“When a customer asks what no one else has ever asked, pay close attention” – Ron Kauffman
The human brain is a marvel of creation. However, it does have its constraints and can hold only a limited amount of information before it begins to feel tired, bored, and distracted. This in turn means that a person’s attention span is therefore limited too. For customers today, the overwhelming amount of information sent their way and what they source on their own has reduced their attention span for any kind of company, product, or brand. With so many distractions, a shrinking market, similar offerings, and companies employing all kinds of tactics to attract the importance of customer attention span for a brand / company has become even more pronounced. Companies must constantly think of new and unique ways to interact and engage their audiences lest they lose control and their customers, and yet they must limit the kind and amount of information they send to their existing and prospective customers. Surely, not an easy conundrum!
The importance of customer attention span is compounded given that it is divided amongst so many options – raising its value exponentially. Given that customer attention span has lowered, it has become a commodity, which is in short supply making it even more valuable for companies and brands. It does not help that the amount of information available continues to increase at a steady and significant pace – only the most unique, differentiated, and interesting information ‘sticks’. The importance of customer attention span therefore, must not be undermined, and instead companies must find a way to leverage this critical yet scarce resource. It is critical for companies to engage more effectively with their existing and prospective customers such that they can capture the attention of customers sooner and for a longer span of time. The good news that technology provides those means – through the multi-channels of communication, various tools for marketing, mobile devices and applications – all if used effectively can help a company gather the ‘fragmented customer attention’ towards itself and its products.
Research shows that a loss of customer attention has caused business expenses to skyrocket – almost 7 to 9 times more over about 25 years. Is it not critical then for companies to find ways to consistently capture and retain the attention of its customers, and do so in the most cost-effective way possible? While companies can either buy customer attention or earn it, the latter is a better, longer lasting, and more effective way. Buying customer attention includes paying for advertisements to be aired or displayed – and in this case, the companies are in control over the content, frequency, timing, and location. Examples of paying for customer attention abound – television commercials, social media ads, paid searches on the internet, and on several of new channels of communication. While this method of attracting and retaining customer attention would be effective to some degree, it is not as effective as earning the attention of customers through trust. Of the customers surveyed, at least 83% were sure that they would trust the opinion of a friend, family, or a trusted associated with regard to a company and its offerings, while 66% reported that they trust the online comments and reviews of existing customers.
Earning customer attention makes more sense since prospective customers would be more likely to associate with a company that is well-liked and appears to be trusted by its users. In addition, the messages that the satisfied and happy customers send out is not something that the company can control or manipulate, making the messages more authentic and relatable. The fact is that if a company finds customers and the media sharing information about its products, it would mean that the company has been able to gain and sustain customer attention – an achievement, which must not be taken lightly or lost.
Companies believe, erroneously so, that the more information and content they can produce, the higher would their chances be of gaining and retaining customer attention. More information is a fallacy, since customers absorb only a limited amount of it, and forget the rest – hence more information means they have more to forget – research shows that customers tend to forget at least 90% of what companies share, and even the remaining 10% is not necessarily stored in the memory or used in the way companies intended. Would it not be prudent then for a company to put forth lesser content, but ensure that whatever it does send to customers, is engaging, interesting, and useful for them, which would mean that customers would remember the company.
Market experts and industry authority figures are of the opinion that there is a sure and scientific way to capture customer attention, retain it, and ensure that they take the desired action based on the information they receive. Brand recall and engagement happens when a company is able to inspire trust in its customers, and is able to connect with them beyond the confines of the products and the company.
The importance of customer attention and the effects of this diminishing resource can be seen from the effects on a company’s website and social media sites. The ultimate aim of a company website and social media presence is to boost the company’s image, increase its reach, spread awareness, and create engagement with the ‘visitors’ and existing customers. A company with a slow website can lose up to 7% conversions – and we are talking about even a one-second delay in loading. Customers have low tolerance and even lesser patience, especially since they want to sift the maximum information in the least amount of time, and would much rather get the information from a site or a company that can keep pace with their needs.
What also enhances the importance of customer attention is the fact that lowered tolerance means that customers are easily irritated and become dissatisfied a lot faster. With such an irate mind-frame, customer attention span becomes even lower and more fragmented – making it a vicious cycle of dissatisfaction and low attention span. The worst part is that at least 96% customers refuse to complain, and of these 91% do not stay with a company – these are whopping figures especially in terms of the amount of business a company can potentially lose, and these figures can be higher since dissatisfied customers tend to share their poor experiences with a lot more people. The same negative effect on customer attention happens when companies fail to respond swiftly to customers via social media.
Research shows that customers would have access to at least 5000 advertisements – daily. The amount of content, graphics, and messages that customers are exposed to means that they are probably not paying attention to most of the advertisements. Companies therefore, resort to displaying and broadcasting the same advertisement over several channels, on a recurring basis to ensure that the message gets across to their target audience. Repetition ensures that people tend to remember and recall a company and its brand a lot better. The marketing rule is that the more people see and are exposed to a product / offer, the more likely it is that they would remember and take the desired action.
Limited customer attention span is a challenge for companies today and it is necessary for them to ensure that customers can see value in the offers from the word go. The content must serve to alleviate a pain area, or prove useful to the customer either professionally or personally, and be interesting enough to prompt customers to take action and even talk about it. Grabbing the attention of customers does not suffice today – they want to see value and benefit first – companies that do so, can be sure to retain customer attention sustainably.
