Listen, listen and listen. That's it, in a nutshell.
The Web is unique as a marketing environment in so far as your audience online is not static. The online audience comprises millions of active participants.
The Web is interactive, whether you like it or not. And your customers are live participants in the marketing process, whether you like it or not.
And as participants, they want something that most companies find hard to deliver.
Your customers want you to listen. They want you to tune in and hear what is on their minds.
There are a number of ways in which you can listen to what your customers are saying.
ONE - listen to your customers as they interact elsewhere on the Web.
This doesn't involve listening to customers through your own site. It simply involves being aware of where your prospects and customers interact on the Web. If, for example, you are in the software business, there are numerous discussion lists, newsgroups and forums through which you can listen to what people are saying about your products.
Or you can go to sites that aggregate customer experiences and reviews, like epinions.com.
In my book I talk about one company, Lawson Software, that went so far as to create and nurture a number of discussion lists at Topica.com. The results were excellent. Their users had a place in which to share their problems and solutions. And Lawson had a place where they could listen to their customers and REALLY find out what they wanted.
But even without a list devoted to your product or company, there are still many places online where you can listen in to what your customers are saying, thinking and feeling.
TWO - listen to what people say to your customer service agents.
Do you know where your company's customer services agents are located? If you work in a very small company, perhaps you do. But if you work in a larger company, those people may work in a different building, town or even country.
This is unfortunate, because your customer service agents are probably the only group of people who get to speak with your customers one on one. If you ever have the opportunity, spend some time sitting next to a few customer service people. Listen to what your customers are saying and listen to how your agents respond.
Also, read inbound customer service emails and go through the logs of recent instant messaging communications.
True, customer service communications tend to give you a view of your customers when they are unhappy and dissatisfied. But you're better off listening to your customers when they are complaining, than not listening at all.
