Customer Connection
Tuesday: October 23, 2007 6:51 AM
There is axiom that states that if you connect customers then you connect them to your brand. This indicates that if you provide the means by which customers can get together and share information, knowledge, and best practices with each other, then they will repay you with brand loyalty. This would apply to both the consumers of the products/services as well as the producer; producer indicating our business partners. The availability of easy to deploy Web 2.0 tools, it’s hard to imagine an organization not taking advantage of this idea.
For example, suppose we provided a place for customers to review, rate, provide feedback on our products. What would happen to our brand? Old school belief is that customers will just complain and point out all of the flaws in the product. But they are going to do that anyway on review sites like epinions.com or Amazon.com. At least in your environment you can provide a fair response and offer to sell additional services. Sometime the customers that complain, just want you to improve your product so they can buy more.
How about internally to the organization? Why isn’t every product or service offering on internal Social Software opening themselves up for review? The obvious answer is that customers will just complain and point out all of the flaws. This would destroy the perception we have created with upper management (Rose colored glass anyone). Yes, that may be true but then you have the opportunity to correct the issues and raise your game to the next level. Maybe you will streamline a process, simplify a screen, improve the SLA, or add new features that generate real value. We have been blogging on Sharepoint, Enterprise 2.0 and opening our organization up for all kinds of feedback. We hare our metrics and provide everything online in the client-support environment. Over the past five years, not one single complaint or issue raised wasn’t warranted. By being open and allowing customers to feel like they can provide us honest feedback, we get better over time. That’s the essence of transparency and connecting customers. You get the real picture of your product or service not the perceived one. This allows you, the leader of the group, to improve your offering and enhance the value delivered to the business.
There is axiom that states that if you connect customers then you connect them to your brand. This indicates that if you provide the means by which customers can get together and share information, knowledge, and best practices with each other, then they will repay you with brand loyalty. This would apply to both the consumers of the products/services as well as the producer; producer indicating our business partners. The availability of easy to deploy Web 2.0 tools, it’s hard to imagine an organization not taking advantage of this idea.
For example, suppose we provided a place for customers to review, rate, provide feedback on our products. What would happen to our brand? Old school belief is that customers will just complain and point out all of the flaws in the product. But they are going to do that anyway on review sites like epinions.com or Amazon.com. At least in your environment you can provide a fair response and offer to sell additional services. Sometime the customers that complain, just want you to improve your product so they can buy more.
How about internally to the organization? Why isn’t every product or service offering on internal Social Software opening themselves up for review? The obvious answer is that customers will just complain and point out all of the flaws. This would destroy the perception we have created with upper management (Rose colored glass anyone). Yes, that may be true but then you have the opportunity to correct the issues and raise your game to the next level. Maybe you will streamline a process, simplify a screen, improve the SLA, or add new features that generate real value. We have been blogging on Sharepoint, Enterprise 2.0 and opening our organization up for all kinds of feedback. We hare our metrics and provide everything online in the client-support environment. Over the past five years, not one single complaint or issue raised wasn’t warranted. By being open and allowing customers to feel like they can provide us honest feedback, we get better over time. That’s the essence of transparency and connecting customers. You get the real picture of your product or service not the perceived one. This allows you, the leader of the group, to improve your offering and enhance the value delivered to the business.
