Are you in tune with what your customers are shopping for and why? When was the last time you thought about influencing consumer behavior? Are you into changing minds, shaping opinions, and moving consumers to act? Perhaps in your marketing messages or in your customer engagement?
The ability to influence is one of the essential skills for all customer facing employees, isn’t it? It’s more art than science, and it can be tough to get your arms around. But the bottom line is that the ability to influence matters. And as we continue to morph (at breakneck speed) into an interconnected, interdependent, increasingly global workplace, it will matter more and more.
Before we continue, let me ask you a question.
What works best for customer influence in your business? We would love to hear what it was. Would you do us a favor and post it in the comments section below? It would be greatly appreciated by us and our community.
The ultimate goal of all the points I list below is this: eliminate the fluff from your marketing strategy, and focus only on the things that work.
To be an effective influencer, you need both substance and style. Without a solid foundation of credibility, even the most interpersonally adept leaders will fall short. On the flip side, highly credible people can struggle with influence if they don’t understand the interpersonal dynamics at play.
In 2009 and 2010, Discovery Learning, Inc. and Innovative Pathways conducted research to identify and measure influence styles. Their research derived created five categories:
Consumer behavior … asserting
Insist that your ideas are heard and you challenge the ideas of others
Put forward your ideas and offer logical, rational reasons to convince others of your point of view
Influencing consumer behavior … negotiating
Look for compromises and make concessions to reach outcomes that satisfy your greater interest
Bridging
Build relationships and connect with others through listening understanding and building coalitions
Inspiring
Advocate your position and encourage others with a sense of shared purpose and exciting possibilities
Each of these styles can be effective, depending upon the situation and people involved. A common mistake is to use a one-size-fits-all approach. Remember that influencing is highly situational.
Here are eleven ways to increase your influence skills:
Even if you already know what people are going to say, and even if there’s no way you can do what they want, start by listening. Being listened to is one of the things they want–that’s true of just about everyone. That was one mistake I made on my first project: I had listened to people who wanted to volunteer, but not to those who had volunteer jobs to offer. I assumed they’d be happy to have new volunteers, but I was wrong.
Consumer behaviour in economics.
Be curious and ask many questions
Not only because everyone wants to be listened to. Careful questioning will help you determine what people really want, which is often different from what they say they want. It will also tell you what they have to offer.
Network for more connections
Look for ways to connect that have nothing to do with the work at hand. Maybe they have children the same age as yours, or they live somewhere you’ve vacationed, or you share the same hobby. Even if none of that’s true, you can still make a bit of a connection on the basis of universal experiences. For instance, right now a large portion of the United States is suffering through extreme winter weather. That is always a good subject for sharing great stories, yes?
No worries
It’s always tough to know just how much of your personal life it’s OK to share in a business context. Let your guard down. Many people err on the side of caution by sharing little or nothing about themselves. Instead, decide what you feel comfortable having other people know, and then give them a few details. You’ll make other people feel safer and engage their human side.
Consumer behaviour models.
Show gratitude
Think hard about who’s helped you or put him- or herself out, and make sure to thank him or her. That makes it much likelier he or she will put him- or herself out again for you next time.
Show praise
Most of us never get enough praise for the things we work hard to do. So if you want to influence someone, make sure to call out what he or she has done well and how he or she has contributed to your organization or your well-being. Do it in public if you can.
Be good at apologies
If you hate apologizing, get over it. An apology is one of the most powerful tools you have for winning people to your side. If a decision you made caused someone inconvenience or upset, an apology lets him or her know that you care. That’s true even if you don’t regret the decision itself but only the harm it caused him or her.
(One word of caution: Don’t ever apologize, praise, or thank unless it’s sincerely how you feel. People can tell when you’re faking, and it will backfire.)
Strive to meet customer needs
Obviously, this isn’t always an option. But if you can figure out what people really want or need and make sure they get it, they’ll be that much more likely to give you what you need from them.
Consider an example ofInternet Privacy
Running a business today almost certainly means having a digital presence, and being connected to the Internet. While the benefits of this transformation are many, the security issues are still a daily challenge, with many solutions in the market place to address them.
Yes, internet service providers (ISPs) such as Comcast, Verizon and AT&T are free to track all your browsing behavior and sell it to advertisers without consent. ISPs have access to literally all of your browsing behavior – they act as a gateway for all of your web visits, clicks, searches, app downloads and video streams.
This represents a huge treasure trove of personal data, including health concerns, shopping habits and porn preferences. ISPs want to use this data to deliver personalized advertising.
Check out this excellent VPN solution.
Allow people to save face
Sometimes you know that someone would be disastrously bad at a job he or she wants. Should you say so? Unless you’re giving him or her feedback with a view to his or her being qualified later on, don’t. You’re better off giving that person a more palatable out. For instance, you’ve already promised the job to someone else.
Talk person to person
Do you find yourself getting and making a lot fewer phone calls than you used to? With email, text, and social media, I do. But there are times when a phone call or face-to-face communication makes a big difference. One of those is if you have disappointing news to deliver. Another is if you are asking someone to take on a bigger role or added responsibility.
On the phone, you can answer any questions he or she has or listen to any venting he or she may need to do in real time. You’ve stepped away from your other duties to spend time with him or her. That lets him or her know you really care about whatever you’re calling for. It’s a powerful way to make him or her care, too.
Rational and logical presentation
Presenting the facts and laying out an argument is perhaps one of the most common and most accepted methods of influence in business. It generally includes emphasizing the positive benefits of a course of action.
This method is most often used upward, such as making the case for the feasibility of a certain initiative to your boss or proposing plan objectives to your Board or executives. The only problem is, people don’t act with logic all or even most of the time. So unfortunately this method does have its limits.
Key takeaways
Whether you are leading, following, and/or collaborating, chances are you need to influence others to be successful. Influence strategies can range from reliance on position to education, encouragement and collaboration. The key is knowing which approach to use in a given situation.
Need some help in building better customer insights from your customer engagement? Creative ideas to help grow your customer base?
Call today for a FREE consultation or a FREE quote. Learn about some options to scope your job of growing customer insights and pay for results.
Call Mike at 607-725-8240.
All you get is what you bring to the fight. And that fight gets better every day you learn and apply new insights that you have learned.
When things are not what you want them to be, what’s most important is your next step. Call today.
Test. Learn. Improve. Repeat.
Are you devoting enough energy to improving your continuous learning for yourself and your team?
Digital Spark Marketing will stretch your thinking and your ability to adapt to change. We also provide some fun and inspiration along the way. Call us for a free quote today. You will be amazed how reasonable we will be.
Check out these additional articles on customer service insights from our library:
Mike Schoultz is a digital marketing and customer service expert. With 48 years of business experience, he consults on and writes about topics to help improve the performance of small business. Find him on G+, Facebook, Twitter, Digital Spark Marketing, and LinkedIn.
A tricky meaning to understanding customer influencers? Not really. But understanding what influences customers to buy your products and services is certainly not straightforward. You need to put Shep Hyken customer influence tips to work to fully appreciate why customers make the decisions they do.
Explore, experiment, and do lots of testing to learn the most.
How much time do you and your business dedicate to gathering customer insights and converting them into the best influencers? Not enough is the answer we hear most often. One way you can find useful insights is to examine research in social psychology, like Shep Hyken.
A differentiated customer influencer is critical for business success. Companies that consistently provide the best ones are most often the most successful.
But there is a tremendous and ever-growing completion for these influencers, isn’t there? Often it seems almost a bridge too far. So we need to know the best ones that have been shown successfully. Look no further than Shep Hyken’s thought on famous influencers.
See our article on the secrets to a winning social media marketing strategy.
Here are 10 we have found to most appreciated by customers of our clients:
Hyken customer influence tips … time
Most people today suffer from too little time. Always and it is an increasingly important factor. Time is the one thing that even the richest customer doesn’t have enough of. So customers’ perceptions about your company’s customer experience are largely influenced by saving them time.
Customers need to believe that your company’s employees are good at what they do. They must perceive that your staff is well-informed about products, services, policies, issues, and any other relevant subject matter.
So, to project their best knowledge to your customers, you have to make sure that they are fully empowered with information that’s accurate, complete, and up-to-date. And the ability and time to provide sound advice for the best influence.
Hyken customer influence tips … personalization
Customers don’t want to be treated like a number. They want to feel valued and understood. Their belief? That the money they spend with your company entitles them to such treatment.
The differentiation of the influence your company delivers will, therefore, be at least in part contingent on your ability to personalize your interactions with customers across all channels.
That means knowing their name, their previously expressed preferences, or the particulars of their current situation. Lots of small ways to create customer influence with personalization.
Care
Customers like knowing that you care. Great service is the top reason customers keep giving their business to companies and the top reason they recommend those companies to others.
On the flipside, 80 percent of customers say that they have stopped doing business with a company because of a bad service experience. More often than not, they will never do business with such a company ever again.
For these reasons and others, it is critical to ensure that your company delivers influence by great service care. The care that results in great experiences that are remembered and talked about.
You can’t over prepare on your customer influence if you want customers to select or stay with your company.
Remember, customers create the most value for you … when you create the most value for them.
Success with social media and customer influence requires more listening and less talking.
Read between the lines of your target audience’s responses to your influencers and join discussions to learn what’s important to them.
Only then can you create better influencers and spark conversations that add value rather than clutter to their lives.
Collaborate
As a business, you need to find customers who like to partner to help you with ideas and spread your messages.
The neat thing about collaborating is that by working with different groups of people, you potentially will introduce your story to a whole new audience of people who are not familiar with your work.
Hyken customer influence tips … timeliness
Nothing beats customer response timeliness in terms of the value of customer influencers. Timely responses to customers score big with your existing and potential customers.
Stay on top of your market and continually refine your ability to report on what is going on now.
Original thinking
Most consumers are searching for new ideas not rehash. They value original thinking highly. Offer it for great customer influence.
Create well-conceived original themes and content. Ask original thought-provoking questions that trump quantity any day.
It’s better to have 1,000 online connections who read and share with you and then talk about you with their own thoughts are better than 10,000 connections who disappear after connecting with you the first time.
Hyken customer influencer tips … learn as you go
Don’t think you can execute ‘drive-by’ customer influencers that will succeed with your customers.
Plan and refine what you learn continuously. Use analytics and reliable tracking tools to know what is working best and follow these paths.
Accessibility
Don’t publish your customer influencers and then disappear. Be available to your audience.
That means you need to consistently take action and participate in the resulting conversations.
Online customers won’t hesitate to replace you if you disappear for weeks or months.
The bottom line
This is your time to create and take action on customer insights from successful influencers. With good continuity and persistence, relevant insights will be helpful in developing lasting relationships with your customers.
Lead with initiative and own the moment. Dive in today and notice how much your business improvements grow.
Remember this simple fact. Stop interrupting what people are interested in and be what people are interested in. Let your content marketing success be your difference maker.
From maximizing quality to increasing your online entry points, abiding by these 12 laws will help build a foundation that will serve your customers, your brand and — perhaps most importantly — your bottom line.
Need some help in capturing more customers from your marketing strategies? Creative ideas to help the differentiation with potential customers?
Call today for a FREE consultation or a FREE quote. Learn about some options to scope your job.
Call Mike at 607-725-8240.
All you get is what you bring to the fight. And that fight gets better every day you learn and apply new ideas.
When things are not what you want them to be, what’s most important is your next step. Call today.
Test. Learn. Improve. Repeat.
Are you devoting enough energy improving your marketing, branding, and advertising?
Do you have a lesson about making your marketing strategy better you can share with this community? Have any questions or comments to add in the section below?
Mike Schoultz is the founder of Digital Spark Marketing, a digital marketing and customer service agency. With 40 years of business experience, he blogs on topics that relate to improving the performance of your business. Find them on G+, Twitter, and LinkedIn.
Digital Spark Marketing will stretch your thinking and your ability to adapt to change. We also provide some fun and inspiration along the way. Call us for a free quote today. You will be amazed at how reasonable we will be.
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