July 17, 2012 20 Comments

Facilitating Interactions is Good for Business

Rockstars

The picture I chose for this post is of my kids playing with one of those displays that are so prevalent at movie theater lobbies these days. The goal of such a display is for you to mess with it, take photos, and share them all over the internet, thus making people interested in the movie. You get something. The movie gets something. Hooray. Lord knows if it sells movie tickets. I checked around for some case studies, but didn’t find any. But it’s more fun than a poster.

Can You Build Interaction Points Into Your Business?

In launching Blog Topics: Master Class, I put into place a handful of interaction touchpoints. First, I invite people upon signing up to hit reply every time they want to talk with me or ask a question. I then prompt them to do so in the first email, so that they know I’m serious.

I also created a private Facebook group for students in the course to interact with each other, and although I don’t promise to be there myself very often, I have been there to greet every single newcomer to the group personally, and introduce them to everyone else.

There will also be some realtime events like a live Google+ Hangout where we can do even more connecting. Further, I will promote various people’s work as a part of class, thus highlighting what participants are accomplishing, and sharing some of the great experiences coming out of the project, which is one way to give back.

What Does This Do For Your Business?

By finding ways to encourage repeat interaction, I’m tied much closer to my “customers’” experiences (I don’t much like the word, but I’m using it so you can translate this to what you’re doing). It means that no one ever feels like they played into the “bought and forgot” loop. It means that you’ll hear rather quickly if something isn’t working well, and have more potential opportunities to correct the issue at hand.

This also means time, however. Many businesses are built to actively seek ways to remove human interaction, to streamline anything that can be streamlined, to reduce interaction as it’s a drag on “productivity.” This line of thinking is accurate: to be very interactive with a customer/client/participant takes a lot more human capital than just selling something and wandering off.

But the process also has benefits:

  • Faster awareness of issues that could cause revenue loss.
  • More opportunities to adapt the product or future products to customer needs. (You can sell better or more.)
  • Improved opportunities to encourage word of mouth marketing.
  • Reduced error handing time allotted, as your marketing time and customer support time share a “budget.”
  • Much improved perception of trust, care, and customer interest/advocacy.

How would this apply to your business? What does it mean for you?

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  • http://twitter.com/DaveThackeray Dave Thackeray

    Talknology is going to be a never-ending interactive touchpoint for my fab partner-friends and customers of tomorrow. Launching the world’s first listener-driven tech show isn’t going to be easy but it’s all about the people so it’ll iterate as we go.

    But yeah, interactive touchpoints need to appear as often as you can possibly muster. The only trouble is administering and managing them to make sure they evolve as quickly as your customers do.

    Barkingly good points made here, young Christophe.

    • http://chrisbrogan.com/ Chris Brogan

      I think that’s clever, Dave. Listener-driven shows are a stepping stone on the way to listeners no longer being listeners but producers. : )

  • Wade Finnegan

    People are constantly seeking connection and this regime illustrates the importance. If your business is part of their life, then they will be loyal and market for you. Thanks for sharing your ideas, Chris.

    • http://chrisbrogan.com/ Chris Brogan

      Thank YOU, Wade, for taking the time to comment and say hi.

  • http://www.netwitsthinktank.com frank barry

    For some reason BLOG immediately came to mind when I read this :) … There’s lot’s of ways to create touch points, of course, but in terms of online access a well executed blog is like gold.

    @franswaa:disqus

    • http://chrisbrogan.com/ Chris Brogan

      I think you’re right. It’s definitely one great point. : )

  • http://youtube.com/user/tommyisastrategist Tommy Walker

    I hide in those displays standing perfectly still so I can scare my wife as she comes out of the restroom >:-)

    No seriously though, touch points like this, Facebook pages/groups, Twitter, and more are great for getting the “customer’s eye view” on your business. The trick is for any business is to not have more touch points than they can handle (or hire more people to handle them) though because slow response times and lack of monitoring will just make people upset… Kind of like your bank on Facebook…

  • http://rayedwards.com/ Ray Edwards

    Chris, great post… and great eyes, noticing this. I walked by the same display and didn’t give it a second thought!

    For me, what stands out about this whole idea is the “shareability” of the experience. The theater example most obviously lends itself to taking photographs and sharing them across social media.

    But it seems it would be fairly easy to apply this to almost any business. The key is giving people a truly remarkable “something” that they will believe is special, and worth sharing.

    Keep up the great work!

  • http://twitter.com/Lena_Merrin Lena Merrin

    People are tired of faceless companies and when they get immediate reaction and response it makes them feel appreciated

    • http://chrisbrogan.com/ Chris Brogan

      I agree for sure. : )

  • http://EricLWalker.com/ Eric Walker

    Chris, this fits perfectly with the value you place on “Human Business.” It’s powerful to see you exemplify it with the rerelease of Blog Topics+. My take is that this type of human business interaction is the new definition of “old school” which is simply to show/act/be like you genuinely care about people, and give a damn about each individual.

  • http://twitter.com/blogboy2 mikec

    Thanks for this post, Chris. I liked it a lot. Just like you said, it
    takes a lot of time to interact at the “customer / consumer” level. It
    will continue to be a barrier to the majority of businesses doing it
    more. Thanks again.

  • http://profiles.google.com/witt.cassie Cassie Witt

    Awesome blog post as usual.

    There’s a theory That’s been knocking around in my head for some time. My theory is that increased interaction makes a business feel more connected to its customers and the business improves because of this sense of connection. This theory, of course, only works if the business is open to the idea of learning from their customers (a feat that becomes harder the bigger the business is).

    Have you found this to be true in your experience Chris?

  • http://allmarketingsolutions.co.uk/social-media-marketing-services Ayaz

    For me Interaction with the customers make them feel like they are at good place in terms of getting some problems and looking for the solutions. In this pointing of customer service has affected lots of business.

  • http://www.facebook.com/natascha.roeoesli Natascha Roeoesli

    I belong to the crowd which already knows how important interaction is but I find it very hard to get people to join in despite knowing our target audience really well. I am still trying to find a recipe.

  • Hector Millan

    Still searching for effective ways of connecting with customers because in business to business, everyone is so freakin’ occupied! But I’m thinking that we all love a a good break, maybe a series of simple events where we can have lunch and I can introduce all of my clients to one another, try and stimulate professional relationships. Maybe try to coordinate one of these events every 3 or 4 months.

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  • Mike Jones

    people are constantly seeking connection and this regime illustrates the
    importance. if your business is part of their life, then they will be
    loyal and market for you. Thanks for sharing your ideas,

  • Daniel Decker

    Engagement (via interactions) is where it’s at. It’s a better measure of real _____ (insert: influence, business, impact, etc.). Example: I see many Facebook pages with large fan / follower counts but hardly any interactions (people talking about). What’s the point of attracting _____ (insert: fans, followers, customers, etc.) if initial attraction is the only goal? To me, I don’t want a one night stand… I want a long term relationship. :)

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