Sometimes Brands Have to Know When to Shut Up and Listen to the Customer
Every year, brands spend millions of dollars on marketing campaigns to reach potential customers with clever slogans, eye-catching logos, and emotional advertisements.
These are all tactics brands use to build awareness and connect with buyers. However, sometimes the most effective thing a brand can do is stop talking and start listening.
Why Active Listening is Vital for Brands
People are bombarded with branding messages from the moment they wake up until their heads hit the pillow. The average American is exposed to between 4,000 and 10,000 brand messages daily. Do they have any effect?
With all that noise competing for attention, the most impactful thing a brand can do is hear what buyers want. Active listening serves multiple purposes for brands:
Building Trust
When consumers feel genuinely heard, it builds trust and connection. This is material for any brand looking to establish long-term relationships with people. If they feel like a brand doesn't care about them as individuals, it will struggle to earn true loyalty.
Identifying Pain Points
Being attentive enables brands to pinpoint customer pain points accurately. Maybe the shipping costs are too much. Maybe the product directions are confusing. Maybe the return policy is too rigid. Brands can't address issues they don't understand. They need customer insights to illuminate those problem areas.
Inspiring Innovation
Attention to customer feedback has led to some of the best product innovations. Brands that closely follow their audiences can identify opportunities to improve their offerings. The most successful brands evolve with the times rather than sticking rigidly to their original model.
Avoiding Missteps
When brands charge ahead without paying attention to the public, they often make avoidable mistakes. Tone-deaf marketing campaigns or products that don't solve customer problems are expensive errors that brands could sidestep by incorporating more feedback.
The population is hyper-aware. Not hearing them isn't an option for brands; it's a necessity. The brands that will thrive long-term are the ones that stay humble and remember that the customer always has more to teach them.
Times When Brands Need to Stop Talking
Brand messaging plays an indispensable role in introducing products and cultivating interest. However, there are certain situations where brands are better off ceding the floor to consumers:
In the Wake of Scandals
Trying to re-seize the narrative immediately after major public missteps like insensitive ads or harmful products usually backfires. Shoppers feel manipulated rather than heard. Brands must first attend to their customers and rebuild trust in the wake of scandals. When statements are drafted prematurely, they can worsen the situation instead of improving it.
During Market Disruptions
Unexpected events like economic downturns or global pandemics upend buyers’ priorities. Brands have to understand how big-picture changes impact their audience. Pushing ahead with the pre-disruption game plan can alienate those who now require a different approach.
When Sales Drop
Sometimes brands alter course without realizing it's taking them away from what originally drew customers in. If numbers slip, it's time to get back in tune with the core audience. Otherwise, attempts to innovate may only dilute the special sauce that made the brand work in the first place.
Before Major Launches
Big product launches come with considerable risk and investment, so brands should verify that they're meeting an identified need.
Otherwise, for all the glitzy launch events and flashy marketing, the offering may fall flat, wasting crucial company resources. By checking in with buyers first, launches will be more likely to meet their wants.
During Rebranding
Refreshing brand identity elements like logos, messaging, and visual aesthetics affect how customers perceive and interact with the brand.
Since the goal is to craft an image that resonates, initiating rebranding without soliciting people's perspectives is shortsighted. Brands should first discern what resonates before deploying sweeping changes.
The connecting thread is that brands should talk less and listen more whenever they risk losing touch with the core customer base that makes their business possible in the first place.
How Brands Can Listen Better
Simply telling brands to heed more to their customers is useless advice without concrete strategies for putting it into practice. Here are some tangible ways brands can fine-tune their ability to pick up on customer perspectives:
Building Robust Customer Service Teams
The customer service department acts as a brand's ears, hearing unfiltered opinions from real people. Investing in thoughtful customer service reps who pass insights up the chain is vital.
Sending Surveys
Asking for feedback directly through surveys, interviews, and focus groups provides a chance to ask the specific questions they need answers to. Just be sure not to make surveys feel impersonal or tone-deaf.
Encouraging User-Generated Content
Pay attention to the conversations about your brand on social media and review sites. This candid peer-to-peer feedback offers authentic insight.
Experimenting with New Channels
Explore emerging social platforms and communication channels. Meet audiences where they are, rather than relying only on traditional channels like email and web forms.
Holding Listening Sessions
Don't view “listening” as a passive activity. Host public panels, networking events, and open office hours where customers can discuss their brand experience directly with company representatives.
Tracking Metrics in Real Time
Monitor measurable performance indicators like sales volume, call waits, return rates, and foot traffic. Customers' satisfaction and retention are indispensable metrics that brands should monitor. Analyze the numbers to catch issues emerging in real time.
Keeping Ears to the Ground
Make listening an organization-wide priority, not only a small team's responsibility. From sales reps to service techs to finance employees, everyone should keep their ear to the ground to pick up on customer sentiments that might otherwise get missed.
The exact tactics will differ by industry and business model, but the notion remains universal: hearing, not just talking, offers an invaluable competitive advantage.
Final Thoughts
At a time when cynicism around fake corporate wokeness is growing, the most significant opportunity for brands is still what it has always been: forging genuine connections. Brand messaging is fundamental but must be grounded in understanding their customers first.
Talking at rather than with shoppers may generate short-term sales boosts, but it won't build lasting affinity. Just as in personal relationships, communication is a two-way street.
Brands seeking to thrive in an oversaturated market must consistently evolve and verify that their products and messaging align with consumer values and priorities.
Shutting up and listening to the customer may be a brand's most challenging yet rewarding marketing tactic.
FAQs
Q: What are some examples of times when brands should stop talking and start listening more?
A: Scandals, market disruptions, dropping sales, major launches, and rebranding are key times when brands need to listen more to customers. Stopping brand messaging and tuning into customer needs during these pivotal moments can help realign the brand.
Q: How can brands build trust through active listening?
A: By making customers feel heard and understood. When people feel like a brand genuinely cares about their perspective, it cultivates trust and connection on an emotional level.
Q: What are some tangible ways brands can improve their listening skills?
A: There are several strategies, like robust customer service teams, surveys, user-generated content, new communication channels, listening sessions, real-time metrics, and organization-wide prioritization of listening.
Q: Why is active listening important for avoiding marketing missteps?
A: Listening helps brands avoid tone-deaf messaging or products that don't actually solve customer pain points. By incorporating more feedback, brands can avoid costly errors.
Q: How can brands identify innovation opportunities through better listening?
A: Closely following customer feedback helps pinpoint areas where brands can improve or expand their offerings. Listening inspires innovation by revealing unmet needs.
Q: How can listening during rebranding help create a brand image that resonates?
A: Obtaining customer perspectives before rolling out branding changes helps ensure the new image will appeal to target audiences rather than miss the mark.
