Nine Ways to Hear Your Customers Loud and Clear
Today, many forward-thinking companies rely on customer feedback to create and re-create products as well as redirect their marketing plans. Here are new and novel ways to follow the leaders.
- Lend an ear. Before Klein-Becker launched StriVectin-SD to health food stores as a stretch-mark reducer, it gave away samples in tubes marked “topical cream.” They were deluged with happy customers who used it as a facial anti-aging cream instead. In 2003, Klein-Becker re-launched the “Better than Botox” product to upscale stores, such as Nordstrom, and it continues to fly off the shelves.
- Take a vote. In 1995, the M&M/Mars company asked customers to choose a new M&M color. Ten million voted for blue and the hue replaced tan in the candy mix.
- Throw in the towel. After renovations in 1995, Hawaii’s world-class Mauna Kea Resort offered guests teal-blue beach towels. “But what have you done with our orange towels?” cried devoted clientele, who clamored for the traditional color that was used since 1965. “The cries were deafening,” says spokeswoman Aven Wright-McIntosh. The resort bagged the blue idea to make the guests happy.
- Talk to staff. Charles Park, general manager of Mauna Kea, discovered from housekeeping that the clear shower caps routinely “disappeared” from bathroom amenity kits. Park decided to create a signature souvenir that guest would be even more inspired to swipe as the perfect reminder of their trip. He designed the resort’s shower cap (white, decorated with big orange flowers), and it became an instant hit.
- Get off the couch. Rowe Furniture recently launched a new 77-inch-long Mini Mod Sofa especially for studio and one-bedroom apartments. They did so because customers repeatedly told Rowe’s retailers and merchandising team that they needed a more compact couch. The Capri became so successful that it has inspired more styles, which will debut in fall 2004.
- Don’t miss the boat. Cruise lines typically hold “shakedown” cruises before maiden voyages, to obtain feedback from travel agents. But Radisson’s Seven Seas Voyager invited its best customers (who had sailed 75 days or more on their previous excursions) for a month-long series of shakedown cruises. The results were rave reviews for the ship – and more than one million dollars in bookings for the first shakedown sailing alone.
- Find your customers’ passion. Phil Baxter, general manager of the Four Points Sheraton at Los Angles International Airport, created an unusual “beer sommelier” program in 2000, after attending a beer appreciation night at a local brewery. An instant success, the program is now being considered for the entire Sheraton chain of hotels. Beer aficionados, says Baxter, “are a very passionate group and passion sells.”
- Reward them. Ever since a customer suggested them, Toothettes (disposable toothbrush-like oral swabs) have been included in Magellan’s travel category for the past ten years. Today, the company pays $50 for product suggestions that are used in the catalog. It also receives up to six online reviews daily.
- Exploit serendipity. Hermes of Paris’ wildly popular Birkin bag has a two-year waiting list. It’s the outcome of a chance encounter on a plane, between Hermes’ CEO and the British actress Jane Birkin, who offered input on the ultimate accessory. After the bag (priced at a minimum of $6,000) was custom-made for Birkin, it went into mainstream production. “We provide the horse and carriage, but the client is the driver,” says Jean-Louis Dumas, president of Hermes.
Source: Fuel magazine
