In our wired world of marketing, where web sites and social media have supplanted many of the traditional marketing methods, it seems to me that we have lost the ability to go face-to-face with a customer and market our products to them. "Likes" have replaced handshakes as the preferred method of communicating with our customers. It seems to me that we have left a lot to chance when we believe they are the same.

Marketing is given the task of engaging a prospect and convincing them to become a first time customer. Traditionally, that has included advertising to them to stimulate their five senses: sight, sound, taste and smell (if they apply to the product), and touch. Why are clients taken out to eat at nice restaurants? Why are the famous and beautiful put in ads? Why are catchy jingles used in radio advertising? Why is a test drive critical to a car purchase? All of these engage our senses, which, outside of sight and possibly sound, is hard to do on your web site. When your marketing is appealing to all of their five senses, you need a human presence, not a tweet or a text, but a real live human-to-human interaction.

But beyond getting a customer to try a product or a service, going face-to-face with a customer is highly valuable in a way followers of your social media cannot (or will not) interact with you. It allows you to "read” your customer regarding what they think of your products/services and the big four that cause customers stay loyal to you or to go seeking out your competition. The big four are the value-to-price ratio, quality of the product, customer service and delivery time (if it applies). A disgruntled customer may leave a nasty note on your Facebook page, or more likely they will just stop using you. But there are incremental steps of being peeved for most people. They might not be 100 percent happy with your performance the first time they use your products, but may not be angry enough to never use you again. Talking to them will draw out this kind of information so you can correct it the next time. This is a function of retention marketing. Let’s face it, if they are miffed enough to leave a comment on social media, you have already lost them. Retention marketing takes into account the areas where you need to improve, making changes and – most importantly – letting the customer know they have been heard and you have corrected the problem.

So many times we assume we know our target audience. Believe me, there are nuances of opinion that will make your product offerings better if you take the time to go face-to-face with your customers. There is still room for small changes that will keep them coming back to you. Listen to your customers and they will tell you how to market to them most effectively. Does that mean that you should not use the new media to engage your customers? No, by all means, you should be using all of it. It just means that you will be able to read your customer more effectively if you ask how they like your products and then watch their face instead of waiting for them to give you the thumbs up icon on your latest post.

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Illustration by 45RPM