Don't Make Fun of Your Customers

A letter from a little girl who decided to run away because her parents were teasing her is taking Facebook by storm. The writers at Cafemom have wisely pointed out that we have to be careful when we make fun of our kids - they are sensitive and things that seem trivial to us can be big deals to them. Maybe it's time to give our kids a bit of a  break.

Hug a customer today, but only if they want to.
Photo: Kevin Dooley, from Flickr

How about you stop making fun of your customers too?

What, you say? I love my customers!

It's time to look in the mirror, and ask some hard questions.

When a customer has trouble using your product, do you assume that they are doing it wrong?

Do you secretly think that some (or most) of your customers are stupid?

Do you secretly (or maybe not so secretly) think that your customers can't take care of themselves in basic ways?

Do you think that people are a bit silly to pay your prices?

When someone has a problem with your email marketing content, do you offer to take them off the list, rather than discuss the issue?

Do you think you don't owe your customers an answer as to why you price the way you do, why your terms and conditions are the way they are, or why they receive so much marketing material?

If your answer to any of these questions is yes, let's re-evaluate your relationship with your customers.

Your customers are your lifeblood. They're the reason you exist. Without them,  you'd be broke and your staff would have to find other jobs.

So stop making fun of your customers. Respect them, take good care of them, and respond to their questions graciously, no matter how silly they might seem.

How are you showing your customers some respect these days? Please comment on this post.

Email Isn't Dead! Permission Based Marketing Works

Lately, lots of marketers have been refocusing on email marketing as a way to better sell, keep, serve, and save customers. Though proponents of social media have declared email dead, businesses like Groupon, LivingSocial, and SniqueAway have proved them wrong. So why does email do wonders where other channels can fail?

It's all about permission-based marketing.

That's right. While all channels can be (and should be) permission-based, e-mail is by far the easiest to optimize this way and generates the best results.

How does this work?
photo © 2010 Keith Ramsey | more info (via: Wylio)

On a basic level, you should only be sending your email blasts to people who've agreed to receive them.

But it goes deeper than that.

If you sell more than one type of product, don't you want to know which of your customers are most interested? If you sell products for babies, why do you want to promote these to people without babies? Why do you want to sell garden supplies to people who don't have gardens? Why do you want to sell windshield wipers to people without cars?

You don't. (No, you really don't.)

This is where permission-based marketing comes in. Here's how it works:

Ask your customers which kinds of messages they want from you - what are they interested in and what do you they want to hear about? You can work with your e-mail vendor on this, or you can use one of several online survey tools to ask them. Then, simply send them what they want.

Why is this good?

• It helps you determine the level of interest for each of your product categories.
• You're of more value to your customers because you're only delivering content of interest.
• You're respecting your customer by letting them hear from you only as often or as rarely as they want.
• When you launch a new product, you'll have a much better idea of how many people will want it.

 Need help figuring out who wants what, where and when? Let me know.