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The Fly On The Wall

March 16, 2008 By

In reference to last month’s post about apathy, I’d like to extend some more thoughts about consumer feedback. While negative comments might be actionable, they’re only actionable if you listen.

Have you set up listening tools, such as Google Alerts, or are your agencies/partners listening to the feedback that is given in your consumer community? Are you actively searching for mentions of your brand/product/service or even actively reaching out to the community to provide feedback to you?

Your community of consumers has a lot to say and has a lot of platforms to say it on. Stay on top of the content related to you and take what’s being said into consideration.

Listen. Validate. Act.

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Apathy Is Your Worst Enemy

February 24, 2008 By

When you’re selling a product or a service, people will talk about you. They’ll say good things, which you like. And they’ll say bad things, which you might not like, but is it really that bad? Suppose that people don’t say anything at all. Isn’t that the worst thing that can happen? Negative comments are actionable. Apathy isn’t.

Allow what people are saying to matter. Embrace and appreciate the fact that people are taking their time to talk about you.

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You Get What You Pay For

November 18, 2007 By

When selecting a product or a service, price tends to play an important role. Except price sometimes plays an important role for largely the wrong reasons. Price is equated with cost and not with value. Lower prices mean lower costs, but (long-term) benefits, such as value (in quality and/or speed) and a good relationship, might be overseen.

I came across an interesting case recently where a client more or less demanded a service agency to invoice less—despite delivering all the services as described. Not only is this morally unfair, it’s disrespectful.

You get what you pay for. You pay for what you get. Don’t destroy a potentially solid long-term relationship by making the wrong one-time decision. Go for the best that your organization can get, the price will justify itself.

As David Schwartz alluded to in his book “The Magic of Thinking Big” (Amazon link): Go first class, you can’t afford not to.

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How An Economy Kills The Social Aspect

April 15, 2007 By

Last year, I wrote about altruism in online communities. Status and recognition were considered to be the currency in which community members were rewarded in exchange to their contributions.

But what if you had an actual economy? What if community members had access to an exchange to real or virtual currency?

As we’ve seen with virtual world Second Life, the presence of an economy has destroyed the concept of fair value and the social aspect of altruism. The result has been a community where the power lies with the rich and the rich protect their status by giving little and taking much. As a result, they impose a high barrier to entering the community’s elite and discourage the notion of sharing to those who enter the community later.

Play into your community members’ egos but don’t play into their potential greed.

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Let Your Goal Be Your Pilot

September 17, 2006 By

Frequently, pilot projects are initiated to test new products/services. When the pilot is successful, companies prepare the product/service for wide-scale launch.

However, there are also instances where the product/service is killed after the pilot wasn’t successful.

Re-evaluate. Re-adjust. Re-think. Re-design. What went wrong to warrant a pilot failure? Was the concept thus flawed that an unsuccessful pilot could be predicted? Did the pilot produce new information about the product/service that was overlooked? Success can be unpredictable but shouldn’t be discarded after a setback. The pilot isn’t an end in itself. It’s merely another means to an end.

Let the end guide you.

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