Sitting in an airport last week waiting for a flight home only to look up and discover that my flight had been cancelled. I come to find out that all 737 M8s were taken off line. My flight was one of those 737 jobbies, so I ended up sitting in the airline lounge along with a bunch of other people discussing the airlines plight. With good natured groans and the air of veteran travelers, we exchanged stories about airline nightmares, scary experiences and worst times.
Getting tired of this banter, I turned to the group and I said, “Hey, I’m a marketing guy, can you tell me about your best experience or favorite item you bought recently?”
One guy in his mid 40’s or so popped up out of his chair and said excitedly, “I like buying clothes on line. I hate going to stores; so if I see something on line that I like and can afford, I buy it. Well, this company ‘Haute Look’ gets into my email and I open it and there in front of me is a black leather jacket. I had been looking for one of these and it looked amazing so I bought it. Boom! 72 hours later it’s sitting at my front door. I love it. The leather is soft and buttery; the service was great. It fit perfectly. I would recommend them to anybody.”
We all sat there in stunned silence. Here was a guy who just minutes before was complaining about the coffee on airlines and was now sounding like the paid spokesman for an on line store called “Haute Look”.
If only the on line store’s designer and marketing team had been there to overhear the conversation!
Of course, it’s not always possible to be in the room or in the airline lounge, when our customers have something valuable to share.
But it is possible to create a mechanism for hearing and acting on what they tell us.
The stories our customers tell—the words they use and the feelings they express are part of our story. We should know and use them. Have you been listening??
What’s your customer awareness strategy?
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