Opinion: Don’t forget, you’re a customer too

I spend my day dealing with weird aliens we know nothing about. The name of this new alien? The customer. It’s funny to see how people think about customers. 

Twice in the past two weeks, I’ve had companies ask me: “Should we set up a forum for our customers to talk on?” In both cases, I’ve asked them: “How many web forums do you participate in regularly?” In both cases, the answer was zero. 

Likewise, a group of people asked me about setting up a loyalty program. I asked them how many loyalty programs (local cafe excluded) they have any engagement with. The collective answer? Zero. 

At the same time, rule number one of marketing is: you are not the customer. It’s funny how often a company’s archetypal customer looks suspiciously like the founder, but usually, the data shows that the actual customer bears little resemblance to that person. I spoke to a friend who does a lot of in-depth customer research. I asked her how often the company’s customer archetype accurately reflected the actual customer. Her answer? She’s yet to see it. 

We need to strike a balance between understanding we lack perspective on how our company’s customers behave while still accepting we are a customer of many other companies. 

It’s achieving the balancing act between common sense and customer insights. I spent several years selling dresses to 21-year-old women, a segment I don’t personally identify with. My not being in that segment helped me challenge many of the assumptions held by the many women in the company who thought they were the customer (forgetting rule number one). But when it came to how to style an outfit best, I deferred to their personal experience every time. 

What I could do, though, was to talk to the customers — and I mean, literally talk to them. Why are they buying? What are they looking for? What are their motivations? Objections? Alternatives? Challenges? Needs? Those insights would feed directly into messaging, creative, and brand direction. And, almost always, these insights challenged the assumptions of who the customer was. 

I recently saw a company structured its website based on industry terminology that made perfect sense to the CEO. When speaking to a large and diverse group of customers, none of them — not a single one — used that terminology even once. Restructuring their website around customer terminology resulted in a double-digit uplift in revenue. 

I would challenge you: remember you are a customer. You are regularly buying, and your experience is valid. But at the same time, you are not your customer. Remember those two, and you’ll go a long way towards a better customer experience. 

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