We’ve spent lots of time talking with clients about making sure they communicate through all five senses to their customers. Some folks are auditory learners – they need to hear the information. Some are visual learners – they need to see it. And some need to use scent, or music, taste or touch to decode a message so that it’s meaningful for them. But when you’re market sensing, are you using all five senses? You may be reviewing data, interviewing them, or reading their blogs about your brand. But observation (whether by ethnography, or during a more structured interaction, like a focus group) can reveal a whole subtext of feedback that doesn’t involve words. Just asking questions isn’t enough. So when you’re trying to find out what they think, do, and feel, pay attention to whether they encoding their messages to you, with colours, textures, or sounds. Give them a chance to use all five senses to describe their thoughts on you, your brand, or your new idea. You might find a surprising and wonderful new way to give them what they want – and to strengthen their bond with you.

Dreaming of customers…in colour,

Megann and Steve

Do you remember when you were a kid, and another kid would say something like this, to distract you? We recently had a grown-up experience of just this kind of distraction. You may or may not know about us, that we live in an 80-plus-year-old-house. With that, go inevitable repairs. Right now, it’s the roof.

So yesterday, through a confluence of events, two different contractors showed up at virtually the same time, to give us an estimate of what work needs to stop our leak. One individual took his time, walked around, asked lots of questions, asked to see various access points in our attic and viewed the roof from lots of different perspectives. The second was annoyed on a number of fronts: he arrived second (in some circles, “started off on the back foot”). He was also perturbed at being stuck with the distaff side of our partnership (“I wish I knew what your husband wanted to do – it would be easier to give you the right advice”). But most interesting of all, he spent most of his time trying to figure out what “the other guy” was telling us (looking at his untied shoe) as we took turns spending time with each of them.

What does all this mean to you? That sometimes when you’re with a customer, you can let yourself be distracted by a competitor. Contractor #1 went about his process, gathering the information he needed, and giving advice along the way. Contractor #2 showed that he was more focused on the competitor than the customer, (not to mention that he didn’t take time to understand that in our household, we’re a partnership, and don’t respond to divide-and-conquer). So although we highly advocate knowing what the competition is up to, if you’re in a situation where your customer is receptive, ready, and willing to consider what you have to offer, and your competitor is standing right there, perhaps the place to focus isn’t your untied shoe.

Focusing on our customers,

Megann & Steve

Often when schedules get backed up because of unforeseen events, there’s a temptation to try and complete all of our tasks, responsibilities and projects at double-time. Unfortunately, this is a little like skating downhill. At first it seems to be going along just fine, and then we start to pick up speed. Which is good, right? But then, oftentimes our skate hits a rock, or a crack, or some other hazard along the way. Before we know it, we’re going head-over-heels into a setback that is even worse than the original delay.

So by all means, as your recovery day begins, whether it’s from the recession, or just a thunderstorm-induced flight delay, get up to speed as quickly as possible. But make sure you’re all still wearing your helmet, by taking a moment to re-assess what’s critical, and what can be re-scheduled, or has become redundant. That way, you can make sure you’re not just skating downhill.

Safe skating,

Megann & Steve

Whether we’re undertaking research projects with physicians or with business executives, occasionally one of our client’s team members will have an answer they want to hear. When they don’t get the feedback they expect (their concept is unpopular, their new message doesn’t resonate, or the customer has no intention of changing behaviour based on a specific marketing tactic), this type of individual will just keep insisting we ask the question. Over, and Over. It seems their thinking is, “If I just ask this question often enough, I’ll get the answer I want”. But it doesn’t work that way. If the answer is always “I don’t like it”, it’s time to stop asking that question.

If you’re convinced your idea is sound and your customers disagree, stop asking them if they like it. They’re your customers. Instead, ask them what sort of person would find the idea appealing. Let them see that you value their opinions by accepting their advice that they don’t like what you’re offering, and instead, enlist their help in figuring out who might.

Always looking for new opportunities,

Megann & Steve

July 4^th is the annual date of the Nathan’s Famous Fourth of July International Hot Dog Eating Contest. The contest pits competitive eaters against one another, seeing who can eat the largest number of hot dogs (with buns) during the ten-minute regulation time.

There’s nothing wrong with this approach, if your objective is to down the maximum number of hot dogs. Quantitative is the way to go, if your over-arching question is, “how many?” But if what you want to do is savour each dog, explore the taste carefully, compare varieties, or experiment with the effects you can get on taste by changing the toppings, then this isn’t the methodology for you. Similarly, if you want to probe deeply into what your customers believe, and why, then asking them to plow through a plethora of questions over the shortest period of time is not the best way to go. Instead, carefully select a small sample of customers, each with some special characteristics. Have a few questions on hand that are vital, high-level, conceptual questions. Then let a skilled moderator or facilitator keep the conversation going…but count on your customer to do most of the talking, while you concentrate on listening, learning, and figuring out how you can address their kudos, queries, or concerns.

Listening to one frank comment at a time,

Megann and Steve

Recently we were running around town with a friend, helping him finish some last-minute errands before he headed back to the UK. We decided, being a hot day, we should have a cold one and watch the final round of a golf tournament we’d been following. We popped into Beer Bistro, near Toronto’s Financial District. It’s a great spot, nicely appointed, with a great combination of bar, restaurant, and patio. But what really amazed and delighted us was the fantastic customer service experience we had. It wasn’t just that our server, Lauren, was friendly. She was authentically so (and not in that smarmy, “I’m your friend in anticipation of a great tip” way that seems to persist in some places, despite pubs, restaurants and cafés closing, hand-over-fist). Everyone else we met was affable as well, even if they didn’t seem to have anything in particular to gain. They just seemed to know what hospitality really means. There was more than niceness that made our experience really stellar, though. Lauren had fantastic product knowledge, which she shared enthusiastically, all while asking a few careful questions leading to excellent product recommendations that suited us to a “T”.

We know that servers aren’t usually highly-paid, and that tips are down everywhere. Yet here was someone who was willing to study, to learn everything she could about the products she was promoting and serving, and to find a way to turn that into a recommendation that would make the customer happy. She was affable, competent, and confident. And she never once gave the impression that she had better things to do than to provide us with some amazing beers to try, and share a bit of conversation. All of that added up to a tremendous customer experience.

So hats off to Beer Bistro, and if you’re in the hospitality industry and looking for ways to make customers come, stay, and spend more money, just follow Lauren’s example.

1. Make people comfortable and let them know you’re glad they’re there.
2. Know your product inside out, but more importantly, think about the connections between each product and the kind of person who might like it.
3. Ask customers about themselves, really listen, and offer them something that really reflects their interests and tastes.

Sláinte,

Megann & Steve

We’re always surprised when we see companies claiming to be customer-centric, yet acting in ways that seem to completely ignore what’s best for (or most wanted by) their customers. Organizations call on us to help them listen to their buyers or stakeholders, in order to create new products, to make decisions about messaging or communications campaigns, or to understand why the market for their product or service seems to be changing. They say they want to focus on the customer, and they believe they really mean it. But if they aren’t willing to ask questions that are relevant to those customers, at a time and place that is selected for the customer’s convenience, they’re sending a message that says, “I don’t care what you want”. So what can you do to make sure your next customer learning project is really about your customer, and not about you?

1. Ask the right person. Be sure you only take up the valuable time of someone who can really provide answers to the questions you need. If they decline to answer, ask them if they can recommend someone else who is able to help.

2. Use their time wisely. Make it possible for the customer to provide you with answers at their convenience, since you’re the one asking them to do something for you, for which they may not see any immediate benefit. That may mean going to them, instead of having them come to a focus group facility or answer the phone at a certain time. Or it can also mean providing a survey that they can stop and start, so they can consider their answers carefully.

3. Trust them to be able to understand your question. Tell the customer, clearly and succinctly, what problem you’re trying to solve, by asking. For example: Bob, we’ve noticed that XYZ Co. isn’t buying our widgets any more, yet your field offices tell us they still like our widgets the best. Can you help me get to the heart of the problem?

4. Listen to their answer. Even if what they tell you isn’t what you expected to hear, it isn’t wrong. Remember how your grandpa told you, “The customer is always right”?

5. Let them know how they’ve helped. Once you’ve decided what to do with what they’ve told you, give them some feedback: Thanks for your input. Because of you, and others like you, we’ve realized the Q37 Space Modulator needs updating. We’ll be working on that, and we’ll keep you posted on our progress.

Keep these things in mind, and you’ll start to build a richer, deeper understanding of customers who will be willing to keep the conversation going.

Always asking questions,

Megann & Steve

Last week, we received a newsletter from our friend Jay Zaltzman, at Bureau West. He was writing about Social Media, but it was this small item at the end of the message that caught our attention: “We conduct in-person focus groups, as well as online discussion board groups, video focus groups, one-on-one interviews, online and offline surveys, and website usability and effectiveness testing.  We encourage our clients to call us early when they’re considering research, so we can provide advice on the most appropriate research method or combination of methods.” (We know Jay because we’re all involved with the Qualitative Research Consultants’ Association, and so our companies have some similar offerings and a lot of common interests).

Why did Jay’s message stand out for us? It’s obvious, really. It was simple, yet incredibly effective. It brought home something that we, and our clients, often forget. Just because you’ve been doing business with someone all along, or just because they know you well enough to subscribe to your newsletter, or read your blog, or they regularly do business with you, doesn’t mean that they remember everything you’re capable of doing. Moreover, they may pass along information to others about the one service or product you provide to them, without any suggestions about the other fine things you have to offer. So, in a nutshell, our advice is to always remember to remind your clients, even the ones where you’re firmly entrenched, what it is that you do.

Simply yours,

Megann & Steve

Oh, and by the way: At Panoptika, we conduct in-person and online focus groups, in-depth interviews, and we facilitate Innovation Games®, creativity sessions, and strategy meetings.  We also help with research road-mapping©, market research audits, and custom marketing research training sessions for your in-house research team.

“Lucky you!” said our colleague’s email this morning, when we told her we’d been to England and back for a brief 5-day holiday with family and friends.  She’s right, of course. How many people get a chance to jet off to another continent for the weekend?  But the reason that we were lucky on this particular occasion didn’t have as much to do with good fortune, than it did with taking advantage of an unexpected opportunity, and having faith in the future.

Back in the winter, when business was abysmally slow, and the clients we did have were stretching out payments longer, and longer, and…well, you get the picture, we got a notice for a seat sale.  We’d need to buy three tickets.  Two were a regular discount fare to Eastern Canada, but the third was a bonus ticket to any one of a number of fabulous world cities including London, for just $199 (Canadian!), taxes and fees included.  We thought about this very carefully.  We, as many people, are being much more frugal.  Did this make sense?  We looked carefully at our budget, figured out how to come up with the money (goodbye, new shoes), and decided it did.

Our rationale was threefold: it was an opportunity to see more of our family this year, including Megann’s 95-year-old grandmother, Gladys Hergett, in Nova Scotia, and Steve’s brother Rob, who teaches in the UK.  Secondly, we’ve lived through downturns before, and if we didn’t have faith that things would turn around by the time the travel dates arrived, we felt we’d simply be giving up.  Finally, whenever we go away for a few days and experience new sights and sounds, the creative juices seem to get flowing and we do a better job of coming up with unique ways to serve our customers.  (OK, a fourth reason: when you’re an entrepreneur and take a holiday, business inevitably picks up!)

So we’re suggesting you go out and make some luck for yourselves today.  Go somewhere, read something new and different, or take any small step that will give you a fresh perspective.

Here’s to luck,

Megann & Steve

Some of our contacts and colleagues have been kind enough to contribute their thoughts to a paper we’ve written, on career management during this crazy economy. They’re folks who have been “merged and purged” at least once, and several of them, multiple times. Some of them are professionals who give career advice for a living. The most interesting thing we’ve been noticing is that much of the advice we’ve received could be gelled down to this: your career future is in your own hands.

Now you’d think this was simply common sense. That we should all realize by now that it’s a bad idea to let someone else hold the reins that control your livelihood. Yet whenever we show up at an industry networking type meeting, here’s what we see: smart, supposedly motivated individuals, coming out and shaking hands, meeting-and-greeting, and engaging because they’re afraid. Their company has been taken over. Or they’re already out of work. Or they don’t know when or where the axe will fall. Where were they last month, or last year?

The fact is, when times are good, people tend to forget lessons they have already learned. They take on ever-increasing commitments, without carving out some space to manage their work strategy.  They forget to let their loyal customers and colleagues know about all the things they are able to do. They forget to “toot their own horn”. So we’re here to offer a little reminder. Make a plan. Work toward your goals. Remind people why you’re smart, useful, valuable, and valid. And after your career takes its next great leap forward, don’t stop.

If you’d like to know more about the great advice we’ve received, click here.

Looking to the future,

Megann & Steve