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Introducing Customer Think

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Uh-oh I’ve Been Thinking Again

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What happens when you cross thinking outside of the box with personal branding?

Customer Think–a series that takes Brand YOU outside the box to become Brand YOU & ME. We’ve let the world know who we really are and how to see the unique value we bring as individuals. It’s time that we do the same in return. We’ll be getting to know customers in a strategic, deep thinking way–from an outside-of-the-box, inside-of-the-customer perspective. So hang on.

You’ll be finding out plenty about customers, by finding out more about yourself. That’s the Brand YOU and ME part.

And just about everyone in our lives is a customer in some way, if you tilt your head to look at it from just the right angle. This isn’t your father’s business skills class, it’s life and business for the 21st century in that uniquely Liz way.

You know there will be nothing like it anywhere else.

Brand YOU and ME–can you think of a more natural way to promote your business, your brand, or yourself, than being able to think like your customers?

–ME “Liz” Strauss

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Watch What You’re Doing

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Quick Hit

I don’t expect I ever will be chosen for a focus group. For better or worse, my answers skew the curve . Even so, one skill that fast tracked me through publishing was my ability to watch myself. I don’t mean to behave. I mean literally to watch how I behave. I pay attention when I do things and analyze how I do them. I may not be focus group material, but I still do lots of things that normal people do.

Knowing how I do normal things is a cache of valuable data. I gather the data about how I do things. Then I talk to my friends. They help me sort what I find out into two sets–weird things (things that only Liz does) and everybody things. I use that second set to improve my readers’ experiences. Here is one very specific example of how I might go about this.

One thing I watched for: How do I use archives? Do I read them in a certain way or a certain order?

  • First, I realized that it depends. I prefer to browse archives from old to new. I stop to think about my reason–many times ideas build on each other over time. Other times I read for certain topics.
  • Next, I consider other ways to read. Some folks might want to read only the newest information. New readers might want to know about the best ones they missed.
  • At this point its time to get input from readers. I can write a post or have informal conversations. If the issue is small, I use what I already know.
  • Then, I devise a way to organize my archives to meet all of those needs–an index by date and by topic and a listing of Golden Oldies.

The day I did that my page views were three times higher.

When I watch myself as an unbiased observer and test what I see, I get a solid answer to What would my readers want me to do?

–ME “Liz” Strauss