Jeff Korhan on What Consumers Want

Every month, our columnists give their take on a common topic. Last month they predicted what contractors could expect in 2011, and this month, it’s what consumers want.

Jeff Korhan | January 2011
Jeff Korhan Consumers are people first. They  all share a desire for human interaction – relationships with other people. Relationships are more important today than ever for small businesses. Thanks to social networking, every individual is now a brand. The power of these personal brands is the relationships they have with each other and your company. 

Expectations. As a green industry business seeking to establish relationships with more consumers, the obvious challenge is to understand what they want and if that is congruent with what you want. The only way to learn this is to interact with them. Engage them in conversations, and, if possible, invite them to collaborate with your team. You will be amazed at how they will jump at the opportunity and how much you will both learn.

Nobody enters into a relationship expecting anything less than what they want. Your customers expect your company to provide excellent products and customer service.  This is why it is vital to establish a practice of understanding their needs, recording the particulars and then analyzing these expectations, as they will change over time. The more you know, the more you can continue to grow.

In addition to traditional methods, today you have more communication tools available to accomplish this than you could possibly use, with most of them being free. This includes LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter and other social networks. One of my personal favorites is Mailchimp, which is an electronic newsletter service that allows your customers to easily share your message with new prospects – their Facebook friends.

Relationships. Your customers have most likely chosen to work with you because they know something about you that makes them comfortable. Why do they like being your customer? Find out what that is and record it so that everyone in your company has access to it. If there was a referral involved, this is a valuable interrelationship that should be respected.

This is one of the reasons why social networking is such a game changer for businesses. What your company has to say is far less relevant than what friends are saying to their friends – and they are doing it at a rate of an hour a day on Facebook. Get to know Facebook better.

Friends.  There is an expression that friends do business with friends. While this is sometimes true, it is more likely that your customers just want to be friendly – to have an uncomplicated relationship with you or your staff. Most consumers have moderate expectations. They pay their bills on time, and, for this reason, it is easy to take them for granted. Don’t.

Use technology and especially the social networks to occasionally reach out to your customers to let them know how much you appreciate their business. Thank them for their loyalty. Regardless of their expectations and the depth of your relationship with them, I believe there are very few customers that get tired of hearing these words: “Thank you for your business.”


Jeff Korhan is a speaker, consultant and top-ranked blogger on new media and small business marketing. www.jeffkorhan.com; jkorhan@gie.net

 

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