Six Exercises From The Perspective Of Customers

An old friend of mine recently asked me, "William, what do you think is the way of marketing?"

I have to think about this problem.

The best answer I can give is,

Unfortunately, it is impossible to see problems from the perspective of customers.

If we want to see what our customers see, we must achieve that: we do not understand what they do not understand.

And this is impossible.

We always know more about our company and products than our customers.

We can't turn what we really know into something that we don't understand.

Luckily, marketing is a bit like golf.

Even tiger Woods could never score 18 shots in one shot.

But we don't need a full score to win.

We only need to get a better score than our competitors.

Then, from the perspective of the customer, how can we improve our score?

What we need to do is to keep learning and practicing repeatedly like tiger Woods.

Below is my "

Always living in reality

Recently, I gave a marketing research report to a fast consumer company boss.

Sitting in his office, I saw that the company's products were placed in a beautiful glass display cabinet, and the lights and mirrors in the cabinet were extremely dim, creating wonderful results.

I pointed out to him that every time he passed through the beautiful glass cabinet with his eyes, he was deceiving himself.

Because consumers actually see a variety of products every day, and his company's products only occupy 15% of the space on the shelves.

Moreover, some competitors' products look similar to those of him.

I suggest that he accept my proposal to replace the beautiful glass cabinet with a common shelf in a supermarket. Besides placing his own product on the rack, the competitors' products will also be put together.

He really followed my advice.

Now, whenever he looks up, what he sees is real reality.

I think this will greatly change his judgment of the problem.

Of course, if his salesman knows that the boss is a person who is willing to understand the real situation and grasp the actual situation, there will be nothing wrong with it.

Talking with old customers in the past

Listen carefully to their conversation and find out the real reasons why these old customers leave you.

These old customers are not satisfied with you, so you can't expect them to make pleasant words to make you comfortable and warm.

But it's just that they can tell you a lot.

Like journalists, they should talk to a politician's ex-wife rather than his current wife.

For example, credit card companies MBNA asked its senior manager to call former customers and ask them to come back and continue to receive MBNA services.

There is no doubt that this method can make people learn more about business than the research reports painted by market research companies.

Hiring key personnel from customers

Many companies have already done so.

In fact, IBM hired a former major client, Gerstner, to become LouGerstner's CEO before saving herself.

At that time, almost everyone in IBM company, virtually everyone in the computer industry, thought that IBM needed immediate separation to find a way to survive.

Gerstner knows little about computers, or he doesn't know anything about computers.

However, he used to be a IBM client, so he knew that without knowing it, the main problem of IBM was the lack of collaboration between the regional divisions and products, which could not be solved by splitting.

On the contrary, it needs to strengthen the integration and collaboration of all parts of the company.

Why does no one in IBM think about this?

Because of course, when you are not a client, it is hard for you to think from a customer's point of view.

Let your customers help you manage.

Maybe you should ask your potential customers to review your new advertisements and let them approve or reject your advertising ideas.

Or when you have meetings with marketing personnel and advertising companies, ask these customers to attend meetings and express their opinions.

The brand manager of a famous European company who produced laundry detergent once told me: "we always ask customers' opinions and reactions before advertising."

But the question is why do we need to get customers' opinions to be screened through your mind?

You may be ignorant, you know.

Imagine if ad companies knew beforehand that housewives would like or dislike their ads, and would it affect the way their advertising was made?

Yes, I think it is.

They will try to make advertisements that attract housewives, rather than advertisements that attract the eyes of marketing managers, because the former is the person who buys detergent, while the latter is the person who buys the advertisement.

Experience the feeling of being your own customer once.

Call your company's customer service hotline to ask for help, and personally experience the customer's suffering in your company.

For example, stay in your own hotel.

In some hotels, when I call for ice, there will be a waiter knocking at the door in 5 minutes and taking the empty bucket with ice. Then in about 5 minutes, he will bring a bucket full of ice.

Not bad.

Without thinking, we know that a more efficient way is to take a bucket full of ice and take the empty bucket away.

This way saves time for waiters, saves hotel costs, and I can get better service.

Why can't some hotels come up with such a simple idea?

The waiter certainly doesn't care which way is better, which is why they are the waiter.

I guess the reason is that the managers don't understand the ice sent, because they do not live in the hotel rooms.

Also experience the feeling of being a competitor customer.

See how your competitors do things and think about the reasons.

Let's go on with the topic of ice.

At the Shangri-La hotel in Beijing, whether you want it or not, the hotel will deliver ice to the guest room at 5 o'clock every afternoon.

Is it efficient?

From a cost point of view, this is not necessarily the case.

However, every 30 minutes, the ice melts slightly when it melts. It reminds the guest that he can enjoy a cool iced whisky.

The hotel found that in this way, its mini bar can sell more alcoholic beverages and make more profits.

Therefore, you may as well experience the feeling of being a competitor customer, so that you can better and more comprehensively consider the problems from the perspective of customers, find good ideas and apply them to the operation of the company.

If the new approach does not work, you will lose nothing; but if it works, you will have a better money making machine.