Great use of online video. Fans of the Indiana Jones series posted questions on Seesmic and had members of the cast and crew - including Harrison Ford and Steven Spielsberg reply. One of the fans happened to be a journalist who never even went to Cannes. As she says, the video interchange has a dynamic to it that makes it feel more intimate and direct. Not like the stage managed interviews that many stars undertake. The journalist (Jemima Kiss of the Guardian) was in her PJ's when she recorded the question!

Now imagine senior management of a company using Seesmic or similar products to engage with customers around the launch of a new product or service or respond to feedback following an 'open beta' programme. What sort buzz would that create amongst their customer base? How would that enhance customer relations? Imagine you could get some of the design team to also answer questions? Such a 'corporate outreach programme' would have a positive effect especially when senior management is usually so inaccessible to the customer base (and many employees too!) 

News here of two charities using social media platforms to create 'communities of interest'. Two interesting points. The use by charities of social networking platforms and mutual co-operation.

Charities know that people who give to one charity are likely to continue to support them. Equally other charities focussed on similar good causes are lilkely to be supported by those same people. By linking two complimentary charities there will operational efficiencies and an ability to target donors with a propensity to support both. The item of focus is sometimes called the social object. The product or service that people can identify with.

For commercial organisations it is sometimes not easy to visualise 'communities of interest' or what the social object will be. Fanatics, fans, followers and friends exist for almost everything. Name it and a group is likely to exist. As a company the challenge is finding those groups and plugging into them by listening and joining in the ongoing conversation.

It is not 'in-your-face' interrupt marketing and PR but participating and releasing information the community requests, in a format they find useful. It is building a rapport with them and finding out what you can help them with. For many organisations that will sound a lot like 1to1 marketing and CRM and in many ways it is, but without the expensive software. But it is still a cultural shift for many organisations. Remember 30 years ago the adverts for the Midland Bank - the listening bank? That is what organisations need to become. Many have outsourced many of the customer facing functions. Customer service and customer support is now often outsourced and if not they are not usually integrated into marketing. These are not usually 'barriers' the customers want or enjoy using. They want to engage with the company direct. 

You will find members of your communities are only too eager to help you by making useful suggestions (not always what you want to hear!) on what you can do to improve your customer service or product By monioring the internet buzz you will find out just what people think about you. By engaging with your online community you will be able to get a 365/24 feedback on how you are doing.

Twitter is being used by companies who want to find out more about their online reputation and hear about potential issues often before their customer services systems pick it up as an issue.

Great insights into how one company is using Twitter to focus managements attention and resources to fix issues. What you will notice is that although some people complain that this is only a PR ploy by the company, others, who have benefited, come to the companies defence.

Starbucks recently announced a 'customer conversation'. Quite a few people were unsure of the value. Would they listen? Would they act?

The answers. Yes and yes.

Starbucks actions? They have brought back their free 'testing taster' and responded to another top wish from the over 1000 people who have commented. Check it out

The company does monitor Twitter and the blogosphere. They did see the postings and did react...

This is the story...

The reason for the share price melt down at Rentokil was covered in the Times Online today by Patrick Hosking.

If only the senior management team understood how to use the blogosphere to do a 'health check' on company brand reputation and customer satisfaction much of this could have been avoided...

This is a copy of the e-mail I sent to the journalist...

Patrick,

Pity the management did not have their service department or marketing team monitoring the blogosphere or they would have known immediately what was happening.

 As you say….

Rentokil’s failure to understand what was going on appears to be a serious indictment of its systems. It casts doubt on the quality of both its management information arrangements and its reporting lines.

How long does it take senior management to type its own company name into Google Alerts and see customer woes? How long does it take to contact a few of the disgruntled customers and get their stories first hand? How long does it take senior management to ask the City Link operations team for an explanation?

 No need to pay expensive marketing agencies to survey customers months after the fact. Read the full facts – praises and brickbats – from the ‘front line’ customers…

 To see where it was all going wrong they could have read these examples….read and weep as the very processes the management team set up to ‘improve service’ undermine it!

http://nathanmakan.wordpress.com/2008/02/18/city-link/

 http://forums.cclonline.com/showthread.php?t=8923

 http://www.angier.co.uk/david/2008-01-04-city-link-customer-service

 http://www.fsb.org.uk/discuss/forum_posts.asp?TID=490&PID=5043#5043

1to1 experts Peppers and Rogers share their thoughts on what they see as important where social media and CRM will intersect in 2008.

Listen to the podcast. This is how they see the trends from 2007

Martha Rogers: We are seeing a continued rise in the amount of influence customers have over each other. What a total stranger posts on a Web site -- reviewing a book, evaluating a product, or rating a hotel room -- actually has more influence than all the advertising that a company could ever create. In addition to that, we also see a huge rise in the influence of employees over customers and vice versa, not through official channels, but on Web sites and blogs.

More and more we're going to see how important it is for companies to build strong and trusting relationships with their employees, to know that those employees are building strong and trusting relationships with customers, who have such huge influence over each other.

Don Peppers: I think the trend toward consumer self-help is also very important. Consumers are taking charge of their own service, facilitated not just by the manufacturer but by Web 2.0 technologies and by other customers. I think that it's a very big trend that marketing and customer service professionals can't ignore.

About a six weeks ago I was sweet talked into changing from BT to Talk Talk free broadband. I was not looking for a move but free calls to landlines and some mobiles plus free broadband for a flat fee seemed reasonable. Also the speed offered was above anything BT had offered. I queried that but Talk Talk assured me that their own equipment in the exchange meant they could get a faster line than BT could. I explained I was a home worker and needed reliability and speed.

I was told I would get everything I wanted an that my current modem and installation was fine.

The first thing to go wrong was I did not receive the 'Welcome pack' so on the day of switch off by the old provider I could not connect to the internet but the help line got me sorted very well in 12 minutes or so. No real problem except queuing to get answered had taken 14 minutes on top of the 12 minutes.

But from day 1 the line was flakey. The connection kept being dropped. Sometimes for a few seconds and sometimes for many minutes. Then two days later I went 'off-line' for 3 hours. Then two days later I lost it for a whole afternoon. I rang the support line and was answered in India I think. The line quality was not the easiest to work with but I guess for costs outsourcing must help Talk Talk make it free. We went through the help script. Everything checked out so I got the 'take two asprins and go to bed' Doctors response (we don't know what is wrong but hope it is better in the morning). I expained I was using the same PC equipment with the same wireless modem I had used for years without connection problems and in less than a week had more downtime that in 5 years with BT. Another week went by with much the same pattern. My next call to the support people had me buy new microfilters (never mentioned as a possible need during the sales pitch). I was also asked to move my wireless laptop away from the modem and try that. I still had the same issues so I called support again.

Again I was told - buy new filters and move laptop but now I was told to move the DEC phone away. In effect I had to move my office around. Never a problem before with the same kit and BT but hey ho it is free and my office could do with a change around (not!)

A few days later I am still having a problem. A call again has me being told - change the microfilters, move laptop away from router, move DEC phone away....yes done.... OK. Please move the modem and wire direct into the phone line socket. Wow and move the lounge furniture? I cannot wait to see what else I will be asked.

The sales person had never said to get free broadband I would have to rearrange my whole study and now move the router into the lounge. Wait for it.....I bet I will only be able to use my wireless laptop in the same room as the modem as my study will be too far away to use it! (Actually I don't know that yet)

Last weekend as usual the connection was flakey until it went off at 9.15am Sunday am. By 2pm I needed access urgently. So I phoned and talked to the Indian or Australian support desk. Guess what - I had to repeat myself and explain I had done everything they asked. Eventually I said I wanted to cancel my 'non-service'. That was when I was told that it would cost me £70! I had been charged £30 for a service that have never worked properly - certainly spending hours on the phone (and running up support call costs) plus lost working hours sort of wipes out any free purchase price. Now - they wanted to charge me to disconnect something that did not work. The sales person never mentioned that.

I asked to speak to a manager or have an e-mail address so I could contact them. I was told that there was no e-mail address available. I could only talk to them or disconnections and it would cost me £70 to terminate the service. I asked to speak to someone at a higher level. I did and having told them I had done everything in their script was told they would run diagnostic checks. She then informed me she had 'confirmed' my complaint but I would have to take it to a level 2 operator. The sales person had never said I would need to double justify not getting a service.

I wrote an e-mail to an address I found on the bill on Monday 10th - just about a month after this saga started. This is what I said:

Comment:
I am totally frustrated at the poor connection and unreliable nature of broadband. It has never worked properly since day 1 with the line dropping every few minutes and then being 'off-air' for hours. I work from home so this is a disaster. I will be in the middle of sending a large file and it will not get sent as the line drops. Before switching (from BT broadband) the sales person said it would be simple and done at the switchboard. Since then I have spent hours on the phone to what sounds to be Indian and Australian help desks that have told me (following the same script?) to change all the microfilters, move the wireless router away from my laptop or DEC phone and then to physically relocate the wireless modem and connect it direct to the master phone socket! All these requirements were never mentioned at the time of sale! I now have a wireless modem in my lounge which is not what I wanted. Why is this necessary as I have had BT ISDN and ISDN2 and then the same broadband wireless router happily working near my Dec phone and laptop for years? The latest incident was yesterday. I was online to the internet and e-mail at 8.30am for half an hour (with frequent line drops) and then nothing. By 2pm I still did not have a connection and urgently needed access to my e-mail so I started trying to call your help desk. After many minutes wait and being put on hold I was again asked to do all the things I already have done (don't you guys keep notes?) and then told a engineer would come and if 'my fault' I would be charged £140. (This related to the phone line being down too at the time) At that point I asked for the broadband service to be cancelled. I was told that would cost me £70! I asked to speak to a manager or have an e-mail address. I was told a manager was not available and no e-mail address was provided. I asked to escalate the problem. I was then put through to someone who said EXACTLY the same script to me (microfilters, direct connect etc). Finally she said she would run some tests. She then said my problem was 'validated' (after 3 weeks of complaining!) and I would have to speak to a '2nd level' and she would transfer me. She then said she could not transfer me as they were 'too busy' and I would have to call myself. I am trying to run a small business. In all the years with BT I have never had to make so many calls for support. 

I paid you guys £30 to install a service and although free it has never worked properly. This is costing me time and money to sort out. The only thing that has changed is switching from BT to TalkTalk exchange lines. Why would that suddenly cause a modem or microfilter fault? They have been fine for years. To check the kit (that you said would be ok) could cost me £140 and yet to say 'no thanks' to something that has never worked reliably will cost me another £70. This is no way to keep a customer happy.

I just want to cancel my free broadband and go back to Talk Talk. It is costing me too much time and effort and is not working releiably enough to use as a home worker. Refund me my £30 and do NOT try and charge me £70.

I await your response with interst.

Regards

======================================================================================

This is what I received back 2 days later:

In the latest edition of 1to1 Weekly Dr Martha Rogers says a recent US report highlights CEO's are again focussing on the customer. As she puts it...

"After years spent dealing with issues revolving around governance and regulatory changes, CEOs at public companies are focusing more on a long-overlooked aspect of their business: customers."

Source: 3rd Annual NYSE CEO Report

The key part of Martha's article says

"For example, CEOs are planning greater investment (both budget- and time-wise) on managing customer relationships than in the past. The importance of sales growth -- driven by customers -- as a performance measure has increased by 11 percent since the prior study. And on the strategic side, brand, reputation, and investments in corporate social responsibility -- all focused on winning customers -- are increasingly important. CEOs continue to recognize the costliness of losing customers."

Apple last week announced a price cut of $200 on the iPhone only a few weeks after its initial introduction. Many of those customers who had queued overnight to be the first in town to buy one were understandably upset. They contacted Apple and commented on various Forums as to their displeasure.

Whilst there are many angles to this story. Are sales so poor Apple are slashing prices? Do they fear competitors enetering? Is another model on its way for Christmas? Maybe. Maybe not. The real story for me is the speed of response. Most companies when they make a 'mistake' use delaying tactics to either give them time to decide how to respond or hope it will all blow over.

Commendably Apple did not. They reacted and although the apology was couched with self justification, there is a $100 rebate (see open letter from Steve Jobs on Apples site). Will this be enough? Probably. Apple customers are very loyal.

Recent research by Hitwise has shown that the 55+ group are set to replace the 35 – 44 year olds as the largest share of internet users.

The report shows that money matters, travel and news are the most popular sites visited.

Based upon my own personal observations of a number of people in this age group this is what they are using the internet for:

• E-mail - keeping in touch with kids, grandkids and family
• Digital picture sharing - sending/receiving pictures
• E-commerce – on a budget this group can be savvy purchasers so they use comparison sites to rate products and compare prices. Many still then purchase in the High Street but increasing numbers are then buying online.
• Travel – cheap flights and time rich they want to ‘see the world’ before getting too old so are putting a package of hotels and flights online. The better off are cruising.
• News – keeping in touch is important and more are using this rather than newspapers as an information source
• Hobbies – many have interests to keep the active mentally and physically and they will visit targeted web sites
• Financial information – many track stock markets or other financial news as they are focussed on their pensions and income as they are retired, semi retired or close to retirement

A posting by Keith Collins sees social media as being a repackaging of 'the customer is King' mantra. In saying this he fundementally misunderstands the power behind the throne and what I am sure was closer to reality.

Large corporations liked to say the 'Customer as King' was on the basis that the company was King maker. If you did not follow the company stipulated process and procedures you could risk being deposed. The companies command and control system was run for the benefit of organisation and not the customer.

How many people wanted customer services outsourced abroad? How many patients have lobbied local NHS Trusts or the Government to close local hospitals and transfer services to 'super-hubs' miles away? Companies basically set the agenda and strategies based upon financial and business needs. Customers could 'like it or lump it'. If unhappy with any aspect of service or product the customer had a real problem getting a hearing. The company hierachy would mean the customer had to chase around from department to department, holding on while muzak played - all the time running up call charges. In total frustration some would go to consumer TV programmes like Watchdog or That's Life to try and get their cases heard. Most would simply be upset, maybe change supplier and rubbish the company within their own social network of friends and family. To be honest for a large organisation it was like a mosquito bite on an elephant.

Today it has changed. Customers can tell the world if they are unhappy. Using social media (podcasts and blogs) and the internet an unhappy customer can let the world know what is happening and see if anyone else is out there with similar problems. Gone are the days when the company could 'fob' the customer off with a story that 'no one else is having that problem. Sorry cannot help'.

Customers who feel ignored or disgruntled can now become not so much a King as a Town Crier and use the internet to tell the world their story. Companies who ignore the social media space and the power it gives to users to share information quickly run the risk of misjudging not only the power of the customer, but their ability to find and connect with many others like them. Suddenly we are not talking about a single mosquito but a swarm and one that can grow big very fast!

A posting by Jackie Huba shows how some US based companies are engaging with customers (and non-customers) to create video advertising to use online. While the number of participants is low (to be expected as it takes time to script, rehearse, light and record a video and then edit it, add music etc) the quality and creative vision can be high. It is also a fantastic 'snap shot' for the company product marketers to see what sort of 'relationship' people are exploring with the brand. Another bonus for the company is that the whole prize and promotion costs could well be less than employing a professional marketing agency do the same job.

Whilst only a few hundred may actively participate in the competition many more will view the shortlisted entries or winners. That could create quite a buzz.

Seems that Country Living continues to upset its blogger community bearing in mind this comment on my earlier post by one of those bloggers... 

The saga continues - it seems that the columnist job was now only for the one month - September - another rule change. No where in the rules that we all read did it say put your heart and soul into the competiton and you will be rewarded with one column. One column does not a columnist make, in my magazine anyway!!

Some people are now looking at Sales Promotion and Competition legislation and best practice guidelines and asking County Living how they applied such rules to this competition.

I feel that this one still has a way to run but for many bloggers they are now ex-readers of the magazine.

I was always told 'if you make a customer a promise - treat it as a contract'.

Another story of competitions and loss of trust? This time it is in the upmarket glossy magazine market. Country Life Country Living recently ran a competition to find a new columist. They had announced that that the readers would be able vote for the winner from amongst the magazines blogger community. Midway through the competition the editor changed the rules and decided the winner would be selected by magazine editorial staff and not the readers. Worse was that those shortlisted by the editorial staff were not necessarily recognised as being valid by the blogging community.

Not sure what is going on there but seems a real 'own goal' to get an active part of your readership interested, change your mind and then seemingly rubbish peoples skill and judgement when justifying what you did.

Story source: Press Gazette

A recent report from McKinsey, the management consultants, looked at customer service and how frontline engagements can make or break customer relations.

The report highlights the findings from Forrester Research in 2005 that only 10% of companies surveyed agreed strongly that the CRM project had met business expectations.

Yet academic research and business analysis has shown consistently that enhancing the breadth and depth of customer relationships converts into an improved P&L. It is much more cost effective to up-sell and cross-sell than it is to acquire new customers. The cost of acquisition in many industries means it takes time, sometimes years, to achieve pay-back, With churn in early years many companies are spending money on winning customers who they lose before they regain any of the costs.

What McKinsey discusses is the importance of creating a ‘spark’ to turn a sceptical or negative customer into a committed loyal one. When a customer is unhappy with the service or product there is a ‘moment of truth’. If handled well the negativity can be reversed and an evangelist created. It is critical employees feel able put the customer ahead of the businesses or their own agenda. Other research has shown that most people do not complain but those that do often have extensive contacts. They will use this social network of contacts to relate their experience – good or bad.  

Research on the European banking industry showed the following depending on if the customer considered they had either a positive or negative experience of the bank addressing their issues:

Whilst over a quarter of people ‘do nothing’ when upset they will probably tell people in their social network about their issues. But others will reduce spend and tell people!

McKinsey have estimated the ‘wallet gap’ in spending is 20% from positive to negative.

Whilst CRM deployments improve business efficiency especially routine processing tasks they often have little positive effect on the emotional engagement with customers.

Customer emotional engagement is a human-to-human action. The engagement happens at multiple levels: thoughts and feelings, values and beliefs and personal and emotional needs.

At one level this is company cultural issue. The core philosophy of the company has to be aligned to re-enforce the attitudes and behaviour of staff when interfacing to customers.

How can this by achieved?

McKinsey’s identify 4 areas to ensure employees are able to ensuring positive ‘moments of truth’ for a customer:

·         Employee self empowerment to put customers needs above all else

·         Positive outlook

·         Empathetic awareness of themselves and customers

·         Selfless approach

They also identify what they call ‘environmental levers’. These are the support and personal development infrastructure that management provides to employees

• Create clear meaning and clarity of purpose for employee role
• Opportunities to improve capabilities
• Reward infrastructure
• Visible and active leadership (‘walk the talk’)

Comment:

Looking at previous research on employee engagement we see there is a big delta between the ideal as expressed above and the reality with many companies. A large percentage of employees do not feel engaged or communicated with, do not trust their managers and so will not recommend their company to others.

If employees are not positive about things how can they even start to help a negative customer become positive at a ‘moment of truth’? It just will not happen. A CRM investment must be matched by a customer centric culture, attitude and behaviours or the ROI will just not happen.

Cambridge University has just published extracts from the latest European Social Survey into well-being which started in 2002. Every 2 years 20,000 people across European are interviewed. The objective is to see how happy people are and their longer term satisfaction and what factors influence this.