Hugging customers is more than simply communicating with buyers.

To us, it’s more than relationship marketing or CRM technology. Because we’ve seen buyers whose names are in some database whose relationship with the brand is so cold when they open their mouths a light comes on.

In fact, we think hugging your customers even goes way beyond building close customer and stakeholder relationships at all levels of the organization.

It’s about using that relationship to migrate customers through stages to create advocates for your brand.

The four phases of hugging
The first dimension of this process involves identifying your most important customers based on their current profit contribution and lifetime customer value.

The second is to develop an integrated communication program that moves customers from being first-time buyers to occasional buyers to loyal customers and then brand advocates.

Once they become advocates, the system should give them the information, incentives and platforms they need to refer you to others, and share their experiences and applications of your offering with prospects.

The third part of the process is to establish ongoing forums and communications vehicles that engage customers, listen to their input, and respond directly to their questions and concerns.

And fourth, the process must send this customer information and feedback back into the organization to provide front-line employees with real-time direction and guide their brand actions.

Nothing like a fine whine
So even the discordant voices of these customers are integrated back into the organization. Even when those voices are bitching so hard they make Beck sound like Anthony Newley.

Satisfaction surveys, retention studies, complaints, inquiries, market research and other sources of customer information are tracked and then widely shared within the organization.

In fact, employees of all ranks and job functions get out and experience your offerings from the customer’s perspective. They talk to customers in their own environment, learn about their needs, ask about their ideas and listen to their gripes.

Only by listening in a collective sense can you build relations and anticipate the future needs of your customers.