“People don’t care how much you know, until they know how much you care.” -Theodore Roosevelt
In recent years, marketing has quickly developed into one of the most important skills to be mastered by pretty much anyone trying to build, maintain and increase his/her personal brand. Expertise, along with quality content and even higher quality products and/or services, has been key in shaping impactful businesses since the dawn of time.
However, alongside those factors, customer satisfaction has become the X factor that now separates successful businesses from unsuccessful ones. Those who can and know how to engage with and keep their customers happy are those who survive (and ultimately thrive) in today’s ‘dog eat dog’ environment.
One of the main reasons for this customer-centred strategy shift is the upper-hand that the latter have by being able to leave publicly available feedback on any existing social media platform.
In this new digitally developed world, customers can leave their thoughts and opinions on basically every matter, freely and without reservation. Given this, it is essential for every company to have an effective customer relationship management strategy in place; one that deals with all aspects of acquiring, engaging, and growing customers.
“Customer first” is no longer just a slogan; companies must place their clients at the centre of their attention, and let them know that their opinion matters more than anything else.
Customers must be given the opportunity to directly interact with brands, to talk about them, to propose new ideas, and, eventually, to share their brand-related experiences and passions with the world: that is how a brand can eventually achieve so-called ‘exponential growth’.
That is how big companies like Amazon, Nike, Apple, and JetBlue came to prominence in a very short amount of time, and that is how they have prospered even through hardships and difficult times, such as the great 2008 recession. They have learned how to sell and how to properly present themselves to their customers and, in doing so, they have been able to increase their value proposition without cutting the prices charged.
The current age has a new standard, one that sets the bar much higher: create and maintain active relationships with customers, engage with them, and eventually turn them into brand ambassadors.
Antonio Martina
Master in Marketing and Communications
