How Well Do You Know Your Customers?

Business and Blogging: One of the questions that I’m frequently asked is: “how can we make sure that customers and potential customers are reading my company blog?”
The answer to the question is simple: blog about topics that interest your readers.
The trouble with that answer is that it really is too simple. The sad fact is that many businesses do not really know their customers, and therefore they don’t know what interests or needs their customers have.
In fact, one of our first posts here at Business and Blogging dealt with the importance of relationships. Relationships were important to building your business then, and they are still important.
Building a relationship with your customer is not too really different from building any other type of relationship. Here are some basics:

Communicate. Talk with your customer.
Listen. What is your customer trying to tell you?
Respond. Show that your customer’s concerns are your concerns.
Wait. Be patient with your customer.
Commit. Show that you are invested in your customer’s concerns.

Other resources to help you build better business relationships:

From Jason Rakowski at Learn Good Customer Service, Building Relationships In Business - Why It’s So Important
From Liz Strauss at Successful Blog, Enough About Me, Let’s Talk About What You Think
From Eric Eggertson at Common Sense PR, An Example of Why We Build Friendships and Business Relationships
From Bob MacDonald at Mac, The Secret to Business Success? Become a Trust Builder

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Coffee Break

Business and Blogging: I’m afraid I only have time for a quick coffee break with you this week - the movers have come and gone, the car has been picked up to be shipped and Goodwill has carted away any remaining possessions that didn’t make the cut for this move. 
I am typing away in an empty apartment - sitting on the floor with nothing but my internet connection and my coffee pot. 
As soon as my husband pries my fingers away from the keyboard, we’ll be boarding a plane to our new home in New York City. 
Soon, I’ll be blogging from the Big Apple.
It will take a week or so for us to get internet access - but I am already searching out wi-fi spots.
So, enjoy the following thought-provoking articles, and be glad that you aren’t living out of a box!!
Lately, Laura has been writing about the potential of Twitter. Chris at The Transfer is taking an even longer view of the potential of Twitter as a customer feedback tool.  I think that blogging still has a lot of untapped potential as a customer feedback tool, and I enjoyed reading Chris’ vision of Twitter in the Marketer’s toolbox in his post Twitter: A Tool to Grasp that Elusive Customer Feedback?
This guest post by James Chartrand writing on Copyblogger encourages bloggers to enhance their relationships with their readers (customers) by creating an emotional connection in his post: Give More Than Words for Extreme Reader Response.
Anita Campbell at SmallBizTrends points…