For the last 10,000 years two-thirds of the buying and selling (or trading) process has been controlled by the seller. The seller has control over the product, the seller has control over information about the product (for the most part) and the only aspect the consumer controls is whether or not to buy.
That is no longer the case, not to the extent it had been. Today the customer is framing the information around the product to a far greater extent, and it’s going to continue to increase.
It’s not doom and gloom though, it’s a good thing. It means better products and service for consumers, which means better businesses rise to the top regardless of bankroll or tricky messaging. Think about it, as scary as it sounds at first to lose control over much of your messaging, would you rather let the customer decide, let the chips fall where they may? Or risk some business like yours, but bigger and richer coming in and putting you out of business, just because they have 100% control over perception and the ability to drown your business out? Wouldn’t you rather a fair fight?
Most businesses would, and it’s getting fairer for businesses of all sizes the more customers are given control over the messaging—as counterintuitive as it first seems. Where does that control come from? The Internet, of course.
There are some things businesses need to do to take advantage of this shifting landscape:
1. The messaging you do have control over; ads, your website, marketing, these things need to adapt to what people want. Content is far more important. Businesses can’t just talk at customers anymore. They need to be creative, interesting, even fun if possible.
2. Businesses need to make it easier for happy customers to frame the message. An upset customer will lift mountains to spread word about their bad experience. They will jump through all kinds of hoops for this. A happy customer? They don’t really feel the need to spread the word because after all, all you as a business did was your job. They paid money and in exchange they got the product or service as expected. If we’re honest the happy customer doesn’t really owe you anything else. So you need to ask them, make it easy for them to leave reviews, get in touch on those social sites, etc. Otherwise they won’t do it and potential customers will only hear about the bad experiences. Don’t worry though, businesses are always surprised how willing a happy customer is to take that extra step for a business they like, so just be likeable and ask.
3. Businesses need to get placed where they belong in search engines. Search engines don’t do this for businesses. You can list a business in a few days, but that does not mean a similar business 10 miles away won’t show up before your business even if the person searching is right next door.
Those three things? It’s not additional work or cost on the business’s part, not really. It’s just a matter of reallocating those resources that used to go toward controlling how your customers see your business, and putting that time and effort toward making it easier for the customer to decide for themselves.