citizen Evangelist

I am almost completely ignorant when it comes to anything dealing with Soaps. I have been trained almost exclusively by P&G and obviously have missed out on a variety of options and details involved in the possible options of determining the best soap to use for the job.Thanks to a recent shopping experience with my wife, my eyes were finally opened to my obvious deficiency in product knowledge. Soap types, essential oils, natural scents, and base ingredients were all options that needed to be considered in this particular product search.

While looking through the variety of product offerings, this packaging struck my eye.

The reference to “No Fake Crap” is too edgy for most producers and consumers, but I found it refreshing. No hyperbole, direct, few words. No Fake Crap.There is often a fine line between representing facts and creating an image of the experience associated with using any product.

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Ben McConnel Announced today the formation of the Society for Word of Mouth. I was so excited to see the formation of a group that is focused on the right aspects of Word of Mouth that I was compelled to jump into the fray:

View my page on Society for Word of Mouth

So many of the groups that I’ve come across are looking short-cuts and and artificial means to get awareness of a product or service. At the end of the day, these programs may get buzz and exposure, and that may create certain short-term benefits to the organizations who leverage these strategies, but not with out consequences. The holy grail in any strategy is providing real value to a real person… and doing so in a way that so uniquely meets their specific needs that they can’t help but to share those experiences with others.This is not easy.

This is not accomplished over night.

But, this is the most valuable achievement that can be made. I’m looking forward to participating in this group of like minded individuals.

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Time and time again I’ve worked with organizations bringing new products to market and time and time again the expectations of the product are mis-aligned with what the realities of the product. The “blame” if you feel compelled to assign any blame can be assigned to the sales person or the marketing team for mis-representing the product, to the product development team for incomplete, missing, or broken features, or on the customer for not understanding the product.

At the end of the day, assigning blame is a foolish pursuit. At the end of the day, the fact remains that someone had hopes that were unfulfilled. The question now faced is: what are you going to do about it?

You have:

• a product (or service)
• a user or customer
• a revenue opportunity (or risk, depending how you want to look at it)

Seth Godin believes your customers are watching what you do over listening to what you say. Patrick Williams asserts that you need to spend more time listening and understanding what your customers and prospects want and need. Alliance Science adds that you should be the first place your customers go to find a solution.

As I stated yesterday, much of this comes down to trust and communication.

Isn’t it time to get a real dialog started? Provide something that someone wants or needs and you struggle selling it. Treat your customers like they matter and they won’t distrust you. Do the right thing for your customers and they will do the right thing for you.

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Thanks to Seth Godin for pointing out Kevin Kelly’s post on 1000 true fans. I love it when others can eloquently put my thoughts into usable format. There are many companies, artists, and practitioners out in the world today that are looking for their opportunity to break through the noise and escape the perils of getting lost in the long-tail of competitive offerings.

In this evolving market place, the smartest thing a company or producer can do is to focus on a specific customer or customer segment and delight the hell out of them. If you can (as Godin would say) “be remarkable,” you’ll earn the opportunity to access their friends. With each new fan you build, become remarkable to them as well… the growth will start out slow, but with dedication to the process, the momentum will carry you.

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My company: Whisperlabs offers a hosted software which makes it easy for customers and prospects to submit product and feature ideas and then vote which are the best ideas. The primary benefit (other than making this process extremely easy to manage) is that it allows companies to see what they can focus their efforts on while managing customer expectations.

In the process of previewing the functionality, I’ve had a number of conversations where the principle point of concern comes down to trust: Is safe to provide transparency into development priorities and invite participation in voting on the priorities?

I can’t help but pose this question:

If you can’t trust to your customers, how can you expect your customers to trust you?

According to Merriam Webster’s online, trust evolved from my Scandinavian forefathers and essentially means “one in which confidence is placed.” Granted, there are a number of potential definitions which can be used, however, wikipedia does a decent job at expanding on this concept in their description of trust as a social science. The entry stars with the following:

Trust is a relationship of reliance. A trusted party is presumed to seek to fulfill policies, ethical codes, law and their previous promises.

It later continues with the following:

trust is essential as Social institutions (governments), economies, and communities require trust to function. Therefore trust and altruism are areas of study for economists, although these concepts go beyond strict rational economics.

Trust is essential for companies and customers to function. As a consumer of a product, I must trust that the maker of this product will not harm me. I must trust that the product lives up to the marketing claims that were made (at least, within a degree of expectation). If my trust falters, I will cease to use the product.

Additionally, I’ll go as far as saying that when it is obvious that I am not trusted as a customer, then my trust in the company starts to falter. When my trust starts to falter, it casts a halo (or in this case horns) around all of my other perceptions of that company and its products.

John Todor makes some decent points here:

Most CEOs are not viewed as trustworthy because customers suspect a one-sided agenda. Enron and other companies have not helped change this perception. Peers, on the hand, are peers or friends because there is in fact a demonstrated relationship. One reason they are perceived to be trustworthy is the earned trust reflected in the relationship.

I would go one step more and say that most Companies are not viewed as trustworthy because of this one-sided agenda. This one-sided agenda all melts away when those same customers are asked for their ideas, their insights, and their participation. No longer is the company some faceless enigma with an agenda, it becomes a distributed team working together on a common goal: making improvements.

Pay it forward… extend trust to your customers. They are the people who pay your salary and make your job possible. With as you build trust with them, you’ll see their loyalty and your profitability improve.

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