SUBSCRIBERS RULE!

Addressing the problem of relevance

According to this short clip from consumer data wiz Andreas Weigend, former Chief Scientist for Amazon, the answer does not lie in smarter algorithms—he believes we have reached the ceiling there. Instead, Weigend believes the answer lies in smart incentives to encourage people to provide information about themselves. That by providing critical information that allows companies to help address questions the consumer has they allow those companies to serve them better. This allows companies to reward the attention of their consumers more richly and disappoint them less.

It doesn’t take much imagination to see how this philosophy has been baked into Amazon’s platform. For those concerned about privacy—this is only an issue when it is used inappropriately. If data collection is transparent and used in clearly relevant ways, then it becomes the basis for customer loyalty. Moreover, the loyalty is not based on rewards systems that cost the company money, it is based on the fact that customer’s are prone to transact more with the companies that serve them best!

Get out and LISTEN!

Innovation comes through listening to your customers. Richard Branson shares that if you get out and talk to your customers “there are lots of free and innovative ideas that will come from them.”

Similarly, BusinessWeek ran an article summarizing a panel titled The Business of Design featuring Jeanne Liedtka from the Darden Graduate School of Business at the University of Virginia. According to BusinessWeek,

“Supremely articulate, she outlined a three year study assessing managers who had been able to grow revenue in a slow market. She described these managers as ’smiling subversives’ who were able to quietly work around an organizational system in order to get stuff done. And she criticized corporate cultures that have made systems out of bad habits. Too often executives only want to hear about ‘big ideas’, she explained, which instantly commits an organization to making reckless bets that are unlikely to pay off. Instead, she said, executives ‘need to unlearn. The first thing a manager should do is leave the building and talk to a customer.’”

SubscribersRule! is the premise that your customers know best how to evolve your brand. Make a commitment to get out of the office this week and gather information from the trenches!