Time for a Sit and Chat?

Considering our nearly limitless online and wireless communication options, you'd think at least one of them might be the best channel for soliciting useful feedback from your customers and co-workers. But in a post at his Lonely Marketer blog, Patrick Schaber raves about a shockingly low-tech method for gathering critical intel.

Called The Chair, it was developed by a friend of his who works for a major retailer headquartered in the Midwest. "She plopped down two chairs in the heart of this busy corporate campus and put a sign over the two chairs calling out a topic for the day," writes Schaber. "She occupied one chair and then waited ... for another employee to sit down and discuss the topic she had posted. No technology. No motives. Just a person genuinely interested in her co-worker's thoughts and feelings."

She sets up shop every other week, and Schaber reports that there's often a line of people waiting for the one-on-one conversations, which are protected by a promise of confidentiality. It's a win-win situation: Employees know they're being heard, and upper management receives the unvarnished—and often valuable—truth.

Schaber's enthusiasm for The Chair's personal touch is catching, and sure to spark Marketing Inspiration. "With any company," he says, "constructive feedback from employees and customers is not easy to get. As a marketer, I practically jump off the ceiling if I can get a customer or employee to sit down and tell me honestly what they think of our products or marketing plan."

More Inspiration:
Leigh Duncan: Feng with My Fries?
Lewis Green: Green & Authenticity Make a Good Marriage
Drew McLellan: Why Do We Keep Giving Away the Milk?

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