To paraphrase Merriam-Webster, communication is an exchange of information.
At times; however, businesses put the communication cart before the horse.
The Communication Journey
The horse leads the cart. Imagine the horse as business communication to customers and the cart contains your product or service. You developed that product or service by finding out what your customers wanted.
The Expected
Customers see that horse coming down the road and they know it carries your product or service.
Your customers like what’s in the cart. Sure, they might change a few things, but overall, they like knowing your cart has what they want.
The Unexpected
Then one day, your customers see the horse coming down the road. Your customers wait until the cart pulls up. They look inside and the contents changed.
What happened here? Where are the contents they loved? Why did you change this?
- Some customers applaud the change
- Some scream, but adjust to the change
- Others take their business elsewhere
Changing the Journey
The horse in our story has very special powers. It is a talking horse. On this journey, the horse carries the content to its customers.
Along the way, the horse asks the customers what they think about the contents of the cart.
The customers tell the horse they really like what’s in the cart.
Some offer ideas for changes to the cart. Some need prompting from the horse on what they would change.
In the end, some of the contents change, but the customers knew about the changes because all along the way, the horse communicated with them.
The moral of the story? Use the talking end of the horse if you don’t want customers kicking you in the other end.
Taking a Different Path
A previous post described unannounced changes made by LinkedIn® and Facebook. Users simply logged in and discovered the “overnight” change.
Since that post, additional changes occurred – some in apparent response to customer outcries. Here are a few examples.
LinkedIn®
Dramatically changed the layout of Group discussions – Initially the change eliminated the News tab.
That change mixed promotions, news articles, blog postings in with discussions. Customers hated it. Recently, LinkedIn® added a Promotions tab.
Eliminated edit features in Comments – This change still exists. In the past, Comments had an edit feature that allowed a limited time for editing your comment before posting. It was especially nice for correcting typos.
As we all know, you find typos only after you hit the Submit button. Now your choices are leaving the typo, adding another comment correcting the typo or deleting the comment and starting over.
Added another security layer to sign-in – After signing in with your username and password, a second security screen popped up, asking for a confirmation of a Captcha image.
I complained about this to customer service, who referred me to an article about occasional verification. When I wrote back that this was not “occasional,” but occurred each time I signed on – even multiple times a day – customer service responded that it was a new procedure.
This annoying change has suddenly gone away. Please don’t let LinkedIn® know that.
Removed badges on Profiles – I posted a Donate button on my Facebook profile for the 3-Day, 60-mile Walk for Breast Cancer.
Several contributors used the button for their donations. Unannounced, the Donate buttons disappeared. Only a posting from the 3-Day advised us of the change.
Clearing the Path
In the above examples, the businesses put the communication cart before the horse.
With LinkedIn® and Facebook’s ingenuity, I bet they could make that horse talk. If the old mare is mute, there are several available tools:
- Online surveys
- Tweets
- Posts on walls, home pages
- Emails
- Focus groups
In the case of LinkedIn,® communication on the changes occurred AFTER the change – cart before horse syndrome. With the Facebook change, there was NO communication.
Technology changes happen with mind-blowing speed and regularity. It waits for no man – sometimes not even the customer.
What do you think about communication and changes in product and services?
i-Stock Photo Credit: TomasSkopat
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Cathy,
I get so irritated when change takes place with no communication! I can deal with anything as long as I know what it is I’m dealing with but I feel disrespected when there is no notification. In addition, with technology being such a large part of what actually changes, I waste time and productivity trying to figure out if I did something that instigated the change or if my computer is broken. Then I’m even more frustrated when I find out that a change occurred on their end and they just forgot to let me know. This article is great advice for how to treat your customers! Thanks!
PS. Going back to previous typo conversations, the removal of the edit button on comments particularly annoys me. I just thought they moved it but it is gone and I NEED that! 🙂
Hi Jen:
I am right there with you on the Edit button.
As a writer, my credibility takes a hit with typos. We all do them, but it is even more prevalent on Comments where you don’t usually have the opportunity to proof like you would on a written document. So, I really appreciated that Edit feature.
I know the number of users is huge, but I have seen no evidence of these social media platforms attempting to get feedback before changing features that users liked.
I didn’t even think about the loss of productivity that occurs as a result. Good point!
Thanks for stopping by, Jen!