How listening your clients can change your company

...if you have customers, they can help you. If you’re in a consumer service business— like a restaurant chain—you can ask for suggestions, or set up a private community. If you sell to businesses, your customers may have suggestions on how to improve your processes, your pricing, your billing, or your services.

Have you ever thought about how much depends on people’s perception of your brand? Not only their personal opinion, but also your sales, popularity and even reputation.

Here I’m going to show you examples which I found really interesting. It's about of how some companies changed the brand perception by listening to customers. 

Harley-Davidson knows how to improve image

What do people know about this brand today? Probably, the fact that this brand is the most popular in the field of motorcycles. But 32 years ago, in 1985, the company's debts exceeded $ 90 million. It was literally bankrupt. 

All of this because in those years the company lost the confidence of consumers. Harley-Davidson could not produce quality motorcycles. And at some point, customers realized this and forgot about the brand.

Then the company realized that the level of quality needed to be raised. But they have improved not only the quality of products! The second most important problem was the relationship with consumers, or rather, the lack of this connection. The company has developed an advertising campaign. It was told that monthly payments for motorcycles are less than regular purchases of coffee for a month. It's less than buying cigarettes too. And even less than regular purchases of alcohol.

As a result, the campaign paid off - 40% of consumers became people aged 18 to 34 years.

The quality of products does not come first. The consumer puts much more importance on being listened to and understood.

The company reacted to the customers' discontent and gave them what they wanted:

• Attention, communication
• Quality
• Reduced cost

Promotion of corporate image: McDonald's

Try to remember what associations you had with fast food. "A lot of calories," "obesity," "disease" - am I right? That's what many thought before. “Many” is the key word. And after Morgan Spurlock made the documentary "Super Size Me", Americans began to consider fast food as the main cause of obesity.

I wonder what it's like when your brand is associated with obesity and poor health. It is clear that after that movie, sales of McDonald's fell at times. But the company found a way out of the situation.The promotion of corporate image has changed. The brand has become socially oriented. The company did not advertise products with more than 400 calories. Salads, diet food, fruits, yogurts were added. There was McCafe, because consumers wanted coffee. Moreover, the company published all the changes, issued press releases.McDonald's took several years to change the image of the company  in the eyes of consumers. Now the profit is annually increased by 5%.

You need to listen to consumers. You need to show that yes, you agree with the audience. You need to know what people think of you. It is necessary to engage in positioning and promoting the corporate image, taking into the opinions of clients.

These examples show that companies listen to the customer's opinion. And this applies to the Internet. Monitoring reputation and customer's reviews on the Internet are important components. Without it, you will not know what people think of your company. And this means that you will not be able to adapt to the consumer.