Setting the Hook: Immediacy Matters
I love to fly fish. There is nothing like the serenity of standing in the river, cold water rushing by that makes me feel at one with nature.
One moment you are in flow with your casting, and then suddenly…
Strike!
You see the trout rise and take the fly.
Most fish lost in fly-fishing are lost either at the moment you strike or when you attempt to land them. Striking a fish means tightening the line by raising your rod tip.
Striking with a fly rod should be a firm, immediate reaction to a fish that has visibly taken your fly
(Orvis)
Immediacy matters. The most important thing is that you react.
The same goes for Customers.
We had a potential customer yesterday who was really digging into Niko Niko. He submitted 2 support tickets and tweeted at us, all over the course of 8 hours. He was all over us, and he wanted to use our product.
Max had a great conversation with him today, but the customer had to do everything he could to get our attention. It felt like we were following up within reasonable timing, but it’s a reminder to us that when you have a potential customer on the hook, you must set the hook — they might be interested right now, but 100 things could happen if it takes 8 hours to get back to them. They could Google the 8 different alternatives to your product or service. They could have meetings this afternoon and realize it wasn’t a priority and not get back to it.
When a customer bites, set the hook.
Here are some ways I’ve instituted setting the hook in my businesses over the years. They may or may not apply to you, but think about how immediacy matters for your customers.
When we got a Flatstack lead through the website, we got a text message and would instantly call the lead if they left a number. This always produced a “WOW” effect — “I’m on your website right now, they’d say, I have a few questions…”
We often put Olark forms on our sites. It’s a super low commitment way to feel a potential customer to “nibble” — they may have a question or be a bit confused about what you offer. Great for customer development and to turn that nibble into a bite.
We use Tout to send personal emails to everyone who signs up for Niko Niko offering a free 30 min consultation with Max, our CEO. Not just an autoresponder, but something personalized from our Max. They have taken the fly, and a personal immediate follow up goes a long way to ensuring they have a great initial customer experience.
If you agree immediacy matters with customers, will you share what techniques you use to “set the hook?”