This is the fourth email in our data mining series. The first was about
Data Mining Your Newsletter
, the second about
Data Mining your Website and the third about
Customer Relationship Management (CRM).
This week we will focus on social media CRM, building relationships and how you can be ahead of the curve.
Private Club Scenario:
A member referred a friend to the club. You have a meeting set up for 5pm tomorrow to give the membership 'pitch' to this potential new member.
Past: You greet the guest who is seated in your waiting area at precisely 5pm, offer coffee, tea or water, give a tour, explain the benefits of membership, hand them a glossy package and hope they join.
Future: The day before your meeting you do some research on your guest. You start with a basic google search then try Facebook and Twitter. What do they like? What do they do for work? What do they do for fun? If the 'great and mighty internet' fails you... you call the member that made the referral and ask! Gary V might call this 'Hustle'.
For the meeting you greet your guest at the door with their beverage of choice in hand. You show them the part of the facility that you know they should see first based on what you have learned about them (If you do not know, then ask them what they would like to see first). You treat your customers as individuals because you know that they are not all the same.
After a tour you invite your guest a) to your office with a closed door, b) to your club's lounge for a beer, c) to the putting green for a few putts etc. based on your growing knowledge. You answer questions about the club and ask them what they would like to get out of being a member? What would make them happy to be here?
We hope by now you get the point. What do they want? Not what do you want.
Finally, you offer to send them more information on whatever platform they choose (print, email, social, text, mailed to their door, whatever). After they leave you use their platform of choice to THANK them for visiting. You continue to use their platform of choice for follow-up communication. You might even comment on a social media post of theirs that is relevant to golf or something else that you discussed.
No this is not stalking. This is customer service in the Thank You economy.
Customers want authenticity, originality, creativity, honesty. Give it to them and you will be ahead of the curve.
The same principals work for booking weddings, banquets or golf tournaments at any public facility. To push the envelope even further, public golf courses could start using CRM software to collect data on every public golfer that visits their course. This will be the norm for big brands in the not-so-distant future.
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