: I can\u2019t take credit for these ideas \u2013 they came from an extraordinary conversation with venture capitalist Brad Feld and entrepreneur John Weiss at FullContact\u2019s Connect \u201917 Conference last May in Denver. But they really hit home for me, and I wanted to share them with you.<\/p>\n

Brad\u2019s reputation for spotting great new companies is legendary. How does he do it?<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I look for companies to invest in, I look for founders who are obsessed<\/strong> with their products \u2013 not just passionate. And that obsession should be linked to finding ways for their products to connect with customers.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

For example, let\u2019s say your website goes down. This causes your customers pain, which has to be unacceptable to you. If you were in your customer\u2019s shoes, you would just want the problem fixed. Even if your marketing people figure out how to spin it: Well, we have 99.9% system reliability — except for last month, when we were at 96% and had a painful server outage.<\/em><\/p>\n

Always remember that your customers are people. Sounds obvious, I know. But it can easily get lost if you start thinking about your company as a B2B or B2C enterprise. In the end, all businesses are really H2H \u2013 Human to Human (more about this in an upcoming post). That means that everything we build should have human beings at the center. It\u2019s the difference between building a viable product vs. a desirable product. Stop worrying about how you will market something and ask yourself: will it create a positive emotional response? Will it make people feel what you want them to feel \u2013 smarter, more innovative, more comfortable, entertained?<\/p>\n

The best way to treat our customers as humans is to listen to them. When they call with a problem, don\u2019t treat them like a service ticket that needs to be resolved \u2013 have a conversation with them. Stop transferring them to another number and just solve their problems. That\u2019s how you drive sustained engagement. Too many organizations are afraid of their customers, and structured so that customers don\u2019t have a positive and easy way to interact with them.<\/p>\n

Then, when your marketing teams engage with customers, make sure they get your point across quickly. Your customers are under siege with information throughout their day. Brad recommends what he calls \u201cThe 15 second rule.\u201d Can your customer figure out what your company does from your marketing message in 15 seconds or less? Far too often, the answer is \u2018no\u2019. Try communicating with three sentences instead of eight pages \u00ad\u2013 or a 47-page presentation, or a five minute video.<\/p>\n

I can already hear your marketing people pushing back. If we simplify our message, it will lose its meaning. We can\u2019t get our message across about everything we can do for a customer in just three sentences. But you shouldn\u2019t need any more than that to engage your customers. Here\u2019s a template: 1. We have the answer for you. 2. It\u2019s going to make your life better. 3. We want to build a long-term relationship with you. The last thing you want to do is obfuscate those messages with marketing speak.<\/p>\n

I loved listening to this conversation because it totally aligns with some crucial goals here at FullContact. Our mission is to help businesses treat their customers as people, not as an email address or a ticket number. You can\u2019t think about the world from your customer\u2019s frame of reference if you don\u2019t know your customer as a person. That\u2019s why we built a platform to help companies cut through the clutter and gain deep insight into each customer, which enables timely, relevant and useful communication \u2013 and long-term relationships. \u00a0And in terms of keeping your message as uncomplicated as possible, here\u2019s one of my favorite mantras: \u00a0\u201cSimplify. Simplify<\/del>. Simplify<\/del>.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

A tip of the hat to Brad and John for reminding us that simple, direct and personalized messaging shows respect for your customers, which leads to higher satisfaction and loyalty. I couldn\u2019t have said it better.\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\tAn extraordinary conversation with venture capitalist Brad Feld and entrepreneur John Weiss around the importance of treating your customers as people hit home for Scott Axcell, VP Marketing, FullContact. Here, he shares his learnings from their conversation. \t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":13353,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_improvement_type_select":"improve_an_existing","_thumb_yes_seoaic":false,"_frame_yes_seoaic":false,"seoaic_generate_description":"","seoaic_improve_instructions_prompt":"","seoaic_rollback_content_improvement":"","seoaic_idea_thumbnail_generator":"","thumbnail_generated":false,"thumbnail_generate_prompt":"","seoaic_article_description":"","seoaic_article_subtitles":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[97],"tags":[408,168,85,170,499,533],"class_list":["post-13344","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-customer-experience","tag-customer-experience","tag-marketing-2","tag-fullcontact","tag-customer-service-2","tag-customer","tag-human2human"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nPut Yourself in Your Customer\u2019s Shoes | 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