Trying to save your business? Here’s how your clients can tell you more about it than you could ever perceive from the inside.
Last month, the NYPD launched a social media campaign called #MyNYPD. The intention was for New Yorkers to share positive tweets about the NYPD. Instead, the hashtag backfired, and their feed was filled with negative pictures of police violence, mostly from Occupy Wall Street protests. The campaign was catastrophe.
In January 2012, McDonald’s launched a social media campaign called #McDstories so their fans could share happy moments of eating McDonald’s food. The result was even worse; McDonald’s had to pull the whole campaign, part of which was offline. The hashtag, however, is still live, and the negative tweets continue.
Your clients’ view of your business is usually not the same as your own. You might have a hunch about what people believe, but usually, it’s difficult to grasp the whole truth when you’re looking at your business from behind your own desk. You need to see your business the way your clients do.
Look at it from the outside…
When someone works very hard and makes a huge effort—building a business—it becomes a part of them. That’s why people tend to take criticism personally, defend themselves, and live in denial instead of looking at the truth. If your goal is to build a successful business, you should look for criticism.
This doesn’t mean we should take every piece of advice or criticism to heart. We all know that not everything people say is true, and sometimes they give opinions based on personal issues that are not always applicable to all clients. Opinions like these, if taken seriously, could lead you straight to failure. Even your closest friends or family are capable of leading you to false decisions, because they generally try not to hurt your feelings. In the end, this could hurt you even more. Be selective about who you ask for opinions.
“When someone works very hard and makes a huge effort—building a business—it becomes a part of them.”
I always say, “Look at your business from the outside,” but it isn’t easy to put yourself in your customers’ shoes. If you can’t do it, hire someone who can or ask an honest friend (who wants you to succeed) to go through the whole business process just as a customer would, and let you know how it went. Feedback forms can be useful if you know the right questions to ask and if the number of samples is sufficient.
Stay Focused
Even with valuable feedback, you still need to stay focused. When fast-food was criticized for causing health problems, many fast-food chains started introducing a healthy menu. They didn’t throw away their core products, because even if the media and half the people in the world wanted to avoid the risk of having a stroke, the other half would still want to eat what they make best. Simultaneously, they could still make the first half feel good in coming to them for as long as possible.
Stop reminding your clients how terrible you are!
And how would you do that? Businesses do it all the time, and they don’t even know it. Three years ago, a local airline with a reputation for flight delays decided to launch a campaign featuring a number of reasons to fly with them. One of these reasons was “We fly on time.” I personally can’t say if this was true or not, but assuming it was, the campaign was a reminder that they DON’T fly on time.
“What you don’t know is that it’s hard to change such a perception unless people actually feel it themselves.”
Here’s what happens to many businesses:
You have a problem in your business. People start to notice it, and pretty soon, the problem becomes part of their perception of your business. You eventually find out about it, change it, and try to communicate to your clients that the problem no longer exists. What you don’t know is that it’s hard to change such a perception unless people actually feel it themselves.
People today are no longer easy to convince. Make sure the problem is no longer there, then give people a different reason to come back that has nothing to do with the problem that originally drove them away. Use word-of-mouth the right way: through online and offline thought leaders.
P.S. Always be cautious when you hire a company to do work for you. The largest companies are expensive, and don’t usually provide a startup with the high quality of work they give to their larger clients, and small companies need a good portfolio to prove they are reliable. Spend your money wisely.