I didn’t participate in the first customer love challenge.
And I hesitated to join this time.
Partly because I’m not in the desperate situation of needing to make a large sum of money in a short period of time that Naomi described in the post that spawned this challenge. Partly because I’m an introvert and I tend to watch from the sidelines first before joining in.
But mainly because there was something that didn’t quite sit right with me about this whole “make customers love you” project. Something that seemed a bit off. Manipulative, even. Let’s use love as a marketing strategy. We’ll just fake being nice for 30 days … then BOOM, let ’em have it between the eyes.
I worried that if I joined the challenge, people would question my motives and my sincerity. Is she being nice and helpful because she’s a nice and helpful person? Or because she’s just discovered that faking being nice and helpful is a great way to market herself?
I was a afraid that the challenge would attract desperate people looking to make a quick buck and end in a mass orgy of launches on the final day. That this happy love fest would turn into a crowded marketplace overnight, with choruses of, “Buy, buy, buy!!”
(Can you tell I was raised by cynics?)
But that’s not what happened
As I watched the first #customerlove challenge unfold, I was seeing something else.
These weren’t a bunch of people glomming onto the marketing strategy du jour in an attempt to manipulate people into buying stuff. Hell, some of the challengers completely *forgot* the marketing and selling parts and just focused on the love. And they were loving indiscriminately. Loving each other instead of their customers.
I watched a community spring up around an idea. People helping and supporting each other.
This was something I wanted to be a part of.
I’m an idealist. One of my favourite questions is: “What if *everyone* did this?”
And I think a world where we all chose to market ourselves by being radically helpful and kind would be groovy.
What would it look like if we *really* loved our customers?
I immediately thought in terms of things we would *stop* doing:
- Selling products that hurt customers (tobacco, anyone?)
- Using persuasive tactics to try to convince people to buy things they can’t afford, don’t need or won’t help them
- Withholding information about goods and services that CAN help them. (Twist this around enough and you arrive at something that looks like “you can love your customer by selling them something.”)
What if we all adopted a vendetta of virtue?
We would create a virtuous spiral, as we all join together to support each other’s efforts. Where we love not only our customers, but our suppliers, partners and peers – and everyone else we come in contact with.
That’s a movement I can get behind.
The other day, @PaceSmith said this on Twitter:
Connection is not a tactic. Love is not a strategy.
~ Pace Smith
And I couldn’t agree more. I don’t see #customerlove as a strategy or a tactic … it’s a way of “being” in business.
And it can change the world.
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[…] This post was mentioned on Twitter by LaVonne Ellis, Customer Love. Customer Love said: Day 10: Cynical About Customer Love? – http://is.gd/gTpK8 #customerlove […]
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*Applause*
Somebody was saying on the twitters that Customer Love sometimes seems to be as much about loving your peers as loving your customers. And I think that’s amazing: I’m having more fun giving and receiving help from my Customer Love friends than I ever would as a hard-headed soloist.
It’s renewed my determination to do good work, and knowing I can ask someone for help with the bits I find tedious and they find fun (and vice versa) makes it that much easier to function.
Thanks, Colin. Isn’t it nice to have some community? Barbara Sher says that “isolation is the dream killer.” I couldn’t agree more.
Absolutely agree, Patty. One of my concerns before I started was just how I was going to love on my people any more than I already do. I already try to be super-kind, generous & giving. Because I genuinely do want to help people. And I didn’t want people to look at that and feel all cynical. Of course it would be great to sell stuff – it’s exciting to me when people buy stuff. But it’s even more exciting when we get to work together or when they write me to say how much they love the art they bought.
I was thinking about it yesterday in the bath and the phrase, ‘I want to be ‘a gentle light in the world’ came into my mind. I want to inspire people and when I die, I want people to say, ‘what a mensch, she made a real difference in my life’.
And those are very different things to saying ‘I want to make a lot of money’ or ‘I want to be famous’. When I was younger, I wanted to be famous to spite the people who’d been mean to me in high school. While that ‘just you wait, I’ll show you’ energy got me started, it was not enough to sustain me in the long-term, for which I’m very grateful because it’s a STUPID reason to do anything.
Oh. I hear you. I went through the “just you wait, I’ll show you” stage for years – keeping my focus on how I’d been “wronged” when I was younger. Like you say, it might provide some energy, but at the same time, it’s an awfully dark and negative place to be. Letting go of that and adopting the intention to help and inspire was life changing for me.
I love what you say about being a “gentle light” – the world needs more light…thanks for bringing some.
Patty, I’ve found myself sitting on the sidelines (again), but I am following customer love with interest. Congratulations for joining the 2nd time and to everyone else, you guys are offering such wonderful things!
Hi Thanh…I’m glad you’re following along. Feel free to join in any time. Actually, by commenting, I think you have. 🙂 (As a blogger, comments always make me feel loved. Thank you.)
So appreciate this post Patty! You’ve spoken the words that were niggling at the back of my mind, unclear and foggy. As others have shared, I’ve wondered what this might look like as I already love my peeps a whole lot. Between your post and this one by Jonathan Fields http://www.jonathanfields.com/blog/morning-friends-who-can-i-help-today/ I am inspired as I start my day and move forward with my own customer love.
Thanks, Sandi. I wondered if others were having the same thoughts. And I *love* that post from Jonathan Fields. Thanks for sharing it.
I’m a carbon copy of you Patty, although I didn’t follow the last #customerlove challenge at all. I’m not quite sure why I jumped in this time, I havent’ even got customers, but I am enjoying the camaraderie, and as Colin says, being able to help others.
I love it that you joined in even though you don’t have any customers. Camaraderie and helping others feels good. So glad you are here.