Customers want to be heard

The traditional 5 P’s of marketing as every good student knows are Price, Product, Packaging, Promotion and Place (distribution). Well, there’s a new one in the mix and it’s called Participation. With the explosion of the social media revolution the whole marketing mix is shifting. Customers do not want information and advertising messages rammed down their throats, they want  to be engaged; they will respond if we listen and allow them to participate.

Here’s 3 ways to drive participation:

• Get Feedback – services like Uservoice or GetSatisfaction let you add a feedback tab to web site so customers can easily give you comments about ideas, complaints etc they may have. The Uservoice service manages the customer feedback experience, so you can respond, track and engage with your customer. There is a basic service for free or you can pay for more bells and whistles. Here’s an example of a site using it – Fizzbee (click the Feedback tab on the right side and you’ll get the idea). Set up is simple and quick, all you have to do is add a short piece of html code to your web site (it’s really easy to set up trust me).
• Set up a Customer Advisory Council – this is a group of your customers who have volunteered to act as a sounding board for ideas or changes you may want to introduce to your business. Kinda of like a beta group but less techy and more based around opinions e.g. “i want to add a back-up software service to my offering, will my customers buy it”. We all have customers who love to give you their opinion for free, so by grouping them into a more formal program they feel even more empowered. It’s as simple as inviting them to join and sending them emails now and again when you want feedback. Make sure you treat them well – small freebies are good – and dont abuse their time.
• Set up a text-based “Customer Comment Box” for offline feedback – if your business has a physical location where customers visit, like a restaurant or retail store, provide a way for them to give you real-time feedback via text. No body wants to fill in one of those comment forms and drop it in a box when the guy on the cash register is glaring at them – make it anonymous and easy for people and you’ll get responses. Use a service like PollEveryWhere to set up a text number for people to send comments to, print up some posters / tent cards for instore display showing the text number and off you go. All the text results can be read online.

Remember, creating an effective customer Participation using social media requires no single approach but use of a basket of tools and different approaches.