Your Customers Want To Be Co-Creators

As marketing experts in fine jewelry, we’ve noticed several key points time and again when talking to clients, and while doing research. Below are items to take note of, digest, and consider for the future welfare of your business. 1.Your customers are chameleons. As noted by research firm Ernst & Young, today’s consumers are very difficult to pin down. For example, they may like to shop online but also demand the human touch and personalized service. They trust their friends and family and continually seek their recommendations. Conversely, they don't hesitate to share a bad experience with not just those friends, but the whole world. Just like a decades-old Burger King campaign, they want to have it their way, but it’s way more than just a burger they’re talking about. 2. Your customers want to have it all — and they can. The web has reshaped all that we do. The majority of people are now going online for at least the first part of their shopping experience (at the minimum to check you out and compare prices). Now, more than ever before (and we can’t say it enough), you must have a robust website featuring product and price. Your customers are coming into your store armed with knowledge, so the bar to meet their expectations is positioned at an even higher level. If you don’t offer what they want, they can — and will — just speed right past you if you don’t pass muster. Which leads me to my next point: 3. The recession that everyone wants to sweep under the rug has changed your customers’ buying behavior. Lots of people lost lots of money, their jobs, and their consumer credit during our economic recession. And although there are visible signs that we are bouncing back, many learned a hard lesson. Bargain hunting is the new normal for even the upper-class. Don’t believe it? Go shopping and take notice of the shops closing their doors. Take a look at your inbox to see the messages retailers are sending out. Look at the sheer number of retailers who appear to constantly be running a sale. Guess what? Wealthier shoppers love good deals, too, and consider saving money as just good sense. According to a 2011 study by Yahoo and Universal McCann, 60% of consumers felt that getting a better price than other people made them feel like winners. This feeling is still very much alive and well today. 4. If you want to innovate or change your business for the better, invest in input from your best customers. We’ve been recommending advisory boards for our clients for years. People love to share their opinions and provide feedback. Your customers can sometimes be the best generators of new ideas and insight into your business. They’re in your backyard and they want to collaborate with you. They want to be your partners and they want you to listen to them. Tapping into their thoughts and ideas helps build that much-desired and equally hard-to-come-by loyalty. 5. You need to speak in your customers’ language. You know what makes a jeweler appear less intimidating? When your language emulates a conversational tone you’d have with a friend. Think social, informal and non-elitist. You don’t want to be the snobby one. Aren’t your real friends real, without pretense? Your website language, marketing messages, invitations, radio scripts and email messages should all reflect a style of dialogue that can show you know your stuff but speak in a way your customers can relate to. You have to make people want to shop with you. 6. Increased interest in custom design is not a trend but, rather, confirmation of your customers’ desire to own something nobody else has, that’s still within their style and price parameters. We already know your millennial customers want it, as do your more affluent customers. If you know your market, look at your customer data, find out that your customer data supports custom jewelry as a profitable niche, and still turn your back on it, you are losing a very important and lucrative source of revenue. Your customers today aren’t just looking for service, they’re looking for an experience. They want to research online, come in and get what they want without hassle and pressure, and be wowed by the experience in the meantime. They want to have it all. Are you ready? The jewelry marketing experts are always ready to help you when you’re ready for a change of plans. Send a note to suits@fruchtman.com and we’ll get back to you stat.