“Communication is at the heart of e-commerce and community.” -Meg Whitman
Thursday: Infinity Customers
At our marina we have six generations of customers. Now, we’ve only been in business 58 years so how can we have six generations of customers?
It means we have customers from age 8 to 90+! Sometimes we have all of them on the same day. We have our Greatest Generation, Lost Generation, Baby Boomers, Gen X, Millennial, iGen, and the unnamed newest generation… oops, guess that might be 7 generations!
Sometimes our youngest customers come in on a jet ski and buy candy while our slip or rental customers are much much older.
Why does this matter?
Here’s why… I’m in my 40s and the big thing growing up was talking on the phone. For about the last 10 years texting has been the big deal. Watch any teen/20 something and you’ll see just how fast they can text… some can still do it on a “flip phone”! However, these same people have really really bad phone skills.
Don’t even try to talk to some of them in person… it is like talking to a space alien!
Back to my previous question, why does this matter?
It matters because to create an Infinity Customer you must be able to communicate. This is why today’s inspiration is so awesome, and simple. Communication is the heart of ecommerce AND community. It’s not coding… it’s communication. It’s not one or the other… it’s both. To build your community and build your ecommerce you must COMMUNICATE.
Now… to communicate with 6 (or 7) generations you need to figure out how they communicate. It would be rare for a 90 year old to use Snap Chat, but it would also be rare to find a teenager who prefers to receive a phone call.
I’m mentioning this because earlier this week one of my crew members was trying to contact area businesses. She visited their websites. She found 5 that did not list an email address.
My pet peeve used to be when you visited a business website and found an email with a gmail or yahoo domain. It’s so easy to get a custom domain for email that it’s a “must do” – – but now it appears to be a trend to fail to list an email at all on a website!
Remember today’s inspiration… communication is key… COMMUNICATION.
Be willing to communicate how your customer wants to communicate, not how you want to. This is such a fundamental building block that I almost didn’t use it as a blog topic, but then I thought, “if 5 of 20 on our list did not have an email on their website… maybe my tribe needs a friendly reminder, too”
Include an email on your website. Its a polite courtesy for your customers, soon to be tribe members.
#doinginfinity
Tomorrow… come back for my episode on “Big Money Small Change”!
PS: Like my vibe? I want you to join my tribe! start here!
Infinity Marketing Machine Daily Topics:
Monday – Character (Subject Matter Expert)
Tuesday – Content & Consistency
Wednesday – Midweek Motivation
Thursday – Infinity Customers
Friday – Big Money
Saturday – Try This!
Sunday – Week in Review