The Golden Rule is Delusional: People want to be treated the way THEY want to be treated. Not the way YOU want to be treated.
You may know a lot of things about your customers, but you don’t know what each one of them had for breakfast based on what you had in your bowl this morning. Your own behaviors are not a good place to start when deciding how customers like to interact.
In my early days of marketing I did a lot of direct mail. I would have clients tell me emphatically that direct mail was not effective. The research they had to support this claim? It was because they personally NEVER read junk mail. And they were right about customers not reading junk mail…kindda.
I would ask, “What hobby or interest do you really like? The client would say something like, “I love to fly fish.”
“Do you ever get mail that you didn’t request on fly fishing?”
“Sure.”
“Do you sometimes read it?”
They would start to smile a little and say, “Yes.”
It is only “Junk Mail” if it is not relevant to you. They had the facts, but were unable to be objective with the data. You cannot be your own focus group on how your customers want to engage with your company and product. You need to try it and see how they respond.
Read full article here: http://stevefarnsworth.wordpress.com/2009/04/18/%E2%80%9Cmy-customers-don%E2%80%99t-use-twitter%E2%80%9D-oh-but-they-do/
