Notes courtesy of Amon Kiplagat and Hannah Silverstein! Thank you 🙂

So we say we know our customer.

We know their personas. We know people’s age and income, what they buy, when they click… So, we know them, right?

But we don’t think about them as we think about our best friends. Because if our friends ghosted us, we would find out why. 

So if we are honest, we don’t really know our customers. And if we don’t know them, how can we expect them to be loyal? In this webinar, Marisa helps you with practical tips.

Key Takeaways on how to build customer loyalty

• Even though we like to think as much, having personas isn’t really thinking about your customers. Because when you think of your best friend, or your mum – you don’t think about their buyer profile or demographics, you think of their values and who they are as a person. It’s great to pick up that attitude for your customers, too!
• For the most part, customers don’t really tell you what they are really feeling & thinking. They just leave. Think of the times you had a bad haircut and said… “yeah it’s great”
• Marisa has found doing less stuff is better in marketing and customer experience. Just like David Hieatt a few weeks ago 🙂

3 tactics to start understanding what your customers are really thinking

• Chat In real life. Marisa, in a new role as a Head of Marketing, pointed to this being the single most useful activity she’s embarked on since taking on a new role.
• Getting curious about bad reviews. There was a great quote that came in the chat… “Innovation never came from happy customers”. 
• Have an attitude of making sure you’re searching for what’s not being said or felt. Not just in your business environment – realise the rest of the world continues outside of your business environment.

How to find what’s not being said by your customers

• First, and simply, just by bothering to think about your customer’s feelings. If people are unsubscribing or not reacting to your stuff – don’t just keep telling them how amazing you are. Ask them what you can do better!
• Second, figure out ways you can help each other – by listening to customers better, Bloom & Wild helped their customers have a better experience of their product, but also opened up the company to doing better marketing themselves.
• Storytelling gives your benefits and features context. Just make sure you’re being human about it. (It doesn’t have to be Pixar level)

How to get the most from one on one customer chats.

• Decide what counts when asking your customers what they want.
  • Figure out what you don’t know about your customers rather than just asking them the usual questions everyone asks.
• Ask big & broad questions so you can figure out what is actually going on.
• Aim to learn more about them. Not how they feel about you. (PREACH! 🙏)

Q & A with Marisa Thomas, Head of Marketing at EVERPRESS

• How do you create a persona that’s more customer focussed? Try not to split it out too much. Define what unites all of them. Define the community… what you offer that connects your brand, beyond age demographics etc. It’s about what people believe. 
• Did you encounter any negativity around The Thoughtful Marketing Movement? No, not really, but what we did find is resistance from internal companies. 
• Can storytelling work just as well for B2B or is it just B2C? You aren’t selling to another business, you are selling to another human who is making that decision in that business. Storytelling applies to everyone!
• How do you overcome GDPR from people who unsubscribe or opt out? There is a moment in the unsubscribe form, before you lose people forever. It’s in these moments you have to take the time to just be interested in them and gather honest feedback. Innovation never came from happy customers!