The Uneducated Customer

I regularly have the privilege of speaking to conferences, conventions and companies about how to communicate more powerfully. Usually, a line forms afterwards with people who want to say thank you or ask questions or occasionally even hire my firm to help them more specifically.

A couple years ago, I had a memorable thing happen. I could see this fellow towards the end of eight or nine people in line with furrowed brow and red face. He got more anxious as the line narrowed down and when it came to his turn he was practically ready to explode.

You see, in my talk one of the things I say is that the Yellow Pages are going away quickly. We thought the advent of the Internet would kill radio and television. It hasn’t.

However it has done quite a number on print and yellow page advertising in particular.

One of my theories – successfully put into practice with our clients – is that you should use every tool at your disposal to help consumers create a preference.

Consumers have never been more educated than they are today, and the Yellow Pages were the refuge of the uneducated customer with no preference.

So this red-faced, puffy-cheeked fella came up to me and said “you’re wrong.”

Please understand, I’ve been married almost 10 years. I’m used to hearing the phrase “you’re wrong” quite often so this didn’t surprise me. I like smart people who disagree with me.

But I was curious as to what what am I wrong about (this time).

“We love the yellow pages,” said ole’ puffy cheeks.

He said “they work great for us! We looooove the un-educated customer.”

I smiled and said thank you, but before I had a chance to say anything else, he said he’d said his piece and did not want a response from me. He said he just had to get that off his chest.

I got to thinking about what he had said, and I thought some more and I realized the following:

New customers are no longer uneducated … but it doesn’t mean they’re not mis-educated

Moving forward, thanks in part to the ease with which can get acquire information, in each marketplace there’s going to be one company people perceive as the smartest, the most ethical and the most helpful.

That’s the company I want to work for.

Spend your resources helping consumers know, like and trust you.

Trust me.