Listening - A Key Element for Sales Funnel Success

What percentage of your marketing efforts is dedicated to simply listening? I don't mean monitoring the twittersphere, or blogs, or clippings from your PR department. I'm referring to activly soliciting and listening to your customer?

Naturally today's worldwide communication channels make it very easy to keep tabs on what others are saying about you; often they have an axe to grind and love to do that in public. Yet often listening to what those comments say can help an organization retool, or change procedures that remove barriers or provide better pathways through the sales funnel so that a conclusion can be reached or, better yet, a purchase made.

How do we, as marketers listen? For years there were basically two ways, focus groups and customer surveys. With the advent of the web feedback can be garnered instantly, in the clicks and choices the user makes (or doesn't), the on-screen "take this survey" icon, or the ubiquitous "feedback + -" mechanism. More frequently you get a "take our survey" code at the checkout of grocery stores, Target and other retailers where you get a discount or reward for going online and providing comments about the service you received.

But then, there are times where a company just doesn't get it.

This morning I opened an e-mail from a large, worldwide hotel chain (let's call it "YYY") with which I have been a member of their frequent stay club. Evidently I have not been in their hotels recently and they "miss me." Here's what they said:

We've missed you! We haven't noticed any activity on your YYY-Club account in more than nine months.

Remember, to keep your account active, you must earn YYY-Club points at least once every 12 months. Otherwise, your membership may be cancelled and all of your points forfeited.

It went on to say:

There are lots of easy ways for you to save your YYY-Club account and your points, if you act by November 01:

• Stay at any of the 3,000-plus YYY Worldwide hotels
• Earn points with one of our many partners
• Sign up for a YYY-Clkub Card from American Express
• Apply for a YYY Visa® Signature Card
• Purchase a resort condo with YYY
  
• Purchase YYY points online
• Shop at our online mall, featuring thousands of premium items

Are you getting the same feeling as I did? The tone of the e-mail was "we miss you" but that "you're not doing your part." If I would only "stay," "earn," "sign up," "apply," "purchase" or "shop" then everything would be better. And if I don't my membership will be cancelled and my points forfeited! Take that!

Well, the one thing this letter from the SVP of Worldwide Marketing did not consider, in earning-back my business, was the key marketing tactic of listening. Nowhere in the e-mail does it try and determine why I had not stayed at their hotel chain in the past nine months. They are assuming that the problem in their sales funnel was all mine, and if I would just "apply," "purchase" or "stay" that would fix things. But, as I've talked about in previous articles, that is very business-centric thinking and not very customer-centric.

The old proverb says that listening is eminently more important than speaking, which is why we have two ears and only one mouth.

If this hotel chain provided a mechanism for me, as a customer, to tell them why I don't stay with them anymore, then perhaps they would gain valuable feedback that affects countless others, and we would begin booking again. By listening to their customer rather than threatening them, or telling them to "book," "stay" or "apply" they could remove a simple barrier and garner new / repeat business.

In your own marketing efforts, are you looking for former frequent customers who no longer make purchases? Do you just assume the current economic downturn has affected their behavior, or do you earnestly want to know if there is a deeper reason they have abandoned the sales funnel? Do you make it simple and obvious for them to provide legitimate feedback, and then have a process in place to acknowledge the comments and integrate the solutions into your process?

If you're not listening to your customer, you've left-out a key ingredient for removing a sales funnel barrier, and reclaiming lost business.

© 2010 Bob Chernet - View all of Bob's articles at: Bob Chernet's Marketing Best Practices . Reproduction of Bob Chernet's Marketing Insights in any manner is unlawful, without the written permission of the author.