October: Are You Listening? (Because Your Customers Are Talking)

There’s plenty to shout about; people are back into the swing of things properly after the summer and are getting those orders in before the Christmas break.

And while everyone else is busy shouting louder into the void, we want to talk about something a lot less noisy.
Listening.

What?! I can’t hear you!

There’s the really annoying phrase, “we have two ears and only one mouth, so listen twice as much as you talk”. 

It’s damned annoying if you’ve ever been on the receiving end of it.

But when it comes to social media, it’s pretty damn good advice.

No, it’s not scrolling through your notifications with a cuppa and feeling smug about three new likes. It’s not listening to the vacuum of sycophants and engagement pods.

Social listening is the deliberate, ongoing monitoring of the conversation happening around you. 

Properly read through the comments, mentions, tags, hashtags, and reviews. 

Across every platform. Whether they’re your posts, your competitors’, or even just industry giants.

And here’s the important bit.

It’s not about your own posts for some good ol’ ego stroking.

It’s about listening to the conversation happening, whether you’ve been tagged or not.

The key here is to understand what your clients and potential customers actually want from you, from the industry, from your competitors. What works. What doesn’t. What they love. What they hate. What irritates and frustrates them, and what the ultimate “balm” for their pain is.

However, there’s rarely one big viral thread with everyone piling in. The conversation is quieter and scattered about. A LinkedIn comment here. A niche forum there. A review site you forgot existed.

You have to go looking.

But trust us, it’s worth the rummage. Gold is out there waiting to be found.

Your Own Comments Are a Goldmine

Start close to home.

Your comment section is basically a free focus group, and most businesses are completely ignoring it.
Same question keeps popping up? That’s a blog post. 

An FAQ? Something to put in your promotional material.

An objection? Your sales team NEED to know so they can handle it before the customer even thinks to raise it and then they’re sitting there thinking “oh my god are they psychic?”

Complaints and confusion? Address them, look at how it can improve your service. It’s a little flag waving at you! Fix it now and it won’t cost you a client later.

And the praise…
Oh, the praise.

Pay attention to the exact words people use when they say nice things about you. Then steal them. Shamelessly. (PS They’re great to include in things like social posts, copywriting, website pages, email campaigns, basically… everything).

People convert better to language they already use themselves. Your customers are quite literally writing your marketing copy for you.

The least you can do is read it.

Oh but I don’t get any comments on my posts

That’s OK. Build up.

In the meantime, look at other competitors in your sphere. Other businesses big and small. Take from them the lessons you need to engage with your customers.

Reviews Are Comments With Receipts

Comments are great; reviews are better.

Google, Trustpilot, Feefo, TripAdvisor, Yelp, G2, Capterra and even LinkedIn recommendations. People took time out of their day to write these. They’re considered. Thought through.

Read them all! Analyse them. Good, bad, ugly, yours and not yours.

They’re telling you things your normal research can’t.

Recurring praise = your actual USP. This is what your customers genuinely value.

Recurring gripes and grumbles = THIS IS WHAT TO FIX AND ADDRESS. Ignore them at your peril.

Don’t just look at your own. Its easy to be egostroked by the lovely praise on yours, but look at your competitors. What do they do well, what don’t they, figure it out and use it.

Once you’ve spotted the patterns, put them to work. Lift snippets from review and punch them straight into your website copy. Build case studies around the outcomes people keep mentioning. Hand your sales team the real reasons people buy from you.

These are the receipts. Use them.

The Real Goldmine: Your Competitors

Now for the juicy bit.

Your competitors have comment sections and reviews too.

And they’re just sitting there. In public. For anyone to read.

Head straight for the 2- and 3-star reviews. The 1-stars are often pure rage and the 5-stars are often fluff. But the middle? That’s where people calmly explain exactly where a business let them down.

“Great product, but support took a week to reply.”

“Did the job, but onboarding was a nightmare.”

Every one of those is a gap. A gap you might be perfectly placed to fill.

Then have a nosy at the comments on their posts. 

What are people asking that isn’t getting a decent answer? What objections keep coming up? Where’s the confusion?

Use this information to bolster you and your product in their eyes. You can provide the answers before the customer ever needs to ask.

If their customers keep moaning about slow replies, you shout about your same-day response time. If their onboarding leaves people lost, you show off how you hold hands from day one.

The people who’ve been let down will recognise themselves instantly.

And they’ll know exactly who to call.

So, How Do You Actually Start?

You don’t need fancy software (although it does help).

Block out 30 minutes a week. Read your comments. Read your reviews. Read your competitors’ comments and reviews. Jot down the patterns.

That’s it. That’s the big secret.

Do it consistently and you’ll have more content ideas, better positioning, answers to questions, and a clearer picture of your market than most businesses ever bother to get.

Everyone else is talking. Be the one who’s listening.

The Team Updates

Jem

Poor Jem! If it’s not her back playing up it’s her neck. She’s had issues with a trapped nerve meaning she has been laid up for most of the month.

Thankfully she has had amazing friends who have sent flowers and care packages for her so she can rest and take it easy (not easy for Jem to do).

However, this is not to say she hasn’t been out and about. She’s had her first successful camping trip with the doggos AND been out to the PowerHive networking event.

Oh and the Spa. Of course she went to the spa 800+ times. I swear she just lives there now.

Sarah B

Sarah found herself on the receiving end of the cat distribution system and has adopted a cat. Reggie has settled right into place and now Sarah can’t imagine a life without him.

She now also has “sea withdrawals” as none of her friends want to plunge themselves into the freezing depths of the sea at this time of year (and honestly who can blame them?).

Aside from all this it has been a time of remembrance for Sarah of her partner Joe who tragically passed away a few years ago. All of that grief is being channelled into her extra work for the funeral industry which has brought a new focus to Sarah’s days.

Sarah A

Sarah has continued her love of Pickleball and has made a whole bunch of friends along the way. Aside fro this she has treated herself to to a brand new hairdo and most importantly, some yummy food.

Oh and in an appropriately spooky themed response, she has included a photo of her dog pretending to be a vampire.

Freddie

Baby Squirrel 2 has arrived! After all that preparation, they are finally here. Freddie is taking some much needed rest to cope with the sleep deprivation and general household management. 

All in all a rather exciting time for the Squirrel family.

Summing Up

All in all, it’s been another cracking month for the Jems, and as the spookiness hurtles towards us, we’re more excited than ever about what’s coming for our clients.

If you’d like a hand digging through the conversation around your business (and your competitors’), why not talk to Jem and see what we can uncover together?