He stated that babies come with a natural instinct to develop their bodies. The actions and movements actually help them stretch, maintain flexibility and strengthen body parts. As they grow older and the need to develop body parts are desired but not critical, these actions move from the subconscious to the conscious. And the new adult now needs external stimulus (read health resolutions, gym adverts) to perform the same actions.
Consider the baby in the picture. We have seen all babies do this activity. Raise their legs in the air and often hold their toes in their hands. My physiotherapist prescribed me a similar exercise to stretch my lower spine and strengthen my abdomen and thigh. Its really surprising how simple this idea seems. All we need to do is watch and learn from the babies.
So where is the CRM connection?
Every marketing person I interacted with (and i mean "every") discussed about identifying profitable customers, about cross selling to existing customers, about predicting relationship demise, etc. But it always was about a customer who has been in the environment for a significant period.
Never have we focussed on the new customers -- the babies. We have not spend effort to observe and understand the behaviours and interactions of new customers. Just as a baby grows into an adult and is shaped by its cultures, surroundings, elders, etc. Similarly, a new customer grows into a vintage customers shaped by her experience in the early days. The customer settles into a state of acceptance and gets into a predictable behaviour. As analyst we try to map this behaviour and identify opportunities to benefit from any behavioural event.
It is useful to note here that the behaviour of the customer is partly due to the "state of acceptance" that was defined in the infant days. For example, a customer facing bad customer service in the initial days often settles for the state that the provider will always provide bad service. As such the service criteria is never considered in the sphere of influence. So many times we hear the phrase "...they have bad service..." from customers of the service providers.
It is important that we track the new users, the babies, and observe their behaviour so that the processes can be optimized for the desired customer profile. If the first thing a customer does after buying the product is call the call-center, then we should ensure that the call center is equipped to handle the infant appropriately. This will create a positive impact on the customer which she will carry in her vintage stage.
If this idea appeals to you, drop me a mail at michaeldsilva@gmail.com. We can jointly work out an initiative to observe and study the infant customers.
