The hot new toy among business owners and executives of all sizes of enterprises is the new combination mobile phone/PDA/e-mail/web browser/MP3 player. It's so hot that all who see it say "cool" and it is a great way to understand the fast and permanent changes happening on the marketing landscape.
Welcome back to the soapbox series on "dialogue" here at Customers Count. We already had a few chats about what dialogue is and why it takes some folks years to understand this is at the heart of the new world order of marketing and business. It's simple to understand and hard to do. That's why there are a bazillion reports and white papers on CRM (Customer Relationship Management), Customer Loyalty, Permission Marketing, etc.
Dialogue is about a better conversation with your customers, carried on by the customer on one end the dialogue and everyone in your company on the other end--with a complete and total, running record of everything that customers says, buys, wants, refers, and expects next from your business. Do you remember how fast the iPod grabbed our hearts and wallets? This will go faster.
This "total mobile dialogue device" in everyone's pocket is going to rock your world.
The business that is still thinking about customers in terms of transactions will soon be eclipsed by the business that understands the opportunity for an ongoing relationship through dialogue. For every customer, there will be a scanario. It's that powerful and personal. So that's hundreds of millions of scenarios. Let's start with one and get your comments on this before going further.
Imagine your best customer. Now envision that everyone in their company has one of these "total mobile dialogue devices" and the first thing they can do is download music and interesting podcasts of information from your website--like a white paper, news item, or blog on the go. And let's say your information is specific to the needs of each one of them(they chose to download it) and far more interesting than anything on the radio as they drive along. What will they listen to? Your stuff and maybe it's even your voice. Further, you ask some questions in that podcast you just did yesterday and they downloaded this morning or make some offers. To answer back, all your customer has to do is dial a number to call, or send an email or text message from that phone, which goes immediately into the databases and communications systems at your business--24/7.
And so the dialogue can continue. Rather than a transaction or "sale," the exchange of information is now like an ongoing conversation, with the customer adding more and more value to the relationship with every exchange. You are getting smarter about each other at warp speed. The competition never saw what hit them.
No longer are you a supplier or service provider. You've elevated your relationship to that of "traveling companion" and that makes you the trusted friend, invited to go everywhere with them. When the marketing conversation is no longer limited to transaction-- a sales call, an e-mail campaign, a presentation, a dinner meeting, three days at a trade show, or any form of advertising, the power of individually-addressable, immediately-available dialogue will be the new drug of choice for every customer.
Think like a customer:If you can have exactly the information you want, when you want it, and most of your time back from reading e-mail, sorting through messages and comparison shopping, what do you think you would do?
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