Capture Customers with Content and Context

Of the five critical audiences, customers--the reason for business--come first. Stories of customer care gone wrong, usually due to no communication or bad communication, show up in every medium. Imagine my surprise when a rubber chicken banquet about financial matters captured my attention and won my praise.

Bob Doll, Vice Chairman, Global Chief Investment Officer of Equities for BlackRock, discussed the complicated topic of investing in a volatile market; he spoke during dinner to approximately 250 people from all walks of life and made it interesting. (NOTE: I failed to look at my watch once during the dinner presentation.)

Doll used Power Point, displayed on two large screens, one in each front corner of the room. While he had far too much text for my tastes, he did not repeat the verbiage on the screen. Rather, he expanded on the points and called the audience’s attention to graphs which further illustrated the information. He moved quickly through his ten point trademark; Doll has published Ten Predictions for the year since 2001. (I discovered that in a later Google search.)

In fairness, it’s often easy to finesse a prepared presentation; Doll also held his own in an impromptu question and answer session from the floor. Once again, he provided context and consistency in his information, explaining his thoughts about the French elections, discussing the impact of the Chinese work force on the world economy, and reminding the audience that currencies are a zero sum game. As a presenter, Doll had the courtesy to repeat questions that could not be heard by the entire audience.

I found my thinking stimulated, my interest piqued and my appreciation for good customer communication increased.