Consumer Centric

Early this morning (like 1AM) my colleague, Jim Wilkerson, pointed me to a bizarre (searching for right word here) and entertaining (sort of) live-tweeting going on by a guy on a plane narrating an argument between a couple apparently sitting next to, or near, him.  Jim was alerted of the exchange by Augie (August) Ray by this tweet to his 2,114 followers:

When you click on @jmatusin you can follow his mad rush to the gate at the MN airport, the help he got from a non-English-speaking gal who let him cut in line and who he then helped to her gate, the Traveler’s Insurance ad he spotted along the way to his gate, and… then this exchange he broadcasts to the Twitterverse between two people seated near him on his flight (read from bottom to top in case you’re not familiar with Twitter stream flow).

He closes out the experience with this observation on the whole thing.

So, aside from being entertaining, this version of live-tweeting raises a lot of issues. I’ve covered a number of posts on this blog about our analysis of live-tweeting at business conferences and events.  I’ve reviewed pros and cons… but this now opens a totally different realm of live-tweeting life, for entertainment value.

Suddenly, material for stand-up comedy is live broadcast to an audience whose limit or potential is hard to define. It’s funny because it’s real. But that’s why it’s weird, too.

Certainly, the couple was having a conversation between the two of them. But, we’ve all overheard such exchanges and privacy can’t be expected, especially when you listen to aspects of this drama.

So, what does this mean for ethics, protocol, and human interaction? Anything can be shared and likely will be shared if it has inherent pass-along value like this does. @jmatusin provided his protocol by using HIM and HER and not trying to convey anything that could identify people.  What other socially acceptable norms for this behavior will emerge?

I can see a new line of employment opportunities for college students or interns hired by authors, writers, and Hollywood types to work through their lives broadcasting the real-life sitcoms they encounter along the way.  What can be better than the real thing, right?

Interesting… this can’t be the first time someone’s done this?  Any other examples? Do share…

Sometimes we don’t have to look any farther than right above us to get a glimpse of nature’s playful moments.  If we allow them, these very human experiences can fill the heart and enlighten the mind.  A few current examples from my life…

First, tonight I’m going to wake my kids to get a glimpse of the Perseid meteor showers. We’ll try to get ‘em up at 3AM and watch. I’ll add in a photo or two here if we get any. How often can you watch the heavens light up outside of the 4th of July?

Second, on the way home tonight, we noticed these clouds as we waited for the light to turn. The kids commented on the cloud with a hole in it and the sounds of angels with the rays of sunshine spreading out.

It was one a moment that would pass so quickly I had to get one more photo after we made it through the stop light and could get a clear view of the amazing cloud and light show. The sun spotlight almost looked too staged to be real!

Third, I took the following pictures with my iPhone of a storm that rolled in during our soccer practice (I coach a few of my kids’ teams). The Texas skies offer a number of different dramatic performances. The emotions and nature’s expressions are very different in this series.

The storm came in so quickly we had to gather the team and wrap up practice. But the clouds were amazing and mesmerizing to stare at. Their intensity and depth were almost palpable. They seemed to be dropping down right on top of us. The emotions expressed by kids and parents alike ranged from fear (those who know how fast Texas storms turn bad) to pure joy (never seen anything quite like us).

For me, I didn’t want to leave. It was too much fun watching the rapidly moving clouds.

Tonight, I guess these expressions of nature reminded me of how real the human experience is when you add in the rich context in which life is lived.

Nature is authenticity. It is what it is. Yet it is always changing. Nature is sometimes predictable and many times not. It is always an expression of individual elements interacting to yield a beautiful tapestry. Humanity plays out its part within the tapestry and inseparable, really, from the reality of nature.

To be authentic in life, we have to appreciate the context in which people live their lives. We have to be real. We have to a part of the tapestry of their lives.

Ok… back to living my own adventure!

Sitting in church recently I couldn’t help getting caught up in the energy of the baby boy sitting on his dad’s lap just in front of us. I wasn’t the only one–my wife and kids joined me in making weird faces and waving to the little guy for nearly an hour! You know exactly what I mean if you’ve ever made eye contact with a cute tiny one who stares back at you with genuine intrigue.

During this back and forth, I was captivated by the interaction and real communication between this boy and his very attentive dad. The kid couldn’t have been more than nine months old; he was barely sitting up with the balancing act facing you when you’re head is bigger than the rest of your torso. He couldn’t speak. He couldn’t write. But boy could he ever communicate. And he and his dad had a very real conversation throughout the church service. Dad had to work hard, but he delivered at every stage of the little guy’s experience at church that morning.

So, what’s the point? And why was I thinking about work ideas at church?

The kid’s happiness and enjoyment were a direct result of dad’s interest in him, familiarity with him, and relentless responsiveness to what he was ’saying’ to dad; all of this without a single word being spoken.

Consider this interchange. Dad sees smile on kid’s face, dad smiles back, dad picks up string of beads and drapes it on kid’s ear. Kid desperately tries to get his hand to find and grasp the beads only to knock them off his ear and fall to the ground. Dad picks them up and the scene is repeated until kid’s attention shifts to his sister. You get the idea. You’ve seen it before. This was repeated in various iterations with food, toys, fingers, etc.

Dad listened. Dad’s genuine interest put him in a position to understand every emotional shift expressed on his son’s face. Dad was prepared with a seemingly endless stash of tactics to test in an attempt to meet his son’s needs. They interacted. And it worked because he observed, understood, and acted to a certain extent on the kid’s terms. Dad accomplished his goal of entertaining his son during the church service.

Companies with genuine interest in their customers, who know their customers, and who relentlessly respond to what they observe succeed in helping the people they interact with find happiness. Sure, we call it satisfaction, loyalty, or passion about a brand. In the end, isn’t it really about caring enough, doing enough, and interacting enough to act on their terms? The terms of your customers.

In my view, that is the point of being people centric. Companies who get it will plan and deliver their marketing (the relentless interaction trying to solve a kid’s needs) and create their products (trying out from an endless stash of toys and things) to be truly authentic and relevant.

Word of mouth within this context is real, because actions and behaviors are real.