Since time immemorial, the word consumer and consumerism has garnered immense popularity in the marketing jargon. “Consumption is the sole end and purpose of all production,” Adam Smith confidently announced in The Wealth of Nations in 1776.
According to him the social and psychological impulses that push people to accumulate objects and gadgets that are not necessary; and had converted the market towards consumerism, while losing the human needs behind it. The collectibles were of no real use, but the pressures of consumerism were converting the humans into consumers. These articles gave temporary happiness but were relegated to attics for their innate uselessness. This moral assessment was a giant step towards a more sophisticated understanding of consumption and consumers.
But in modern times, work ethics and dynamics have created a whole new meaning to the word consumer. A consumer is not an inanimate object or statistics to whom you need to offload your product or services. He/she is an intelligent entity with feelings wisdom and capabilities to make the right choices from an array of products on display. Hence, it is important to ensure that your customers are more than a number and will make a difference in whether you are successful as a business. It’s easy to get lost in the mathematical trivia of handling every customer systematically. Converting consumers comes with some real insights on the human brain and heart or simply translated, it is understanding consumer behavior and learning what your buyer wants from your business.
To comprehend this, we need to update our perception. Everyone is different, although jointly people react to a stimulus in a similar fashion. These subtleties in the human mind can help your business find creative ways to ethically move more buyers towards accepting your products or services. The herd mentality must go where marketing/sales/Ad professionals must understand the difference between a consumer vs human being. At the end of the day, your customer or consumer is a human being, who has needs, aspirations, and expectations.
Once you crack the code of conduct and can understand the difference, it’s easy to achieve targets to the full potential. But always remember. Think of the ticking mind behind your consumer. Create a corporate culture of service.
When you focus on the end consumer and treat him as a human being, that is when the real marketing victory begins.
Win the hearts of your consumers and give a personalized value for money service. Despite the oratory, most companies treat their customers as a means to generate revenues and not assets. So, they consume their customers, rather than invest in them. Win the hearts of customers and humanize the customer experience.
Do unto others as you want others to do with you. It’s very simple once you place yourself in the customer’s shoes. Perceiving through their lens can make you more aligned with their needs. Offer humane customer service be kind sales associates, smile, engage and connect with customers on social media and make sure to comment back. It goes a long way.
Get out and interact with people on a one to one basis. Remember that your customers are not data or a number. Interact with them as real people using your product or service. In today’s tech-tied world, face-to-face contact becomes the gold standard for connecting and really understanding what’s happening in our customers’ lives. Create the opportunity and let your team become more human.
Focus on little things as they can make a big difference. Even the smallest issue is addressed with deep and big concern by the organization and help make a big difference. For building trust, paying attention to the small moments of a person’s life can go a long way in creating loyalty. Personalized thank you note, and gifts are not quickly forgotten.
Listen attentively and fully when a customer reaches out with a question. Even if the company representative has heard it before, don’t cut in on the conversation. Listen fully, attentively to the customer and then resolve the issue. The underlining ethos is, be a patient listener.
Make Micro-connections when you hire client-facing people who are caring and conscientious. They should be warm, encouraging and pleasant with the customers. Address the regular customers by names. It generates a personalized rapport.
Be real and take ownership and stop talking like a robot. Take ownership when things go wrong, and stop blaming technology, others in your organization or the customer. Focus on getting to a solution, not on why it happened. Dig deep to find the cause analysis with the team after you’ve satisfied the customer.
Change your language and stop calling them “customers” and start referring to them as “clients”. The use of positive terminology in this example invokes a sense of a relationship between two parties, not just a transactional agreement.
Reward them for their feedback, ensuring that your customer service team has the authority to solve problems. If a customer bothers to give feedback and has been inconvenienced, thank them and incentivize for better responses.
Finally, businesses run on relationships first, not ROI. And the companies that work on creating connections are not just making deals but are the businesses that will thrive on human connections.