Contact Us
Menu
Contact Us

Podcast Episode 12: The SCOPE Principal

Jeffrey Lambert
Apr 26, 2019 7:07:29 PM

 

Today on Inbound Academy we’re going to examine the SCOPE principal. What is that? Well it’s not a mouthwash marketing plan, so stay tuned to find out more!



 

Episode Transcript

Jeff Lambert:                00:00                Today on Rizen Academy, we're going to examine the S.C.O.P.E. Principle. What is that? Well, it's not a mouthwash marketing plan, so stay tuned to find out more!

Jeff Lambert:                00:24                Hello everybody, and thanks for sticking with us. I'm Jeff Lambert. We're continuing to look at how you can start with your business using an inbound framework, and today we're going to talk about an important factor to remember when you're dealing with your customers, no matter where they are in their journey, you need to show empathy to discuss why that's important and how you can do that. I have Nicole Mena, the Creative Director at Rizen. Nicole, thanks for joining us again today.

Nichole Mena:              00:52                It's great to be here.

Jeff Lambert:                00:53                Well, let's talk about empathy. For everybody who's listening, if they're not familiar with that term, what are we talking about when we use the term empathy?

Nichole Mena:              01:02                All right, well, empathy is the ability to understand and share the feelings of another.

Jeff Lambert:                01:09                Okay, that sounds like something I should keep in mind at home when I'm talking to my son or my spouse, but how does that translate to the business world?

Nichole Mena:              01:18                Well, if you're marketing and sales teams are aware of the sentiment of an interaction, you'll be better able to connect not only on a business level, but one that has a personal feel to it as well.

Jeff Lambert:                01:33                Do you think customers really do they care about what their businesses do and how they interact?

Nichole Mena:              01:38                Absolutely. Customers want a relationship with brands they support and they want to know that you care about their experience.

Jeff Lambert:                01:47                So that seems to be really important in the inbound methodology that that idea of empathy and Hubspot, who is a leading voice in the inbound philosophy area, the industry, one of the leaders, I should say, they've developed something called the S.C.O.P.E. Principle?

Nichole Mena:              02:03                That's correct.

Jeff Lambert:                02:04                So let's talk about the S.C.O.P.E. principle, I guess overall, but before we get into the acronym, what is the S.C.O.P.E. Principle?

Nichole Mena:              02:09                So it's just an easy way to make sure you're injecting empathy across your organization. And each letter stands for a way you can check or develop this.

Jeff Lambert:                02:19                Okay. So we're going to go through each letter. if you're listening at home, grab a pen, but not if you're driving. So let's start off with "S" that stands for "Standardized." What does that refer to?

Nichole Mena:              02:29                So making sure the information about your product is the same across every team in your organization. So there's never any confusion for the customer.

Jeff Lambert:                02:39                So whether I call sales or tech support, I'm getting that same treatment, that same message?

Nichole Mena:              02:44                That's correct.

Jeff Lambert:                02:44                Okay, I can see why that's important. I mean, no one likes the run-around when they're calling different departments! So we have "S" let's go to "C" which stands for "Contextualize" right? What does that refer to?

Nichole Mena:              02:57                So you want to teach anyone in your company who communicates with the customer these three questions. The first is - what actions have happened prior to this point? The second is - what activities brought someone to this point? And then the third - what type of question is being asked and how has the prior actions and activities influenced the current situation?

Jeff Lambert:                03:21                So I can see anybody who is answering a phone or an email at a company, if they have those three questions in front of them, that really helps them. Just take a minute and figure out where the customer is before responding?

Nichole Mena:              03:32                Yes, exactly.

Jeff Lambert:                03:32                I can see why that would be helpful to any business. It really frames what's going on. So we have "S" and we have "C" so let's go to "O", which stands for "Optimize." What does that refer to?

Nichole Mena:              03:43                Right. So your content will need to be tweaked depending on the channel you release it on. Optimize it to decrease the frustration of those who really interact with it. So as an example, let's say Instagram, doesn't let you insert links to your posts if you have less than 500 followers. So inserting a link into descriptions is useless at that point. So you might want to use Facebook and Twitter and stuff.

Jeff Lambert:                04:13                Okay. So it's really about just making sure that no matter the channel I'm using it fits into that. And that's a good point about Instagram. I've gone through posts and they ask you to go to their website and then it's just there. I'm not going to copy-paste that into a browser and keep going. There's better ways to do it.

Nichole Mena:              04:30                Of course there is.

Jeff Lambert:                04:31                But that also means more time for me as a business owner, or someone who is under my employ. is it worth it to optimize my content?

Nichole Mena:              04:39                Oh, it's always worth it to optimize your content.

Jeff Lambert:                04:41                Okay. Very good. So that brings us to "P" then, which stands for "Personalize." What does that refer to?

Nichole Mena:              04:48                So personalize is really trying to tailor the interaction you have with customers into the step in the journey; leveraging that data that you've collected really allows you to do this.

Jeff Lambert:                05:00                So does that refer to when we talked about the buyer's journey earlier, right? If I'm in the awareness stage, I'm probably going to want to tailor my discussions and my resources I'm providing to where they are.

Nichole Mena:              05:11                That's exactly it.

Jeff Lambert:                05:11                Yeah. Okay. Good to know. So that brings us to the end of S.C.O.P.E., which stands for what we began talking about, which is "Empathize." If you could just round it all back out for us again, what should that letter really embody for us?

Nichole Mena:              05:24                Right. So things can get pretty tense when communicating with customers. So really this is about remembering to deliver the emotionally correct response first and foremost before delivering factually correct information.

Jeff Lambert:                05:40                So you're saying I shouldn't act rudely to my customers?

Nichole Mena:              05:43                Yes, that's what I'm saying.

Jeff Lambert:                05:46                Easier said than done. Right?

Nichole Mena:              05:47                Sometimes it is, yes.

Jeff Lambert:                05:49                Well, I think that's a good rule for everybody to keep in mind, the S.C.O.P.E. Principle, by the acronyms to be able to really think about how you inject empathy into your company. Nichole, thank you so much for coming by today.

Nichole Mena:              06:01                Thanks for having me again, Jeff.

Jeff Lambert:                06:03                We'll see you on another episode.

Nichole Mena:              06:04                I'm sure.

Jeff Lambert:                06:04                Sounds good. And to our listeners, thank you for tuning into another episode. Remember we release new ones every weekday. They're never longer than 10 minutes and always filled with advice that can help you be able to grow your business. If you're looking for a little marketing help, if you're looking for results, if you're looking for a company that you can partner with who's really focused on relationships, I would really advise that you check out Rizen. They're available at gorizen.com and they offer a full suite of marketing services. In addition, you can interact with them on social media. They're available at RizenInbound. Again, that's one word, RizenInbound, and they're available on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. Thanks again for tuning in for another episode and we'll see you on the next one.

 

Want to stay in the know?

Join us, and get all the podcasts and more straight to your inbox.

 

You May Also Like

These Stories on Inbound Marketing

Subscribe by Email

No Comments Yet

Let us know what you think