Listen, Learn and Leverage

How good are you at listening to your audience?

Sure, I know it sounds backwards. The audience is supposed to listen to you, right? When you’re in a sales position or any role where you’re seeking to earn trust so people will “buy” whatever it is that you’re selling – real estate, mortgages, insurance, dreams – it’s critical that you understand your customer.

I was checking out Chris Brogan’s latest vehicle called Owner. It’s a hybrid newsletter/blog/website with content from Chris and Rob Hatch and a bunch of other really smart people. Here’s how Chris describes Owner on the About page of the site:

OWNER is a digital magazine dedicated to covering the business curriculum for your future. You might be the owner of a business, or just the owner of your cubicle with a lot of goals and intentions. We are for you. Our goal is to help you with insight, instruction, interviews, innovation, and interesting perspectives that will be helpful for your intentions. This isn’t small biz versus big. This is old perspectives versus new. This is a gathering point for all those reinvented wheels, those people who were called crazy. This is the carnival of freaks and those who don’t quite fit in.

So I was checking out a recent issue from last week and I happened across an article by Chris on customer loyalty programs and as many of my readers here at Carp’s Corner know, I love to spotlight companies and service providers that just seem to “get it.” People that find a way to amplify great service into something more – a memorable experience.

While scrolling through the comments on one of the articles, I came a upon a video link from a freelance copywriter and text editor from Amsterdam named Geertje van Berlo. I don’t know Geertje but I am now connected to her on Twitter  because she is obviously someone who recognizes corporate awesomeness when she sees it.

Check out the video below that Geertje shared. It’s a great example of a company going above and beyond taking a customers money in exchange for a service. It’s about listening, learning and then leveraging that information.

Click here if you don’t see the video

Thanks to Geertje and the awesome people at KLM for showing how social media can be used to build relationships, solve problems and have fun.