I will get right to the point.
I subscribe to many email lists, monthly services, and products just to understand and benefit from the “experience” each of them deliver. I also take the time to assess what separates the good experiences from the great or, better still, the unparalleled.
In light of the increasingly hands off (or automated) customer experience, there’s one trend that is on the rise.
So much so, in fact, that it is only a matter of time before companies who are not responsive to it will start to see diminishing returns.
It’s the delivery of uninterpreted data.
Allow me to explain…
You would never walk into a hospital, get an X-ray, and expect to be sent on your way with the promise that “we’ll send your X-ray as soon as it is developed.” I am confident that – for 99% of the population – an X-ray would not be sensible on its own.
It requires knowledge translation from an expert.
Data without interpretation is also useless.
Speeding is another great example to illustrate my point. We have a data source (the speedometer), but sometimes while driving we gaze past it and lose focus. In the worst scenarios, we can envision driving the 45mph speed limit in a school zone while looking down at our phone – endangering lives. If a police officer happens to pull you over, s/he’ll be more than happy to interpret the data that you overlooked and what you should have been doing with it by issuing a ticket.
This reasoning holds true in almost every aspect of the world we live in today. So many businesses are using strategies to stay “front of mind” and “add value,” yet their results show that these strategies are doing the exact opposite. They are sending out uninterpreted data and are leaving it up to their audience or customers to figure it out on their own. And, in almost every case, it won’t be translated the way you want it to be, precisely because you are not controlling the narrative.
Let’s use real estate as an example, where I’ve worked with a lot of real estate agents over my career. They’re notorious for copy/paste jobs in their communications.
A realtor always has a key takeaway in mind for those consuming their content or data – complete with a call to action – but many of them miss the mark by failing to make it personalized. Now, I’m not talking about “personalized” right down to the specifics of the reader’s street address, but, at a minimum, content and data that is reflective of the recipient’s city.
Here’s an example. In real estate, there are a lot of software and services available to agents that enable them to generate market reports or market updates to give to their past clients and subscribers. Often, the data a realtor purchases has a national scope, i.e. nation-wide averages, nation-wide trends, and nation-wide talking points. Each month, as new data is released, there is a tendency to copy and paste this national data into a broadcast email and shoot it out to their list of email subscribers.
Once again, the patient is left interpreting the X-ray…
A homeowner in Las Vegas NV and one in La Jolla, CA will both read the same data and interpret the messaging differently. Or, maybe they interpret it to mean the same thing because the national data points to trends like it’s a great time to sell. Although it may very well be a good time to sell in one city, it might be a terrible time to sell in another. Maybe it is due to drops in rates of employment because a factory is closing. Or maybe a new corporate headquarters has just announced that they’re hiring 10,000 workers in an area, so it is a great time to sell because houses are in demand.
In other words, national data is generalized and does not enable readers to understand differences that make a difference.
If a realtor is truly an expert, s/he knows the market inside and out, and knows the micro trends much more intimately than the macro view that national trends suggest.
To be clear, you can include national macro data in an email, however it should be immediately followed by an interpretation and translation of what exactly it means to homeowners in your market. In the end, you are establishing your expertise with your target market while simultaneously creating massive value for them.
And this is where most companies miss out. They provide generic data, generic customer service, and, as a result, they are shocked when they get average outcomes to show for it.
Best practice is to make sure that you give the data and offer interpretations based on your expertise in all of your engagement activities. I call this giving context to content. If you don’t make the effort to do this, you’re going to get lost in the noise of every other company trying to create value for your customers.
Interested in learning more about this, and other strategies you can implement in your business today to start generating an increase in repeat AND referral business, you can connect with me here.
To your success!
– Mark