Dolly Parton and Customer Advisory Boards….Totally Relatable!
Country music has never been my thing. New age / pop country, maybe sort of, but music by the likes of Dolly Parton did not appeal to me. Simply put, it wasn’t relatable. However, that quickly changed when our Farland Group President, Jane Hiscock, mentioned a podcast about Dolly Parton (full disclosure - she wasn’t a big Dolly fan before the Podcast either). I decided to take a listen — and I was immediately hooked!
Sure, it gave background on what life was like for Dolly Parton growing up in Tennessee, but the fascinating part (aside from many songs that I am a fan of that I never knew she wrote) was that I found it very relatable to the work we do at Farland Group. The podcast series wasn’t just about Dolly Parton and her music alone, it was about how throughout her decades-long career, she has remained neutral — bringing people together from all over the world, young and old, diverse backgrounds, men and women — you name it! This connects to our work at Farland Group.
In today’s world and current crisis, engaging with your client or customer-base has never been more important. What Dolly Parton has managed to do is appeal to anyone and everyone, all at the same time, by being a neutral third-party, reflecting back to people what she hears and sees by doing what she does best — writing music and singing.
Just like Dolly Parton, Farland Group (no, we don’t sing) is a neutral, third-party that serves as a mirror of what we hear from the market. We help cultivate our client’s relationships with their own customers through customer advisory board meetings. The customer advisory boards we support include a widespread customer base, with cross-industry leaders who come from diverse backgrounds — just like Dolly Parton’s fan base.
The benefit to having an unbiased customer advisory board meeting facilitator like Farland Group also means participants have an equal opportunity to share their open and honest feedback, on any given meeting topic, during customer advisory board meetings and the one-one-one calls we facilitate with participants of those meetings. During these challenging times, it’s important for organizations to continue to engage with their top clients, especially where the evolution and transformation of business strategies is an ongoing challenge.
Just like Dolly Parton says, pour yourself “a cup of ambition” and starting thinking about how a customer advisory board could be the key to strengthening your relationships with clients.