Remain Relevant
Traditional business thinking says that a company will be successful if it has a great value proposition. In this age of massive consumer buying choices and immediately shared rating within a customer culture, going to market on value alone risks that a company will be perceived as a commodity. The companies that will be the most successful will go to market on both value and relevance.
The world is complex. There’s a lot happening in it and it happens to your customers. If your company only wants to be relevant to them when you’re trying to sell something and they’re somewhat interested in buying it, okay. But that means you are choosing to be irrelevant to them for the rest of the time, which is a dangerous strategy.
Your company may understandably want to stop short of taking a social activism position on world events, but your customer experience can still reflect an understanding that the world exists beyond the company-customer relationship. It can show some attitude about what is beautiful about the human condition and make some comment about when that human condition is despairing to any reasonable human being. After all, people don’t trust companies, they trust people.
Always Do This
- Take a social (humanistic, not political) stand on world events that significantly affect your customers’ lives. Don’t pretend that the world isn’t happening outside of your company.
- For B2B customers, offer support – empathy, insight, solutions, community -- for urgent and chronic business issues.
- For B2C customers, offer support for issues that affect customers’ lives, above and beyond their business with your company.
* Feedback to our customers, it brings loyalty and referral to MTN. Personal feedback. Linked to CRM system for personal information. Personalised service | Remain Relevant Can Do | Add To | |
* Identify with our customers when the need arises. The business communicates about emergencies, and extend it that to various areas. Flooded areas, find alternative routes. Community or environmental information. SMS. | Remain Relevant Can Do | Add To | |
* MTN Foundation - We need to speak about our social investment in the country and our customers. It is not seen or known. (TV show touch people's lives) I am so proud of what we do, why can't we use that in our marketing, tell our story. | Remain Relevant Can Do | Add To | |
* We are not telling our own story in the rural/outlying areas. Education, social welfare, water infrastructure projects. They don't know about us. Using the local language. | Remain Relevant Can Do | Add To | |
* Real engagement with our customers, Real engagement with our staff. | Remain Relevant Can Do | Add To | |
* Be flexible and simplify our processes. | Remain Relevant Can Do | Add To | |
* Understand the needs of society and provide tailored solutions. E.g. Develop 'n revision app for school children before their exams. That provides a service to the community and builds goodwill with the brand. | Remain Relevant Can Do | Add To | |
* Show our customers that we care about them. Send SMS, Christmas text to appreciate the customers. We need to have a CRM system to capture customer relevant information to build their story with us and we can use that to do focused marketing. Personalised messages. | Remain Relevant Can Do | Add To | |
How can you show relevance to your customers' lives? / How can you show relevance to the world your customers live in? | Remain Relevant Seemed Like a Good Idea at the Time | Add To | |
Supporting medical services in accessing deep rural areas. | Remain Relevant Can Do | Add To | |
Supporting education and access to information in deep rural areas. | Remain Relevant Can Do | Add To | |
Canoe trasnportation for waterbased communities | Remain Relevant Can Shift | Add To | |
Sustained small-scale investment in community based entrepreneurs and organisations. | Remain Relevant Can Justify | Add To | |
Health, education and a roof over their heads are paramount to the Nigerian nation. | Remain Relevant Seemed Like a Good Idea at the Time | Add To | |
Unlimited Scholarships for targeted communities. | Remain Relevant Can Shift | Add To | |
Assisting in building decent accommodation for students at universities. | Remain Relevant Can Justify | Add To | |
Parner with customers on how to get solar energy solutions at subsidised rates | Remain Relevant Can Justify | Add To |