Everyone in online marketing is talking about the same thing. Conversational marketing. It's March 2018, and some people are saying it could be as big a shift as the internet itself. One definition doing the rounds calls it a feedback oriented approach to driving customer engagement.
I read that and think, hang on. That's just listening.
Good salespeople have always done this
Strip away the jargon and conversational marketing means spending less time shouting buy my stuff and more time listening to your customers. The best salespeople have done that forever. They ask a good question, then they shut up and listen to the answer.
Often the difference between winning and losing a deal isn't the product at all. It's the quality of the questions, and how well you listen to what comes back. Would you rather buy from someone who listens to what you want, or someone who just wants to sell you what they've got?
So the conversation wasn't new. What was new was where it was happening. Messaging apps had more users than the big social networks, and a whole generation preferred a message to a phone call. If that's where people are, that's where you need to be.
My worry about bots
I'll be honest. In 2018 I was sceptical about chatbots. Too many marketers wanted to automate everything.
You know the feeling when you ring a business and get a machine reading out a list of options, and the one you want isn't on it? A lot of bots felt like that. Pick from these answers. But what if all you want is a real person to hear you?
Where I could see them working was at the front door. I spent over twenty years in IT, and the best support teams I saw had a clear split. The person answering the call didn't fix the problem. Their job was to get you to the right person, fast. A well built bot could do that job, as long as it was upfront about being a bot.
The bots look like toys now
Reading this back now, the bots I was worried about look like toys. These days I spend a lot of time talking to businesses about AI and what's actually working. The tools can hold a decent conversation. Some can pass for a person.
My view hasn't changed much, though. Use the tech to get people to the right place quicker and to free up your time. Don't use it to avoid talking to them. Be honest when someone's talking to software. And remember that brand loyalty works like a friendship. Friends listen, and they tell you the truth even when it's awkward. No software does that for you.
It's the same reason Marketing earns you the conversation still matters, and why a community beats a list.
Next time a customer gets in touch, before you reach for an answer or a link, ask them one more question about what they need. Then stop and listen properly to the reply.
First published March 2018.
