Be a Parent to Your Customers

Pfreemanevans | July 09, 2007, 03:37 PM

I have been on the ecommerce and direct marketing conference circuit over the last few months and have heard a lot about customers now being in control or “in the driver’s seat” and how this may change how we do business. While I agree that we are in an era of changing relationships between customers and brands, I don’t really believe that most customers what to be in the driver’s seat. What customers want is to be heard. Companies should put them in the passenger’s seat, and let them act as navigator while brands keep their hands firmly on the wheel and their foot on the gas, or brakes.

Also, there is a growing amount of customer chatter on sites external to a brand’s site that brands can’t control and that is scary. And to some degree, that fear is well-founded. But really, customers don’t just make stuff up about brands. Their comments are formed by their interactions with that brand and those of their peers. So, even though brands can’t control what customers say, there remains a degree of influence on the dialog. I think the best way to look at it is to use the analogy that the brand (or retailer) is the parent and the customers are teenagers. Parents can’t control what their teenagers do or say when they are not around. The only things parents can do is clearly and emphatically impart to their kids their beliefs and values, set clear boundaries, and be consistent, be consistent, be consistent. Then brands have to trust that their kids have been raised right and then they have to let them go. This practice is easy to say and hard to do, but in an increasingly competitive world it will help brands focus on doing business and learning from their customers, rather than on controlling them.