Marketing Maven Test:

Q: What percent of adult users of the Internet have posted their own online content?

a. 15%

b. 25%

c. 35%

d. 50%

A: Click here for the answer

How To Uncover What Your Customers Say When You're Not Around

by Paul Schwartz

In a past issue we discussed some traditional ways to round out your customer feedback programs by connecting directly with your customers in a variety of "face-to-face" ways. Well, do you ever wonder what your customers say about you when you're not around?  The Internet has allowed your customers to "talk" with all sorts of people in easy and often influential ways.  It's worth it to you to tap into these often rich discussions and hear what your customers say when you are not around.  You might also uncover what they say about your competition, which can provide some great intelligence and opportunities for your company.

The value of each of the following sources will certainly vary based on the size and type of your business, and your industry.  Here are five ideas to get you started tracking what customers say about you, but not to you:

1. Blogs: The best way to get started here is to use a blog search engine and type in your company name or other unique industry terms that are of interest to you and more importantly, you customers.  Try searching through Technorati or Blogpulse, or Gizmodo if you are in the technology world.  The amount of relevant content should guide how frequently you search. At a minimum, once a month is a good starting point.

 

2. User Groups:  These are websites and local meetings where users of a particular product, or technology get together to regularly chat and learn how to improve their experience with said product or technology.  Start by searching the Internet for your company name, industry, or technology and include the term user group.  Either subscribe to the group email distribution or personally attend their meetings. This is a rich environment to really understand the user experience and ways to improve your offering to customers or end users.

 

3. Group Sites: These are very similar to user groups but are purely websites hosted by the major search organizations and maintained by the users. Both Google and Yahoo have group sites dedicated to just about everything imaginable.  You can join their email list to be notified of posts to the group site and join in the discussion yourself. 

 

4. Shopping and Rating: If you sell to consumers you need to be checking these regularly.  Most of us are familiar with the ratings and reviews on Amazon.com.  Many more rating sites are popping up all over the place.    Look to the appropriate major internet retailers that include customer ratings and reviews.  You can also search some of the consumer opinion sites such as Epinions or ConsumerDemocracy.

 

5. Social Networking Sites: While the vast majority of the content on these sites will be of little business value, you can often uncover some real nuggets as user post their experiences with a company's products and services that either really impressed or disappointed them.  You can occasionally check out MySpace and Facebook (which currently requires a .edu email address, but may open up it's site in the near future). Some of the big companies have been unpleasantly surprised by the video parodies of their commercials posted on YouTube.

It is often what customers say about you and your competition, but not directly to you that can be extremely valuable. Set up a plan to regularly gather this type of information and share it within your company.  The more you do it the better you will become at filtering out the garbage and finding the gems.  

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Stop Flying Blind! Want to learn how to get senior level executives more connected to your customers? Attend this local workshop on September 28th to get tools that will help senior executives engage in meaningful dialogue with customers and grow your business.

Please contact us to see how CONGRUITY can provide unique insights that help you identify, keep, and grow the right customers.  Visit us on the web at www.congruity.biz.

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