8 Simple rules for dating your customers
In the modern world, dating and purchase decisions are done similarly - there’s a lot of swiping involved, social media stalking, and assessing values.
This publication is dedicated to the relationship between a brand and its customers. My goal is to help marketers and company leaders build customer love and loyalty with weekly insights.
This post is my manifesto. It’s a framework for your brand’s success. It’s your introduction to the rules upon which those weekly insights will be formed.
Before we jump in, I’d like to make the case for why you should strive to date your customers by drawing your attention to the simple fact that it’s cheaper to retain a customer than to acquire a new one. If you want to keep someone around, you make sure they’re happy with the relationship, you ensure they feel listened to and heard and so that’s your aim - giving them reasons to have an ongoing relationship with your brand.
Below are 8 simple rules for dating your customers.
Set SMART goals
Every dating app asks you what you’re looking for. It’s an easy way to ensure that people can make good choices.
Every strategy needs a direction, and you get there by stating SMART goals to help keep you on track and allow you to measure your progress.
Driving awareness is a goal, but it isn’t SMART. Driving 200,000 impressions on LinkedIn by December is. Good goals act as a framework to help you to make smart choices for your brand.
Understand (and leverage) mutual values
Nothing can crash a relationship harder than realising that your values don’t align. Customers don’t like to spend their money on brands whose values don’t align with theirs.
In Q2 2023 Bud Light decided to show its modern liberal values by doing a partnership with transgender influence, Dylan Mulvaney. Unfortunately for Bud Light, it’s got a largely conservative customer base, who practically rioted. The boycott was so impactful that sales fell between 11 and 26%. The brand then further misstepped by trying to distance itself from the influencer which in turn saw the LGBTQ+ community then boycott the brand. It was an inauthentic mess.
So what does your brand stand for? What are its values and are they in alignment with your customers?
If your brand is going to stand for something, make sure it can stand proudly.
Listen
We’ve all heard that first date story right, of the person who talked all night and wasn’t that interested in what the other person had to say? It never ends with a second date, because no one wants to spend their time being ignored. It’s important for your brand to not spend all the time broadcasting, because if you’re talking more than you’re listening you’re missing the point. Customers will tell you how to convince them if only you spend the time to listen.
All good marketing is based on customer research. Who are your customers? What do they want? Where do they spend your time? Why are they interested in your brand? You need to know the answers to these questions so that you can meet your customer in the middle.
If you know where they are spending your time, get your brand there, whether that’s an event or a social media platform. If you know why they are interested in what you have an offer, lead with that benefit, not what you find fascinating.
Listen through whatever research methodology fits your budget.
Respond
Imagine being on a date where no matter what you said, there was no response. Every time you spoke your date just looked at you blankly and then carried on talking. You’re not having a conversation, you’re just talking at each other. You’re going to be looking for the exit pretty fast right?
That’s what it’s like when your brand doesn’t respond to any of the cues provided by the customer. You talk at, rather than to, each other. When you respond you start a conversation.
Let’s consider Care by Volvo, a subscription service launched by Volvo in 2020. The premise is to take the pain out of car ownership, with a subscription service that manages things like car servicing and road tax for you. It also allows you to change cars. What Volvo was responding to is the fact that car subscription clubs like ZipCar have been gaining market share and, leasing has become increasingly popular. The rules of car ownership are changing. It was a disruptive move by a well-established brand that showed a willingness to respond to its customers and to have a conversation.
There is no point in asking customers questions if you don’t intend to do anything with the information. Once you’ve invested time in listening, then you respond.
Understand your customer journey
Imagine you live in London, but you’re dating someone who lives in New York. They always come to see you instead of the other way around because they travel for work so they have lots of air miles. You think it’s easy right because they’re on planes frequently and so you never stop to think about what they’ve endured to come see you.
You don’t think about the fact that they had to take an Uber at 4 am for a 7am flight, go through airport security, pay too much for breakfast, sit on a plane for 7 hours, and then schlep another hour on the underground, in another Uber or whatever to get to you. You’re excited they’ve come and so you’ve planned to go straight out for dinner, but they want to just take a shower and have a quiet night in. You’re at odds because you haven’t truly understood the journey they’ve been on to see you.
This clash can be easily replicated between a brand and its customers.
Here’s a very niche but relatable example. In the reality TV franchise The Real Housewives, most characters have some sort of brand or merchandise they’re trying to sell. In the Atlanta franchise, Sheree, launched her long-awaited fashion line, She by Sheree with a televised fashion show. Unfortunately, her website crashed shortly after launching the brand and so her clothes were unavailable to purchase for a few days after the fashion show. A poor understanding of the fact that when you capture your customer’s attention they want to act immediately drove this bad e-commerce experience.
Put yourself in your customer’s shoes. How many website crashes do you endure and then continue to purchase?
A customer journey filled with frustration will cause customers to abandon your brand for an alternative.
An understanding of your customer’s journey can help you design experiences that take the pain away and replace it with delight.
Keep an eye on pain points
Being able to recognise when your partner is in pain shows that you’re attentive and helps to build your bond. Brands that are similarly attentive will find similarly long-lasting bonds with their customers.
Here’s a scenario for you. You’re looking for a specific bottle of wine to buy for a friend’s birthday present. Google Shopping shows you a selection of stores that stock it and you click the one with the best price, however, when you get to the website you find that it’s sold out. Helpfully there’s a banner that says, click here to view similar wines. This e-commerce site has recognised your pain point in them not being able to provide the experience you are looking for and is helpfully redirecting you.
If you can continue addressing your customer’s pain and being an attentive and thoughtful brand you will keep your customers around.
Keep an eye on their changing needs
Just as a couple should grow together. A good brand and customer relationship evolves.
The example of Volvo Care that we shared before applies here. Volvo is evolving because its customers are. In a 2023 survey, Accenture found that 95% of marketing executives felt that their companies could not keep up with their customers.
That’s because the world has been in a semi-permanent state of change and disruption for years. Between technological advancements, a global pandemic, supply chain shortages, and an ever-rising cost of living, the environment that your customers live in continues to change and they are constantly adapting.
You need to make an effort to understand their needs or they could abandon the relationship.
AB Test new solutions & continuously innovate your propositions
We’ve just discussed understanding the customer journey and pain and needs all in quick succession. The one way to rise to the challenges over and over again is to innovate.
Technology has given us the ability to innovate quickly. AB tests are quick and relatively cheap to run as they stop us investing in infrastructure to make changes that doesn’t necessarily work in the ways that we intended.
The scientific method of forming a hypothesis and testing it, is now an essential part of customer-first marketing.