Three-Minute Rule Day

If you have not heard of the three minute rule you may be surprised at what it is.

Anthony Tjan, CEO, Managing Partner and Founder of the venture capital firm Cue Ball wrote an article for the Harvard Business Review and here is what he says about the Three Minute Rule:

“You can learn a great deal about customers by studying the broader context in which they use your product or service. To do this, ask what your customer is doing three minutes immediately before and three minutes after he uses your product or service.”

Interesting concept.  If you think about it, when you connect with the client at that level the perception of your product may increase significantly. If you are willing to put yourself out there by making a connection BEFORE she or he uses your product and then AFTER, what does that say about your company products and services?

In addition to gaining valuable feedback, the three minute rule can also help you showcase unique cross-selling opportunities. Here’s another example by Anthon Tjan: “Many years ago, I remember doing some ethnographic research on female drug-store shoppers. One fascinating pattern we saw was that a significant number of women picked up a disposable camera after putting newborn diapers into their shopping carts. Follow-up interviews confirmed that snap-happy moms were often new moms. Placing disposable diapers close to inexpensive disposable cameras furthered this purchase pattern and would not have otherwise been an intuitive merchandising or cross-selling strategy.”

The three-minute rule can give you insights to not only get to know your customers, it can also help you see how user-friendly your product or service is, and what if any improvements could be made to make the experience better for the user.

So how can you apply the three-minute rule to your business or organization?

Read more about the Three-minute rule at Harvard Business Review

Be sure to check out   Quirky Marketing Calendar ~ How to Use Zany and Non-traditional Holidays to Promote Your Business 365 Days a Year for More great marketing ideas.

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