Some Folks Are Afraid to Listen
View CommentsI’ve been thinking about how folks relate to customers, and it’s given this blog, Church of the Customer Blog, a new meaning. The Church of the Customer Blog is written by Ben McConnell and Jackie Huba, the authors of Creating Customer Evangelists. They have a healthy view of customers. They don’t fear or idolize them. McConnell and Huba see customers as people, plain and simple, as evidenced by this simple quote.
For instance, Ellis told the LA Times that he and New Line didn’t ask what people wanted in the movie. They watched what people were saying online and listened, so Klosterman’s facts are off. First, it’s hardly a surprise to Klosterman or anyone else that Hollywood tinkers with every movie prior to its release, usually by showing it to random groups of young moviegoers in the San Fernanado valley who have little or no prior knowledge of the film they’re seeing. Studios will often make small or major changes to a film based on the their comment cards. They’re students but hardly students of film.
Seth Godin doesn’t fear customers either. He makes a point of being one and watching how companies react to them. Seth pointed out this phenomenon earlier this week.
Most big organizations operate out of fear as much as they do out of a desire for growth. And a new fear is spreading through the marketing department: fear of the little guy.
Forever and ever, the masses were king. People were disconnected, so annoying three or six or even 10% of your audience wasn’t such a big deal.
Now, though, that lone disgruntled customer can make an awful lot of noise on her blog.
While some organizations are trying to flip the funnel and give a megaphone to their happiest customers (leveraging their positive word of mouth) more are obsessed with silencing the dissenters.
It’s Seth’s quote that stuck with me and led me to think about the Church of the Customer Blog. It seems that some organizations have made a religion, almost a god, of the customer, and the response to this god across companies seems to parallel the response to gods across religions.
- Some religions see their god as they see themselves.
- Some religions talk to their god as a friend and a guide.
- Some relate to their god as a benevolent dictator.
- Some see their god as a tyrannical, parent who makes no sense and follows archaic rules intended to cause fear in the hearts of humans.
Customers aren’t gods, not do we wish to be. We’re happy enough being treated as people who have needs. The folks who treat us as gods won’t ever get to know us because they aren’t listening. They have the wrong filter on. We have no way to change that for them. We’re stuck left talking to each other and their competitors.
They’re left with a situation that proves out their expectation, because they see what they want to see.
Liz Strauss
