Recently I saw an article on marketing titled “Find out what your customers want, how they want it and give it to ’em just that way!”.
The same day, crisp news about the Balance(d) Score Card concept had hit the stands. The BSC model is a way for providers and clients to align their goals so they can work in alignment with each others strategic objectives. Its a great method because it forces one to see value in value creation for their partner. It is used by suppliers to differentiate themselves from their peers by showing that they bring most value. And also by clients to show that they care about the relationships with their vendors.
It got me thinking. For decades we have tried to see what our customers want and we have tried to give it to them. We segment, we target, we position, we differentiate and we tried to show the customer that we provide better value. In turn, customers buy from us and help us maintain our offerings. And while the core concept is not new in consumer marketing, its presence has never been publicly acknowledged. Maybe its too tacky for the B2C kinds.
I think it may be time to move on beyond segmentation and take BSC to the next level. In some cases, segmentation is outdated. Its too passive and it results in crossing one’s fingers and praying that the right algorithms were executed and that the data was reasonably representative. And if not, one just hopes for the at least the standard brute force “conversion rates”.
In today’s world, a plethora of social networking sites and the rise of the internet is literally screaming at us to listen to what customers are saying. They don’t want their credit cards to simple bucket them as “students in an affluent neighbourhood” or their mail-order catalogues to brand them as “single moms in downtown LA”. That technique may appear to help retention – primarily due to inertia – but it doesn’t help get new customers without a brute force mass campaign supporting it. And believe it or not, it increases costs and forces us to penalize the loyal customers that do stay on after the trial period has ended!
Its time to move on. In today’s world, we want to relate to every single customer. Find out what works for them and give that to them – better than the competition does. I am a customer. I am leaving clues all over the virtual world telling you exactly what I want. Is customization that difficult. Maybe we ought to be thinking about the weights that are making customization so heavy to carry. And then cut those weights loose for good.
I am your customer, and I want you to balance your score with ME, not my general type. Just give it to me dammit.