You never call. You don’t respond.

Are you breaking up with your customers?

Often, social media is overwhelming, but each contact is a potential customer—directly or indirectly—

• Even silent readers of blogs are potential customers
• Those lurking in the background hold marketing power
• Those who speak up deserve a response
• Peers are potential customers, too
• Referrals mean potential customers

Everyone has customer potential.

5 Ways to Lose Your Potential

#1 – Create a blasting impression

Whatever kind of business communication you produce, the last thing customers want is being blasted – literally or figuratively.

Blasting takes many forms.

• Talking heads or sound – these auditory irritants activate upon access
• Floating boxes – there was a reason God invented pop-up blockers – these second cousins are equally annoying
• Ad Explosion – an overpopulation of ads blast viewers with confusion – where do they look first?
• Design disasters – both online and printed communication lose the message in poor design

#2 -Navigate nightmares

I have a recurring nightmare of being lost – in airports, on the road. Dream analysts would have a field day.

It’s like websites that have no clear path for finding what you’re looking for, except, unlike my dream, you wouldn’t keep searching.

Websites or documents that have long downloading times also chase off potential customers.

#3 – Construct a web of obstruction

Remember the road trip where construction funneled rush hour traffic into one lane? Hardly a pleasant experience.

Here are a few ways of obstructing potential customers.

• No contact information – or – it’s well-hidden
• Commenting on blogs is difficult – e.g.,requires registration, unreadable CAPTCHA
• No RSS feed button or email sign-up option for blog subscription
• No Call to Action on marketing communication

Copyblogger had a good post on blog subscriptions. Don’t assume all readers sign up by RSS.

A Call to Action can be as simple as your statement to contact you for more information, then adding your contact information.

An effective Call to Action offers something for free – a consultation, a free report/white paper.

#4 – Silence your potential

We all want to be heard, to be validated.

There are three ways of silencing the voice of a potential customer.

• No response – If someone takes the time to communicate, they deserve a response -even if it’s just thanking them for their comments.
• Slow response – Although not always a deal-breaker, a slow response can be as deadly as no response. Wait too long and that potential customer moves on.
• Bad response – A less than professional response loses more than the customer you respond to. People love to share – good and bad.

In researching a technical issue, I found a good blog post on the topic. The post was six months old, but I had a question so I posted it in comments.

Silence.

Here’s a few suggestions for blog posts –

• If you keep Comments open on a post, prepare to respond to late-comers
• Close comments on old posts
• Add a note on how you can be reached for questions

Silence is contagious. Your silence silences your customer.

#5 -Losing You

It’s not a new idea. Focus on the “you” in business communication.

Nothing slams a door faster than a customer struggling for the answer to —

What’s in it for me?

We enjoy sharing experiences, and that takes more than “I.”

Evaluate Your Potential

Here are 5 questions for evaluating your potential.

1. Does your business communication blast a first impression?
2. Is your business communication a maze or a well-marked path?
3. Does your business communication weave a web of access or obstruction?
4. Does your business communication silence potential?
5. Is your business communication you-centric?

The potential for customers is everywhere. How do you create potential?

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