Saturday, June 30, 2007

Companies are from MARS, Customers are from VENUS

Innovation: Companies are from MARS, Customers are from VENUS - Interesting article from FastCompany Now.

A few nuggets from the post:
  • Companies continue to spend so much money on signing up new customers and pay little to no attention to acquired customers?
  • Existing customers want long term relationships and attention, yet companies insist on focusing their efforts in finding new customers.
  • The approach, if you look at it this way, is quite different. A company seeks to be linear and left-brained, even when it talks about relationships. Think about customer relationship management (CRM). When was the last time you tried to manage your relationships at home that way? Did it work?
  • A customer wants to feel appreciated and loved. Not so much as in “we appreciate your business”, or “how may I help you?” -- both of which sound quite empty when not followed up by relevant action. We want to feel the service.