In this third blog in the series, we take a look at the respond to desire strategy companies can adopt to build much deeper relationships with customers.
The Connected Customer
Part 3 | The respond to desire strategy
The first connected strategy
In this third blog in the series, we take a look at the respond to desire strategy companies can adopt to build much deeper relationships with customers. This strategy is one of four connected strategies taken from the 2019 book "Connected Strategy” by Siggelkow and Terwisch.
What is the respond to desire strategy?
This first connected strategy is called respond to desire and is familiar to most of us.
This strategy is outlined in the diagram below.
Diagram from "Connected Strategy” by Siggelkow and Terwisch.
How does the respond to desire strategy work?
A customer-initiated experience
With the respond to desire strategy, the customer initiates the experience.
For example, imagine that a customer is short on ink for her printer. She initiates her experience by getting online and easily finding the ink cartridge that she needs. She then orders, pays, and within two hours has the ink cartridge delivered to her door.
This experience is familiar to most of us as consumers. We want a quick, frictionless, experience that requires minimum effort.
The respond to desire strategy for mid-market organisations
This quick, frictionless experience is delivered by many well-known digital brands such as Amazon and Uber. However, you don't need to be Amazon or Uber to adopt this strategy. Mid-market businesses can adopt a respond to desire strategy quite easily using today’s available technologies. Indeed, many have been forced into it as a result of COVID-19.
A typical example is a business who have put their products online, allowed customers to peruse all products and services and see what is in stock in a location near them. The customer can then purchase online. The company receives the order and fulfils the order quickly through a third party delivery firm. The customer can then track the order online on the companies website to have full visibility of when their desire will be met through the delivery of the product. Once delivered the customer enjoys the product and can receive support online or via telephone.
Summary of the respond to desire strategy
The respond to desire strategy is the simple and familiar idea of creating a quick, frictionless customer experience as the customer initiates an engagement with your organisation to meet their desire. A key challenge faced by organisations when implementing this strategy is how it can be delivered successfully and effectively in an increasingly digital world.
For more information on how we’ve helped clients implement this strategy get in touch.