Recently, I wrote about the need to shift our thinking to a place that aligns with the “new” digital customer.

Here are some things we should have in place, to connect with them on their level.

Sit back and enjoy the ride
We have always been told to be in “control”. In today’s selling environment we need to let the customer do the driving, and have the good sense to sit quietly in the back seat, along for the ride.

Celebrate and respect the consumer
Everyone appreciates “recognition” and praise, it’s fundamental to our self-worth. We also want to be respected for who we are and what we think. The new “social order”, empowered with tools like “share it”, has created such an avenue for expression and needs to be incorporated in all our online communications.

Encourage engagement
If you current site does not ask the visitor to suggest, “ways to improve” or at the very least to fill out a survey, you will miss a golden opportunity, until now, unavailable. Remember, they can tell you the truth because their anonymous.

Facilitate connection
Remove any and all” required fields” on any “submission” link or form. This environment is meant to be an “open” source of information, not a place to “capture” it.

Be open and honest
In today’s economy, one of the prerequisites for success is transparency. The customer already knows as much, or has access to, everything we know. Let’s not try and kid ourselves any longer.

Listen and learn
Our newest “listening device” in this evolving ecosystem is analytics. They “hear” everything the on-line customer is saying about their web experience. Their lessons are invaluable.

Experiment
Have the nerve to try any approach that is supported by the math. Failure to change your on-line process will only result in the same numbers you are currently experiencing. Don’t like the math, do the opposite.

Activate and engage only where it makes sense
Ask the customer, at hello:  how, when and at what pace they would like to be contacted. The number one reason customers fail to connect with us, is that we are always on our agenda, not theirs.

Understand the relation between content and context
One of the quickest ways to have customers “bounce” is to direct them to irrelevant content or to take their intentions out of context. Site design, as well as, “sales “process must be dictated by the questions customers ask, not by
some “steering” methodology.

Most of all, Entertain, have your site be a place people can have fun, get information, interact, play, and have a reason to return, to buy. In the end if you follow any or all of this advise, one’s thing’s for sure, something’s going to change.