Are Your Messages Getting Through?

Successful relationships are surely the key to life – whether they are family; friends; business or social they are, essentially, what can separate us from the animal kingdom… Our ability to communicate across multi channel media with any of ‘our circle’ enables us to engage appropriately at any time.

We recognise and differentiate the channels depending on the message and the recipient – whether we are texting our kids; phoning our parents; writing to the bank; or emailing a friend; we often subconsciously select the right channel for the best and most certain response… But, do we do the same in business or does cost and ‘efficiency’ override our inherent knowledge that what’s right and appropriate for one recipient is inappropriate for another?

Surely we cannot dispense with years of learning to jump onto the next comm’s bandwagon? As I write today – social networking is the fad. I am old enough to remember direct mail, and then the telephone, before email became all the rage. At each stage of communication evolution we leapt fully into the new world and dispensed with the old. What happened? In the main – very little! Lots of money was invested in making calls and sending emails to attract new business – sometimes with calculable evidence of a required ROI; however, rarely was the leaky bucket of customer attrition addressed and so real growth was not achieved.

Understanding customers, developing relationships and building loyalty will; surely remain the key to successful business and growth. Partnering with the right specialists can help reduce investment, and - will most certainly add value - as you benefit from a range of experience and not just your own.

So before embarking on Twitter and Facebook; before you purchase another batch of data to fire off some more emails; why not stop and take stock…?

• What can your current customer data tell you?
• How can it help inform your future strategy?
• Where does your profit come from rather than just your revenue?
• Which customers are more likely to lapse and which should you endeavour to keep?
• How and why do they like to be communicated with?

In summary - the right partner can help with these questions and make your business grow healthily and less expensively because they use the knowledge locked within your data to expose the communication opportunities of the future. Sometimes the answers are right under your nose!