Designing Dialogues: Customizing Communications and Communication Paths

Design Management Review,  Spring 2006  by Sametz, Roger

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Communication strategists, writers, and designers can do much more than make artifacts of paper and pixels that get pushed out into the world. By listening to and learning from constituents, and by reframing communications as an opportunity for creating and managing dialogues that engage customers and prospects, Roger Sametz demonstrates how they can plan and implement customized communication paths that build closer relationships and deliver increased value.

Fifty years ago, age five, but knowledgeable enough to know that I couldn't let my father embark on this important errand unattended, he and I went to the local Chevy dealer to buy a new station wagon.

I think the intent was to buy one off the lot, but the salesperson gathered us around his desk and explained how the nice folks in Detroit would build one just for us. He suggested that the wagon might fit our needs better (and be a better reflection of our family) if we considered some options. Power windows? My father didn't ponder long: "Something else to go wrong." Power seats? Ditto. Night-time adjustable rear-view mirror? "We can do that ourselves." White-wall tires? "Too flashy, but your mother did say she likes the turquoise and white." So we agreed that Chevy would build a totally stripped-down, two-tone wagon-just for us. But the conversation sold a car and started a relationship; we returned to the same salesperson when rust got the better of the Bel Air.

Fifty years later, I'm engaged with a Porsche salesman who is also trying to make sure that the most profitable car company on the planet collaborates with me to build a car that will perfectly fit my needs. But this time the conversation is not about power windows (standard), but about the controls for the windows. Did I want the standard black plastic, titanium, or some other metal of my choosing? Did I want to look at wheel options? (Any set of four costs as much as the Chevy wagon did.) How about the Porsche shield in red and gold on the wheels? (In the salesperson's opinion, the black shield didn't really work.)

While the design of cars has made mixed progress over the years, manufacturers and dealers have long understood how to customize their products, engage prospects in the process, add value for the customer (and to the dealer and manufacturer), and do all this without taking the salesman out of the showroom, or the car off the assembly line.

The process of getting to a showroom and buying a car is not a one-size-fits-all journey. People approach their purchase in different ways. For some, these purchases are rational, based on cost, Consumer Reports, and what they need to transport themselves and their families from A to B. For others, cars are emotional purchases, grounded in romance, and in how they'd like to see themselves (or be reflected to others.) For some, the sales cycle is short: I know what I want; you have it. For others, the process is longer; there are more conversations and interactions, more need for information, and more shepherding of the prospect. For still others, there's the opportunity and need for conversation post-purchase-reassuring the buyer that he or she did, in fact, make the right decision.

But across these different interactions, manufacturers and dealers understand that if they can start and steer a dialogue (long or short, as appropriate) that focuses on the customer's needs, framed in language that's meaningful to that prospect, they are more likely to achieve the immediate sale-and build relationships that could deliver value down the road.

Not rocket science. In person, if you're promoting a product or service, or trying to raise funds, you tune up your pitch based on what you know in advance, and then listen. Based on what you hear, you respond and anticipate to best resonate with whomever is across the table. You manage a dialogue; you dynamically customize your message and its delivery.

While we all do this, more or less, when having conversations, many who plan and implement print and digital communication programs don't. Communications from most organizations-brochures, direct-mail pieces, websites-are pushed out into the world with the hope that something will stick. Materials communicate "to" people, but not "with" them. And while day-to-day conversations have a back and forth, communications from many for-profit and not-for-profit organizations often stop after the first sally "forth."

So why aren't more print and digital communications focused on starting or continuing dialogues? Our guess: Organizations just haven't thought about it; they're too focused on themselves; they think about communications as "things" to make and hand off; they think it would be too difficult and too expensive ("we don't have the horsepower, dollars, or infrastructure of Amazon or GE"); or they just don't know how to go about conceptualizing and implementing more resonant, engaging, two-way communications.

Where to Start: Thinking in Different Dimensions

While there are strategies and tactics that can help organizations to better communicate with their constituents and to initiate and advance dialogues, for these efforts to deliver maximum benefit, often some shifts in thinking are needed.