On Capturing Customers

Kurt Hanks helped us unpack one of the ideas behind VRM, customer control.

Allowing your customers to help tailor an appropriate communications channel with you builds trust and loyalty. Even simple efforts produce a beneficial feedback loop: These customers will care more about your products and services because they are interested in hearing from you, they feel invested in products if/when their feedback is heard, and they are socially supportive when they like something you’ve done.

Contrast this with companies that blast advertising at you in every channel available (uh, Geico with the little planes flying overhead all day?). Those companies who want to tightly control every message that goes out will never hear the messages that need to come back and be heard. If these companies are paying to spew, they’re probably not watching closely to see if the advertising middlemen are selective about placement and implementation of the corporate messages, or if they’re (inadvertently or purposefully) advertising inappropriately or collaborating with the malware industries. Note to corporations: locking us down and force-feeding doesn’t work well. See those dinosaurs?

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