Do business owners actually understand customer interaction?

Yes, I’m actually asking this question.  And no, the answer isn’t, “Of course they do, because customers are important!”

Everyone knows customers are important to a business. But a lot of small business owners think of themselves as being in the field they’re passionate about, and they don’t think of themselves as being in the customer service business. Coffee shop owners think of themselves as “coffee people”, restaurant owners think of themselves as “foodies”, etc. But they’re just as much in the business of taking care of customers as they are in the business of creating their product.

I ask the question “Do business owners actually understand customer interaction?” because if you look at the misuse of social media by many small businesses, you’d think that they really don’t know how to talk with their customers. Most businesses seem clueless about good use of social media. Anyone looked at Fair Trade Cafe’s Twitter lately? Even places like Postino Wine Cafe (which is a great restaurant, BTW) can’t figure out how to use Twitter and Facebook effectively.

If you’re a business owner, shouldn’t connecting with customers be second nature to you? Really, customers are in your place all the time. Do you talk with them to see how they feel about your business? Do you get to know the regulars? If you don’t, you probably need to. If you do, then how come social media is so difficult to understand?

Social media is just a way to interact with your customers. That’s all it is. It’s not an advertising medium and it’s not a one-way broadcast channel. It’s a way to stay in touch with your customers when they’re not at your business. It’s a way to become a part of their lives even when they’re not doing business with you.

Isn’t this the holy grail of business? Big businesses spend millions on advertising so that they can be a part of their target audience’s everyday lives. Small business owners can now do this for free. Why is this so difficult to figure out?

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  • http://chrisconrey.com/ Chris Conrey

    Connecting with customers is one thing – and I'm sure that they do a good job of it in some manner or they wouldn't be in business. Not every business owner needs to be using Twitter/Facebook/Google Buzz whatever to connect online. Yes it can certainly help but certain people just aren't Social Media people. Give them time to learn, offer to help them out, but social media is a lot harder to understand to the average joe than we give it credit for.

  • http://www.phxrailfood.com David Bickford

    Most traditional advertising is a one-way broadcast, so it's not surprising that many businesses approach social media in the same way. The more interactive and conversational approach takes time and a certain amount of learning. Not all business owners and staff have the time or inclination for that. In fact, I see an awful lot of “Twitter quitters” among restaurants. Many establishments open accounts, tweet like mad for a week or two, and then forget about the medium when they don't see immediate results. Only a select few stick with it and gain maximum value from the buzz that effective social media use can generate.

  • http://matthewpetro.wordpress.com Matthew Petro

    I agree that not everyone needs to have a social media presence, but if a business wants to use social media, it is really that hard to figure out? For someone which a reasonable level of computer and Internet literacy, it shouldn't be all that difficult to figure out the mechanics of actually interacting with Facebook, Twitter, etc. Or am I assuming an average level of computer literacy which is too high?

  • http://matthewpetro.wordpress.com Matthew Petro

    Also, I'd be happy to sit down with any business owner who's curious about social media and do my best to explain how to have conversations instead of just broadcasting.

  • http://matthewpetro.wordpress.com Matthew Petro

    That's a good point that many businesses approach social media as another advertising medium, but really, do many business owners think that people want to voluntarily read advertising? Social media is an opt-in medium. We're all bombarded with advertising 24/7 now…I'm pretty sure no one wants to opt-in to seeing MORE ads.

    I get frustrated with the Twitter quitter types. I saw that Jay Baer recently said that many businesses approach SM like it's a unicorn, but it's really just a horse. SM isn't magic, people! You have to use it consistently and keep improving at it to actually achieve value from it.

  • http://chrisconrey.com/ Chris Conrey

    I think you are assuming too high a literacy level – but beyond that you are asusming that it is easy for others to understand the concepts and the time involved in using SM “properly”.

  • http://tdhurst.com tdhurst

    Most businesses equate advertising to paying for ad space and have zero idea what marketing is.

  • http://wesleytech.com WesleyTech

    I'd like to point out that one of the businesses you mentioned in your post, Postino, has 969 followers on Twitter (http://twitter.com/PostinoWineCafe ). That's just about a THOUSAND customers or potential customers who have subscribed to their one-way Twitter feed. Now if you're a business owner, and you're looking at your Twitter follower count, and you see near 1,000 followers, you might think, “hey we're doing a great job!”.

    So yeah, broadcast-only mode does work for some businesses. We might not like it, as active social media users/enthusiasts, but if that method works for that business, they're going to keep doing it.

  • http://tdhurst.com tdhurst

    Does it though? And how many of those followers are spam? They don't interact, and that makes their efforts far less useful.

  • http://chrisconrey.com/ Chris Conrey

    This is the same mindset for Super Bowl (or any commercials) one way impressions. If none of them buy something though, its useless.

  • http://wesleytech.com WesleyTech

    I agree, interaction would be much better for building their brand awareness/reputation/customer loyalty. I'm just pointing out the perception that many of these business owners might be looking from.

  • http://wesleytech.com WesleyTech

    yep, who knows if any of their followers are actually paying attention to them.

  • http://matthewpetro.wordpress.com Matthew Petro

    But do they know if it's actually helping their business? Clickthrough rates for links posted on Twitter are usually extremely low compared to the number of followers, because people on Twitter generally only see something if they happen to be looking at the time it's posted. The same is true for advertising tweets…if Postino sends out a tweet about a daily special, it probably is seen only by a few people. That probably doesn't really do anything significant to attract new customers or encourage repeat business.

    I suppose that from the business perspective, maybe Postino's Twitter effort is worth it. Twitter costs no money and they don't have to put more than a moment's effort into it. But there's almost 1,000 people who might see what they tweet. The return on investment may be small, but so is the investment, so in that sense, Postino and other businesses with similar SM use may think it's a win. But they could do much more to connect with customers on social media.

  • http://matthewpetro.wordpress.com Matthew Petro

    Exactly. Interacting is the point of SM. If you're not interacting, why bother with SM?

    Maybe some businesses don't really see the need to put the effort into growing their customer interactions via social media. Postino certainly isn't hurting for customers, so there isn't really any pressure to connect with more via SM.

    On the other hand, I look at businesses like Liberty Market, which also seems to have plenty of customers, but also does an excellent job of connecting with new and returning customers on Twitter.

    So, I'm still left wondering why some business just don't get social media.

  • http://matthewpetro.wordpress.com Matthew Petro

    Damn. Home computers and the internet have been around for 25+ years and they're still a mystery to most people?

    Will social media be misunderstood by business owners until the kids who are growing up with social media today become business owners?

  • http://tdhurst.com tdhurst

    Social media success requires that you have excellent communication skills, a fairly solid idea of who you are and a willingness to accept criticism from others in a public setting. Most businesses fail at the first, do decently at the second and run screaming from the third.

    Businesses are inherently not human. They are manufactured.

  • http://www.thesociallatte.com Jack Smith

    Although there are plenty of examples of poor social media use by businesses, there are even more examples of poor marketing decisions by businesses. Being a business owner who knows how to perform a service and/or create a product AND how to effectively market said product or service is a combination that is few and far between.

    Until we start doing a better job of educating entrepreneurs in general on ALL the basic skills it takes to run a business, we'll continue to see the very sad failure rates of people brave enough to take on the entrepreneurial challenge.

  • http://matthewpetro.wordpress.com Matthew Petro

    But businesses are ultimately built and run by people. Small business owners are especially connected to what happens in their business. Are small business owners just afraid of having their dream criticized publicly?

  • http://tdhurst.com tdhurst

    You know the answer to that. People are much more likely to avoid harm by hiding than they are to receive praise by being open.

  • http://matthewpetro.wordpress.com Matthew Petro

    I agree that business owners often are good at what they do, but lack the attendant skills to market a business effectively. But do people business owners need to learn all of these skills? Entrepreneurs have their hands full every day providing the good or service which is their business' core skill. Learning marketing and other skills is a lot to add. Should those of us who have those skills be offering to help them DO some of it, rather than offering to TEACH it?

    Granted, there's only so much an external resource can do. CPAs can handle taxes and bookkeeping, marketing experts can tailor print and online advertising, web designers can make the website look good, but social media is one thing which requires an authenticity which can't be generated by a 3rd party.

    A good entrepreneur knows their weaknesses and builds a team of supporting players who compensate for those weaknesses. But social media interaction really needs to come from the heart of the business to work well. This is where a small business owner needs to understand that they have to interact with customers via social media in a real and authentic way.

  • Greggo

    Matt, what I'm missing is a concrete simple example of a small businessman using SM to “get to know the regulars”. What use of Twitter, for example, equates to relating to one's customers on the same level as if they were in the store?

  • http://matthewpetro.wordpress.com Matthew Petro

    Joe Johnston (@realjoe) and his use of Twitter with Liberty Market (@libertymarket) is the best example in the Valley. Sure, Twitter doesn't allow the same level of interaction as a face-to-face conversation in the restaurant, but he uses it very well to keep in touch with regulars. He'll often comment when I tweet about having been at Liberty, thank me for recommending the restaurant to others on Twitter and sometimes respond when I'm tweeting about coffee.

    He doesn't carry on long interactions on Twitter, but he does make sure to stay in touch and keep up on what's going on with frequent visitors.

    Now, I realize that not everyone has the time to do what Joe does. He's fortunate in that he has operating partners in his restaurants, so he doesn't have the day-to-day pressure and busy-ness that many small business owners have to cope with. But, other small business owners do make this work. Lara Hardwick at Petit Fromage (@petitfromageaz) and Helen Yung & Jan Wichayanuparp at Sweet Republic (@SweetRepublic) are good examples who come to mind.

  • Greggo

    Matt, what I'm missing is a concrete simple example of a small businessman using SM to “get to know the regulars”. What use of Twitter, for example, equates to relating to one's customers on the same level as if they were in the store?

  • http://matthewpetro.wordpress.com Matthew Petro

    Joe Johnston (@realjoe) and his use of Twitter with Liberty Market (@libertymarket) is the best example in the Valley. Sure, Twitter doesn't allow the same level of interaction as a face-to-face conversation in the restaurant, but he uses it very well to keep in touch with regulars. He'll often comment when I tweet about having been at Liberty, thank me for recommending the restaurant to others on Twitter and sometimes respond when I'm tweeting about coffee.

    He doesn't carry on long interactions on Twitter, but he does make sure to stay in touch and keep up on what's going on with frequent visitors.

    Now, I realize that not everyone has the time to do what Joe does. He's fortunate in that he has operating partners in his restaurants, so he doesn't have the day-to-day pressure and busy-ness that many small business owners have to cope with. But, other small business owners do make this work. Lara Hardwick at Petit Fromage (@petitfromageaz) and Helen Yung & Jan Wichayanuparp at Sweet Republic (@SweetRepublic) are good examples who come to mind.

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