Once upon a time I resisted Twitter. My affair with micro-blogging began mostly as an experiment. At first, the whole idea felt narcissistic. Who cares what I’m doing right now? Can one say anything meaningful in 140 characters? Nevertheless, I joined Twitter and wrote a few cryptic posts about the mundane things happening in my daily life. I doubted that anyone would read what I had written—let alone “follow” me. But all that changed one night when I was looking for a new pair of shoes on Zappos.

Unexpected Results

After thirty minutes of fruitless searching, I came across a particularly garish pair of Ralph Lauren metallic loafers, I couldn’t help but throw a “Twitter fit” and write about my frustration. By the next morning, Tony Hsieh, CEO of Zappos, was following me! (Apparently, Zappos tracks Twitter writers to see who mentions their company.)

Then I started to do a little investigating. Tony has used the power of social media to such an advantage, his company has become a social phenomenon. He and his leadership team maintain an extensive blog about their brand and its values at http://blogs.zappos.com/blogs/ceo-and-coo-blog. The employees also have their own Zappos Twitter accounts, through which the company has given them the freedom to Tweet about whatever they want. That may sound like risky business—but instead, it’s worked to their advantage.

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In our recent “Marketing Hope” survey of plans for 2009 and 2010 (stay tuned for a full write-up on those findings), 64% of Am Law 200 marketers indicated they will be investing in client loyalty interviews. That’s a smart move in any economy. But how do you extract the most value from those interviews? The answer lies not only in the questions you ask, but how your interviewer asks them.

“How are you doing, Mark?”
“Just fine, couldn’t be better.”

We all have that kind of conversation almost everyday with our friends, family and co-workers. The question really doesn’t want an answer; it’s just a convention around greeting. (If you ever doubt that, probe your teenage daughter for details and see how far you get.) In order to get a thoughtful, engaged answer, we ask the question differently. And not only form but tone makes a difference. For example, my partner will give a very different response if I say “HONEY, WOULD YOU TAKE OUT THE GARBAGE!!” versus “Honey, would you please take out the garbage?”

When firms are looking to survey their clients, they spend a huge amount of time and resources designing the questions they want to ask. They want to be able to draw statistically valid conclusions about their client base, therefore eliminating any chance of “interviewer bias.” Certainly, having objective feedback is important. But when the client and the service provider really need to form a relationship, when the people matter as much, or more, than the end product, then the manner and method of the interview far outweigh the questions that are asked!

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