Archive for the 'brilliant basics' Category

I’m often struck by how many businesses look for silver bullets. Other people’s silver bullets at that. We want to visit this or that, we want to copy this or that, where can I get an idea for x or y.

One thing I’ve learned from nearly 15+  years of judging awards is that silver bullets don’t work. The best businesses realise they need  to connect everything, deliver consistently to their promise and work really really hard at making brilliant basics feel exciting. They need all the factors to be aligned around something – a common vision, a purpose or a set of values for example.

One of the companies which has made an outstanding differentiation from brilliant basics and sticking to its values is first direct. I interviewed one of the early MDs of first direct, Kevin Newman. One thing he said has stuck in my mind.

“Culture comes from leadership. I have a strong philosophy that the level of service to any set of customers is related to the culture of the company. If an agent is in the 8th hour of their shift our whole business is down to the way they speak to that customer. That’s driven by how they feel about themselves. We have to make people feel valued. You can’t force it – they feel it or they don’t.”

You can read more about first direct’s DNA on our white paper “100 things you can learn from first direct“.

Of course its much harder to focus for years on brilliant basics – delivering what customers want and doing it really really well. Its harder to be famous for it, Its hard to do. You have to align so many factors from brand to sales experience to service to process to infrastructure. It isn’t all shiny and fast like a silver bullet. But it is what customers appreciate.

So what brought these thoughts to mind? 2 things.

1) This morning I screwed up the location for a meeting by forgetting part of our own brilliant basics. Setting up a meeting to work.

2) The awards I was at last week and why some people won and some people didn’t. You can see some brilliant learning case studies on the finalists at the Professional Planning Forum Awards.

It was great to see DRL (Appliances Online) add the overall award to their European Contact Centre win using our “Best Service Is No Service” approach. You can download the case study if you want.

100 things, Best Service Is No Service, awards, brilliant basics, first direct, success factors | No Comments

Waiting for the number 73 bus this morning at Victoria station I observed a fairly typical ‘getting to work’ experience, similar to what must happen every day somewhere in London. What it did though was make me think of how each of us in our day to day interactions can impact each other, irrespective of the roles that we play. 

In this case it was the bus driver. 

If you know Victoria bus station you can visualise the lines of buses, each sorted into their respective number, sometimes 3 or 4 bus’s in the same line, and the prospective passengers all queuing. 

What should happen is that as one moves out the next one moves up, opens the doors, fills up and goes out. Simple!. Not so this morning, I’d just missed one bus, but no problem, there were 3 more ready to go. As expected the next bus pulls up, but instead of opening the door the driver starts making a phone call, then gets out his PC notebook and starts tapping away. Ah, I think obviously updating route information etc. very necessary. (at this point I was however thinking that the sunglasses on the driver were not really that important on a grey February morning). 

Now time is a very funny thing, when waiting in a queue it stretches, so that 30 seconds to a minute becomes 10 minutes to 30. 

Still the doors did not open and by now the queue was getting restless as time went into stretch and frustration mode. 

Still phone calls continued with PC being updated. Officialdom stepped in in the form of a man in a yellow jacket, who appeared to be told it was none of his business, man in yellow jacket called an even more important man in yellow jacket who evidently had the authority. PC and phone were put away and doors opened. 

Now the interesting thing was the behaviours of the passengers. From being robotic commuters they became angry commuters, with lots of mutterings and gestures. The driver ignored all, and stared straight ahead. which just made it worse. 

In reality we had waited no more than 2 minutes, if that, but it seemed like ages. It was cold outside and it appeared that the driver was ignoring us at best and treating us with disdain at worst.

The message is a simple one. If you are delivering service you have to be aware of the impact of every action you take. This is especially important in a public facing role, where every action, gesture or facial expression can be mistaken for boredom, lack of concern or even antagonism towards your customers. Even when on the phone your tone can drive people’s behaviour, making it a pleasant interaction or frustrating experience

Two of the basic rules can eliminate the majority of problems of this type  – always smile and always focus on your customer at all times.

So when your on your way to work tomorrow, smile and think of the other person. Help to make there day a pleasant one.

brilliant basics, customer experience | No Comments

I’m starting a topic of conversation that I will be expanding upon over the next few months, which is ‘Has Customer Service got worse, not better over the last 10 years’.

To prove or disprove this I’m going to put forward my own experiences as examples of what’s good and what’s particularly bad and would love to hear from you as well, all examples or just thoughts on the matter are most welcome.

I’d like to find out what are the true notable exceptions of good service and try to understand how we need to truly and consistently define ‘good’.

I also want to share bad service, stuff that we accept on a day to day basis, but that really should not exist, the really frustrating silly stuff.

I think it’s an inescapable fact that despite the proliferation of ‘life changing technology’ such as the mobile phone, iPhone, laptops, self-service web sites, etc., the channels we have to support service delivery are generally far more complex, and when they don’t  work, are far more frustrating for the customer to handle. 

I want to be able to share recognition of whats good (and what’s not so good) in this new world of multi channel and ‘social’. 

Service Providers, from retail to utilities, with financial services in between have been trying to ‘educate’ customers that self-service is better, that we can find everything we want on the web site, that we don’t need to talk to anyone on the help desk. But is it the reality that they are looking for cheaper, cost effective options to handle the same service queries and problems rather than eliminate the causes of poor service.  Being driven by the financials rather than service experience?

Some of these developments have definitely made life both easier for the customer and cheaper for the business, but how many service providers or web sites can you include in this group.

My feeling is that they are in the low % overall. And this is what I want to prove or disprove with your help. 

Let me share a recent frustrating example;

I bank with HSBC and they have recently changed their security process that enables access to on  line banking.

Previously you had to enter account and pin codes, simple to use, but maybe not very secure. The benefit being my wife and I could easily access the account at any time as long as we had WiFi access.

Now we have a little security card that provides a different ‘live’ pin code every time you want to access the account. Very secure, but two problems.

We have been given only one security card even though we have a joint account (probably only works on one but not clear in supporting ‘blurb’ that came through with it), and I don’t want to carry it around with me in case I lose it.

Result is that I no longer use the on-line service when I am away from home and only use the service in the evenings or at weekends.

This then causes another problem. I frequently transfer money abroad and normally do this online. Unfortunately HSBC (and probably all other banks to be fair) only allow me to do this online between 8am and  3.30pm Monday to Friday. So it’s just another hassle of remembering to take the security card, which I don’t want to do,  then remembering to do the transaction within the set time frames. And to top it all off they charge me a whopping £9 for each electronic transfer after I’ve done all the work! Why?

It’s small stuff but really frustrating. It’s hurdles in the way of smooth service and ease of use. Surely with a little thought and awareness it’s also totally unnecessary.

My impression is that the ‘control’ arm of HSBC has overridden the ‘experience’ arm, or at least convinced them it’s better to make it harder to access your account at any time.

Maybe some of the money spent on the TV advertising could have been spent in re-thinking the processes around the customer experience, or at least showing that they have thought about it.

Please let me have your thoughts and examples  of good and bad, from the straightforward to the complexand maybe we can come up with some standards that represent best practice.

brilliant basics, customer experience, customer experience design | 4 Comments

Customer effort, brilliant basics, customer experience, feedback | No Comments

This isn’t a complaint ( it will be if Avis take money from my credit card). It’s feedback to help Avis improve

It relates to this Tuesday 12th July Belfast City Airport

Buying
a) I tried to book a same day before I left for the airport ( a last minute flight to spend a short surprise evening for my better half’s birthday !!) – the website froze when getting to the car choice/before offering prices. You could click on the car but nothing would happen. Tried several ways and couldn’t get past it. It was either a technical problem or the agent later suggested it was because it was a same day booking which the website cant do – if so then please add that message rather than just “hanging” on me!

b) During this and other recent searches I was getting frequent webchat prompts – its really annoying. If you are doing this during “dwell” times – why not spend the time improving the layout and presentation of your website as a better avoidance of the need for service, rather than adding an additional customer effort and cost to you. If you are going to offer webchat why not put a clear button on the pages so I can choose when to use it ( and a clear phone offer button too)

c) When I did use the webchat the agent told me I’d have to phone as he couldn’t book – surely if the chat is there to improve conversion you need to give them that function? He (“James”)  gave me the number and then “hung up” on me – ie he closed the conversation before I could ask anything else. I suggest you improve your training on conversation etiquette

d) I phoned on the way to the airport and got straight through. The agent had trouble hearing me – mobiles aren’t ideal – but considerably hindered by the background noise in the call centre. It didn’t sound like Manchester or Barcelona – have you outsourced?

e) I made the booking including my wizard number and credit card – he handled it quickly and well ( it seemed…)

Pick up
f) First off the flight and straight through – only one guy in front of me at the desk but it must have been a complex one and there was only one member of staff. A couple of guys behind the screen behind the desk as I walked up were perhaps going off shift as it was 3.47 and a bank holiday in Belfast. I know the time as I texted as I walked up and checked it ten mins later when I saw the stop watches on the counter saying £20 voucher if you wait more than 3 minutes – I didn’t bother picking one up and I never got offered a £20 voucher

g) The lady ( Sandra) apologised for delay when she’d finished ( about 5 past 4) and said she’d not been able to have keys ready as my credit card had failed. I asked the digits and they weren’t recognisable. She said that was what was recorded with my wizard number when I first registered it online – I said it couldn’t be. (Mystery solved later). We used my credit card – all fine. Signed the bits and went to car.

h) Off to car park and found car. Doh – scratches not marked on the sheet. This happens a lot. Avis car park cabin isn’t occupied – drat. Wondering whether to bother going back to the terminal when I notice the paperwork is not in my name – ah that explains the credit card issue. It’s a booking for 5 days, not 14 hours, so I can start to imagine the future credit card bill I’ll no doubt get to sort out. I look for a phone number on the paperwork to ring the desk – not there, so off I trek back to the terminal

i) No queue and we sort out the credit card and another car in short order.  The car has 5 dings marked on the paperwork – this doesn’t bode well as I’m betting there’s more. Why is that car in service? I ask for a phone number and Sandra offers to ring me in 5 mins to check with me

j) I go back out to the cars and guess what – the car has some dings missing and some additional ones. Final straw is the tank isn’t on the full marker. I’m outta here. Sandra rings and I am not happy. I walk back and insist on her sorting out the credit card here and now as I’m going elsewhere. She can’t – I have to ring…… I ring and hand her my phone while I go the next desk and get a car “with no dings in it please”. It takes 2 mins, is bigger for the same price and has no dings. I retrieve my phone and take the desk phone number and Sandra’s name in case the bill becomes a problem. She’s “not allowed” to give out her surname – what’s that about !  Maybe the sign for disgruntled customers on an Avis call centre door in Oklahoma gives a clue  

Its now an hour after I came to the desk first time. That’s one hour out of an evening and a mood that isn’t fit to take to a birthday surprise visit!!  I take my time on the 30 min drive and wonder why I didn’t just phone a cab

Post event
k) At 5.30 next morning I drop the car back and tweeted a question using #avis . I’ve seen no response

l) Today I’m booking again – shall I use Avis? There isn’t anywhere to give suggestions on your website.  The “we try harder” site now looks corporate rather than a forum to give feedback – I couldn’t find anywhere obvious to post. I can only find the complaints email address.

m) I write this journey down in an email – but haven’t sent it yet. Why go to the effort? Avis used to be a really nice client 10 years ago and I’ve used them ever since. I love Angie Court’s passion – is she being missed in Avis UK?

This example shows a typical multichannel customer journey and I can use it as an example. It’s a useful lesson on how the different channels don’t hang together and how some upstream decisions affect the experience eg car condition policy before fixing them, eg resourcing for staff in car park and at desk to do the job fully eg better sound deadening/ microphones in call centre. In isolation some are minor issues, some major – but the real issue is how they add up. This is typical of what causes complaints – no one thing.

More importantly it shows how customer effort can creep into every step. Avis is normally a great example of “The Best Service Is No Service” with very little customer effort – go online, book, pick up key, drop car.

n) The good news ( so far …) is that Avis haven’t taken anything off my credit card

The bottom line
Avis just lost my two bookings for Italy in August – one cost £700+ and the other cost £300.

Have they lost me forever? It depends what happens next. I wont send by email yet, I’ll tweet this and see what happens.

Customer effort, brilliant basics, broken websites, complaint, customer experience, europcar, feedback, listening | No Comments

What’s the most basic service requirement a customer wants from their mobile phone company? An accurate bill? A call centre that answers the phone? No – making and receiving phone calls would be the most basic thing. And it’s become a challenge. The best service is no service has been taken too literally!

I’m old enough to remember when MF tone dialling replaced pulse tone dialling – what does that mean? The phone at the other end started ringing the millisecond you pressed the last digit on the phone. Oh how I wish I could get that on my mobile phone. Some days, working in Soho as we do, I just wish I could make a call after any length of delay. Or just receive a call rather than picking up delayed voicemails on the way home.

It’s not a problem of reception or signal strength, just network congestion. Too many customers doing too many things.

My dilemmas as a customer are simple: Buy out of the contract and move. Or not. I dont have a common sense option of being let out of contract to get a service that works where & when I work.

The dilemmas as a business are slightly different. At a customer by customer level: let the customer out of the contract so they can get service from someone else. Or keep them locked in and take the money. “Bad profits” as Don Peppers calls it. At an investment level: spend many millions ahead of the growth curve to give good access to the services sold. Or slow down products going to market so the network always works. Or keep selling services and don’t worry about it.

So let me sit in the CEO’s chair: What data would I need to answer the question and do the right thing, or at least optimise the outcome? If I am CEO what do I do?

The first issue would be “How will I judge my success?” : Revenue lost/not lost over the next 12 months? Lifetime value of a customer lost times the number of customers lost versus the investment costs in the network? Or just living our values and doing the right thing? With any of these criteria surely it should be an easy decision.

But what about shareholder expectations? Do they want the best answer for this quarter, for this year or the next 5 years? Do they want anything other than a financial or customer head count? Can they judge the future financial value of the change in a short term retention figure? Will they judge your dip in growth of customers, or your long term revenue prospects?

And what if you only run marketing, or only new sales, or only retentions, or only revenues  or only service? How much do you need to optimise the overall success of the business vs your target or result?

These problems surface all over the business. The staff you talk to as a customer live with it everyday. They tell you so. People in store, in contact centres dealing with queries about network congestion which they cannot resolve. They become numb to it. There’s nothing they can do to change it.

Or is there?

As CEO or agent or silo head or customer, I can look on the customer forum and see that 83229 customers from 110078 have viewed a tech support entry called “calls go straight to voicemail”. Its the biggest issue. By far. And its been running from 2008 til now. And the manufacturer is getting a dirty name as their phone is being blamed.

Reading the original thread,  I can see the problem explained “I have a 3g {phone} and am having some problems. The fault is intermitant but happens on a frequent basis. When people call me the call goes straight to voicemail. If they leave a message it can take up to 2 hrs to come through. Also text message are arriving upto the same period after people send them. Sometimes it can take upto 30 secs to connect a call. I have been speaking to second line support at {telco} but they have thus far no answer. I am on my 3rd {phone} and second sim card. I am begining to think I may not be destined for a {phone}. If this continues will they change the handset for a different model ?”

You don’t have to read many posts to realise that customers, collectively, have eliminated all the options and some have worked out its not the phone or the sim – there’s a problem of congestion on the network. Yet tons of resource is still going into swapping phones and sims out.

In fact looking at all the forums there’s only one bigger issue with 153k reads – “Network down”. In fact that runs since 2008.

So maybe the network investment deserves some attention?

But as CEO, or silo head, I need real data to size the problem. This is where our WOCAS processes come in. They can help size the problem, rate the impact problem, root cause the problem, investigate the commercial opportunities around it and put it into a prioritisation framework. And if acted on, track & communicate those actions, transparently. If management wants to do this we know how to do this.

At the moment this provider seems not to be seeing the most basic service problem and no amount of sticking plaster or great measurement system or recovery care service will help that. No amount of “score me” post call feedback is going to help them see it.

Only if they start to talk about the problem openly will staff feel optimism, the investment get to the top of the agenda and customers think differently of them.

If giffgaff ran this network – how would it look then? What data would be published about network performance? What would be done about it? How much more money would it generate by doing the right thing?

And that’s the issue that faces CEOs everywhere – there’s no hiding place in the social world. if you are not open and transparent you face two problems. Customers know anyway and have the tools to share that knowledge. Staff know and if they can’t do anything about it then how do they feel?

I’m off to search the other communities to see who has least congestion problems. Apart from the company that locked me in for a year when they had no network coverage 21 years ago ( thats about £50k of revenue they have missed out on so far ) and the one that didnt want to help me 2 years ago when my phone was stolen and I needed a new phone straight away.

Customers have long memories when it comes to “doing the right thing”. I have a memory of pressing a button and the phone ringing immediately at the other end.  Have phones gone backward since 1976? Or from when they were invented: March 10th 1876?

Crowdsourcong & crowdservicing, Voice of the Customer, WOCAS, brilliant basics, customer experience, feedback, honesty, listening, social media | No Comments

Today I renewed my passport at Victoria. Nightmare or? Read on…

I was impressed. In fact I can’t remember when I was more impressed. It was better service than any such service I have had for quite a while. It had pretty much the least customer effort as it could have had.

It was a really impressive, well designed multi-channel journey.

Here’s the journey:

• Passport coming up for renewal but don’t get many gaps when I don’t need it. Go to directgov and all the options are laid out in detail. Sometimes repetitive, rightly, of the major points.

• The quickest method is to take it to a regional office, all the details are there including maps etc and instructions what do to do, what to take, how to do it.

• I ring the 0300 number to make an appointment. The IVR isn’t too long winded and gives me the obvious option, I go straight through. He checks all the right conditions exist: – it is a renewal, I understand how it works, when to be where and what to bring with me, what it costs. And he gives me a code to bring. I think he asked me if I want a form and I say no I’ll down load one.

• Without being asked, a letter comes through the post confirming the same information again and giving me the code to be sure. It had a leaflet with the same information about what to do as the website.

• This weekend I hit the only snag. I go to the directgov site again to download the application form to go with my fresh, well new at least, photos. Can I find the renewal form? Lots of other forms but not that one and nowhere does it say it doesn’t exist on the site. The only option is for it to be posted to me.

• There is however a feedback slot at the bottom of each page. It explains that they wont respond, but that the feedback is to improve what’s on the site. So I tell them, unsure of whether it will do any good. We hot foot it to a friendly post office on Sunday morning and persuade them to unlock the forms and hand one over. Well two in case I get it wrong !

• This morning I go nice and early for my 930 for 945 appointment. Walking round from Victoria station, there are big signs sticking out so I can see immediately I’m going to the right place. Each different purpose has a different entrance.

• I walk in and the first thing I see is “ You said, we did” posters about how feedback had changed things. I am v impressed – so simple but so good to see. I am greeted by smiling security ( ex guerkhas to a man) and have my coat and bag scanned simply.

• Before I can get my coat on again a lady is asking what name ( so much nicer than what number ) and I’m given a ticket to go to the second floor. Before I can tweet my delight at “you said, we did” my number is called and I spend 2 mins at the counter whilst a genetleman ticks all the boxes on a form to say my paperwork is correct. He gives me a sheet of paper with a bar code and price and I walk to the cashier and pay my not inconsiderable £129 – £50ish more than standard renewal from memory. As per the website, the phone call, the letter he confirms it will be ready to collect in 4 hours.

• This evening I go back to the separately marked exit and join a queue. Uh oh… but no, all they do is take receipts and hand over passports, so the whole thing took 6 minutes despite the queue.

So is this perfect? Not quite but heh its close enough. It’s all basic stuff but a wow to find someone doing the basics right.

It’s very simple and impressive and a great example of designing, delivering and reinforcing a “Best Service Is No Service” journey where knowledge and operations follow quite clearly a common path: I want to renew my passport”.

What could be better?

• They could have picked up that I said I’d get a form off the site and told me on the call (and on the website) I need to go to a post office to get a renewal form. And why.
• They could still come back later saying “you said, we did” when they fix this.
• They could have asked for suggestions in person whilst I was there – I really hope they don’t spoil this experience by sending a rubbish feedback survey out afterwards.
• They could charge me less for doing it all – but frankly the time saved and de-risking of lost documents was worth the extra £50 given that it was done so effortlessly.
• The guy ticking the form and the lady handing over the passport could have been as cheerful as the security and cashiers – but heh, I don’t really need that.

Everything they did was simple, obvious, but evidently well thought through and done in a way to make it as fast and simple as possible. They had baked in the removal of error upstream in the process so errors would not occur on the visit and ruin the result or the experience. All of the information was consistent, whether on the website, phone, leaflet, form, in the building. They had a means to get feedback which was open to me, not a tick box, and it was evidently used.

So well done whoever you are – do step forward and take a bow at the Passport Office.

Seen any multi channel examples as good? Email me if you do

Customer effort, brilliant basics, customer experience design, fast+simple, the best service is no service | 1 Comment

• Each person has a motivation profile, find it and use it
• Recruit the right people for the right roles, rigorously
• Recruit the really good people, the stars you find, even if you don’t have a job for them now
• Recruit for attitude, recruit winners.  People can learn the content of a role
• Balance the teams – task, team players, leaders, followers
• Train, train and train again, together – the team that trains together stays together
• Stretch people – people stay as long as they are learning
• Money is a demotivator, as long as you have enough
• Pay people to do something extra and you will have to keep paying them to do it again
• Make people bring their out of work objectives to work and beat them up if they don’t work on them (“80/20″), driving fulfilment
• Look for people’s strengths eg a secretary can be great at interviews
• Ensure consistency of delivery through process – blame the process, not the people if something goes wrong
• Keep explaining the changing context around people – keep the external world coming in
• Walk the floor (daily) and say good morning to everyone
• Say thank you
• Respect for every person: I see you, I see you too
• Go back to the floor at start of any role and regularly thereafter
• Know the numbers inside out, what drives them and the root causes
• Adopt common thinking and analysing tools so you can form instant teams
• Social glue is vital in your organisation so foster personal relationships and events to cause them
• Celebrate successes

brilliant basics, people | No Comments

My decision to join the Sunday Times Wine Club some years ago was fuelled in equal part by laziness and greed. I enjoy a glass of wine – especially red wine and even more especially good, red wine. But, I do not enjoy having to carry the bottles (I daren’t put ‘cases’ there, even if it is true) back from the shops.

The combination of decent wines, home delivery and a special introductory offer at that time proved irresistible! And I have to say that their customer service, on the odd occasion when I have not been satisfied, has been pretty much exemplary. I have also taken advantage of a couple of their so-called ‘wine plans’ – most recently to try   some Spanish wines – which provide regular deliveries of mixed cases, and a good introduction to a new region. But, I was reaching a point where something different was in order.

Generally I use the website to place orders and have done so successfully throughout my membership. But, on one occasion recently, I was unable to get the website to recognise a voucher that I had to use. I was forced to use the phone to contact them! I say ‘forced’, but it has always been a pleasant and enjoyable experience in the past. There was a longer delay than normal before the phone was answered, and my heart began to sink, but once through my order was handled quickly an efficiently.

Whilst on the phone, I took the opportunity to cancel my wine plan subscription. The adviser asked why I was leaving and tried to retain my business – without being pushy about it. I was left with the feeling of an efficiently executed process and confidence that everything had been done. As an aside, also a professional recognition of good practice in capturing reasons for defection! Happy, I thought that would be the end of the story.

Imagine my surprise when I received a letter a little while later. A letter signed by a senior wine buyer (fascinating choice of job role to author such a letter) expressing his regret that I had decided to cancel and reminding me of all the other ways that I could continue to buy from them. Enclosed with the letter was a card folder with a cartoon on the front, including the words “wish you were here” and a person holding a glass of wine. Inside was a voucher for £10 as an additional incentive – in their words “to nudge me” back in their direction.

The tone of the letter and the lightness of touch hint at a thoroughly well thought-through customer journey and a deep attention to detail. The voucher, a random act of generosity, suggests a genuine desire to retain my business.

Well done Laithwaites (who are the organisation behind the Sunday Times branding)! Now, have you sorted out that website glitch on processing vouchers yet?

brilliant basics, broken websites, customer experience, customer experience design, fast+simple, quality, self service | 2 Comments

The UK General Election has accelerated the interest in what is called ‘social media’ – in this context meaning Twitter, Facebook, Bebo, etc. And in particular, how these new ways of communicating with people can be used to win the election.

A lot of this has to do with the perception that the use of these new tools was hugely influential to Barack Obama’s success in the US Presidential election. We can debate whether this is true or not, but my purpose here is only to recognise that social media has become widely acknowledge and discussed. I want to look at the potential impact social media may have on business.

The current news items are only the public face of a debate that began some time ago in the business and government worlds. But what the added attention has done is move the topic of social media up the corporate agenda – and no doubt many will rush to ‘”do something”, to be seen to be doing something and not to get left behind.

Like most bandwagons, and especially technology-led ones, it pays to be cautious and spend time thinking – hard – about what you want to achieve by engaging in these new forms of communication. In amongst the uncertainty about how organisations should react to this change in customer behaviour, one thing does seem to be certain. There is no going back once you have started. 

Many groups and forums are springing up to address this area, many of which are ill-informed and offering poor advice. But, there is lots of valuable thinking and sharing being done as this new area is explored. One that I like is called Social CRM Pioneers. It has somewhat of a technology slant (which suits my background) but there are some very informative and insightful conversations being had there.

The first question is how to start – what should be done first? There is no single right answer to that, as individual circumstances differ massively, but here are a few thoughts for you.

Your customers have always been having these conversations between themselves about your products and services (although with less reach and fewer people to listen). You now have the possibility to ‘overhear’ what they are saying in these public communities and networks and, if you are careful and respectful, the possibility to be invited into the conversations and maybe influence attitudes and opinions. 

How will this change in customer behaviour affect your corporate culture? Firstly, remember, your employees are customers too – and will be feeling this change first-hand in their everyday lives. So, you probably already have a lot of knowledge internally. Perhaps, you could start by asking employees about their experiences and how they would like brands to interact with them in this environment? Start an internal conversation as a precursor to external conversations.

The rise of Customer Relationship Management (CRM) systems over the last fifteen years should have been accompanied by corporate adaptation to a more customer-centric model, although in most cases only the technology was implemented. Maybe, in this new social revolution we should be building ‘people-centric’ organisations.

That is, not companies facing off to individual customers (remember the ‘market of one’ and 360 degree customer views?) but individual people in organisations building trust and relationships with individual prospects and customers over time and through multiple channels and media – whether that be for marketing, sales or service needs. That would mean organising internally to meet customers’ needs and not simply organising for efficiency.

Oh, and don’t forget that there are a large number of customers who do not not participate in online communities and social media. Their needs must not be overlooked in the seeming stampede for this new promised land.

brilliant basics, culture, customer experience, customer forums, frontline agents, listening, managing, people, social media | No Comments