Socialize what you do – don’t try commercializing the social
Everybody will agree that the social has reentered business and commerce as we know it.
In fact, in the beginning, all business was social. If someone sold you a bad chicken, you would badmouth the business and others would shun it until the merchant cleaned up his act. Then the business infrastructure scaled and we ended up with large multi-national companies. People were still social, but the impact of them being social was no longer affecting business – we became at their merci and the social all but disappeared from business. That is when businesses started to develop real bad habits – treating their employees as commodities and waging war with their customers. With social media, a massive platform of participation, the social infrastructure scaled to the point where the social made a difference once again. And because humans are hardwired to be the only Hyper-Social species without all being siblings – the social made a comeback in business with a vengeance.
So what do you do with that? Smart business people, like many of the ones I interviewed as part of the CMO 2.0 Conversation, will tell you that the only thing you can do is to allow your business processes to become social. Barry Judge, the CMO from Best Buy who I interviewed said: “So to the extent that we can basically be human with what we know, and share it as freely as we possibly can, I think we’ll go a long way towards gaining a higher or stronger level of trust with the consumers.” In talking with Luis Suarez recently, he told me that IBM went as far as letting its complete knowledge management process go social. Pfizer’s Sr. VP of Strategy and Innovation, Kristin Peck, was recently quoted in an interview about their innovation process as saying: “when we thought about innovation,we asked ourselves “how do we make it more social?”"
It looks so obvious, right? Yet what do many companies do? Looking at how to commercialize the social that is happening between their customers and prospects. Buying ads on social networks, trying to develop buzz networks, and paying people for recommendations and word of mouth.
That unfortunately will not work much longer. Let’s just hope that those who try to commercialize the social do not muddy the waters with decreased levels of trust among customers and prospects for the rest of us.
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June 8th, 2009 at 6:45 am
I’d also add that tied in with the word-of-mouth effects of showcasing the ’socialized’ customer service side of your business, comes the business development arm of your strategy as well. Eg.: ‘favoriting’ positive mentions from customers on Twitter allows you to showcase those mentions on site or on other platforms, for potential customers to see and read for themselves. It all seemingly goes hand in hand – customer service, communications, biz dev.
New media and the speed and flexibility at which we can communicate is such a strong hand in today’s customer service – as customer expectations have certainly changed.
Great perspective here, Valeria.
This comment was originally posted on Conversation Agent
June 8th, 2009 at 1:08 pm
Certain companies still don’t understand that there’s always a communication going on between people. It’s much better to engage in a constructive dialog rather than acting out of fear, fear of a confrontation between the company and its customers.
I agree that seeing a face behind a brand makes a big difference, it’s much easier to relate on this level, rather than being flooded with advertising that keeps pushing the same old message.
This comment was originally posted on Conversation Agent
June 8th, 2009 at 1:40 pm
The item keeping me up at night is ensuring our in-store process is followed to the letter; when it breaks down, that’s where our trust factor has the ability to decrease.
If trust, or the unique experience a guest is seeking, isn’t established, then we run the risk of a visitor voicing their thoughts online.
Fortunately for us its not a common occurrence – its all about creating the memorable, unique experience. When done properly, the customers will rave about it – giving us the best WOM possible.
This comment was originally posted on Conversation Agent
June 8th, 2009 at 5:57 pm
@Sonny – if you’re talking about your service live, you have less of a need to request testimonials on a case by case basis. And yes, business development should be one of the natural channels for the information and insight you gain from learning about what customers value.
@Diego – it is also a little easier to have a conversation with a person than it is with an entity. Plus you have an opportunity to ask how you’re doing. That alone can save you a lot in focus groups.
@Eric – do you have a mechanism to document and improve from break downs in the perfect in-store experience? For example, I had dinner at a restaurant last weekend and was seated at a table way in the back, by the wine station in fact, when I had requested a table outside in the reservation. The waiter knew he needed to enlist the help of the store manager, who promptly found a suitable table and all was done in good and positive fashion.
This comment was originally posted on Conversation Agent
June 9th, 2009 at 11:30 am
@Valeria – Absolutely; we have in-store checks & balances to ensure the process stays on track.
Above and beyond that, an escalation process within our CRM system ensure the item is identified by the correct dept. manager, addressed and solved within a specified amount of time.
Automotive consumers just want to be heard – the sooner they are acknowledged & their problem solved, the stronger the trust factor & relationship can become.
This comment was originally posted on Conversation Agent