The Reason Why Companies Don’t ‘Get It’

The reason most companies don’t ‘get it’ – don’t get social media, don’t get community, don’t get the shift that’s happening – is not lack of information. It’s lack of imagination.

They can’t imagine what it would feel like to be their customer. They can’t imagine what a conversation looks like from the other side. They can’t imagine that anyone would want to talk to them rather than just buy from them.

This is an empathy failure. And empathy failures are not solved by more data, more case studies, or more keynote speakers at conferences.

They’re solved by proximity. By actually spending time with the people you serve. By listening – not to validate your assumptions, but to genuinely discover what’s true.

The companies that get it have usually been forced into proximity with their customers by some combination of necessity, curiosity, and humility. They’ve been in the room. They’ve heard the complaints. They’ve seen the confusion. And they’ve responded.

You don’t get it by reading about it. You get it by getting close.