The latest sales figures on tablets and
smartphones, the rise of Google, and rapid growth of Facebook and Twitter in
the last few years say it all –- the new paradigm is caveat venditor, or let the seller beware.

In the palm of their
hands your customers have the tools and the access they need to create media,
upload data, share content, and compare notes about your company, products and
services… and those of your competitors’.

It's quite common to encounter this premise or a variation of it in articles and posts nowadays.

An admission so popular that it runs the risk of becoming an excuse to remain complacent in the face of the inevitable. 

A couple of sample scenarios of what I mean by complacent:

• If you're currently going through the moves, shaving costs wherever you can without a specific strategic lens as to where it makes sense to automate or reduce, and where applying additional effort of the smart kind would net you greater results

• If you underestimate the importance of understanding market shifts and how people, starting with your own customers, get the job done or worse underestimate their ability and desire to evaluate and compare products and services and get recommendations from people like them

• If you overlook how you position, communicate, and deliver your services so they can be experienced to the fullest impact possible or worse go for the dial tone, the expected baseline without putting effort into demonstrating an understanding of your customers' needs and even pain points in your design of experience

• If your focus on customer promise overshadows your commitment to the delivery of that promise, putting all your resources toward building image and prestige at the expense of grooming talent and encouraging a culture of collaboration and active listening in your organization

… you are producing marketing fluff.

The opposite of fluff requires a hard look at what is going on that matters, understanding why it's important, what change is needed, and what to do first, second, third, and so on.

The opposite of fluff is not an unending list of data points that support the case you would like to make, without also looking at counter points and evidence of the opposite.

The opposite of fluff is a decision.

 

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Valeria is an experienced listener. She designs service and product experiences to help businesses rediscover
the value of promises and its effect on relationships and
culture. She is also frequent speaker at
conferences and companies on a variety of topics. To book her to speak click here.