Where's my customer? The Impact of Social Media on Selling
Webinar: 2/28/08
James Hilliard, Moderator, TechRepublic
Jay Deragon
A brand is no longer what a retailer tells a customer, but what individuals tell brands.
Facebook as launching pad for new businesses
50 groups on Facebook, all started about "Conversations on..."
Case study: conversation on Facebook about Comcast
Doc Searls
Only need two or three people to start a conversation
Doc recommends starting conversations on blogs because Google can find them, but can't find conversations on Facebook
Presentations slide:
Transparency
Increased expectations
BAD experiences shared
Influence of Collective Customers
Mark Twain: Honest if the best policy, because you don't have to remember anything
Jay:
The mindset of the corporation fears this
Fortune 500 Bank case study
Bank did not want to create a medium for customers can talk about them, because feared results
Moderator:
Newer companies get the social web
Older companies do not
Does the mean that it will take sometime before the social web begins to change things?
Business 3.0: Profiles
800 business have business profiles on Facebook?
It is a mindset, not FEARFUL of getting feedback
Business owners asking: Tell us what we can do better?
Actually move forward on those kinds of conversations
Include the individuals in conversations
Small businesses eager to learn from customers
Entreprenuers are eager to grow
When they started out small, the overwhelming passion was to serve the customer
Earlier comment by Doc: Some large corporations have entreprenuerial teams working on new concepts
Question is how can you institutionalize systems that take in customer input?
Doc on CRM vs VRM systems:
The number of variables on the customer side will begin to resemble the relationships between vendors
Companies are not used to customers having that much power
Case study: Tabblo.com
Want customers to choose us because they like our systems
Companies need to begin to get used to the idea that they cannot control customers
Be open to feedback that might create revenue opportunities, like
"I want to talk with a LIVE person within 60 seconds, and I am willing to pay for it.
Customer's data belongs to the customer not just the company
Jay: Complaining about redundancy, barriers to communicating across networks using a single post
How long before that happens?
Doc: In some ways it's 10 to 15 minutes, in other ways, it's 15 years
The future is here, it's just not evenly distributed
(Could be said about alternative real estate commissions, too)
Big difference between CRM and VRM is that VRM gets rid of guess work.
Case study: Will all be able to control our own health data
Also going to be able to post
Case study: Krugle
So many open source building blocks
(Best approach to MHC?)
"just a matter of resourcefulness of entreprenuers and hackers to put these things together.
Presentation slide:
How to Harness the Power
Ask the Customer
Don't Ask and Not Do
Does the Organization Know How to Relate
Ask your Employees
Let the Customer Work for You
(See Real Estate Cafe's "Tipping Policy"
Add to RECafe coop ad ASAP!)
Moderator: Focusing on Letting the Customer Work for You
Instead of shoving stuff at the customer, let the customer tell you what they want
If you want to see how a company is responding to these kind of conversations, check out Comcast Facebook group
Change is not going to happen at the change of a switch
Doc: Five fortune 500 companies
GM
Microsoft has been creating Usenet groups since the 1990s
DELL: See IdeaStore!
Invited customers to tell them what they want them to build
Moderator: What will happens to companies that do NOT embrace the social web?
Doc: Those companies will die. "Being clueless" did not have a cost, now it does. The web will become more and more an essential utility. High speed internet running over cellphones will be a basic utility in the future, like roads, sewers, etc.
Presentation slide:
Where will the customer go?
Identify obstacles and remove them!
Comcast setting up a group asking customers to tell them how to reduce their cost!
Presentation slide:
1. Our mind
2. Our methods
3. Our relations
4. YOUR market
Best kind of customer service is THEIR input!
"Never moan. Do not be a victim. Either raise hell and change the game or get out of here."
Jack Welch, Former CEO of GE Capital
Jay; 600 million people (check stat --worldwide number?) involved in the social web and growing
dsearls@cyber.law.harvard.edu
jay.deragon@gmail.com
The notion that you OWN th
Ban the use of the word CONSUMER, people are not just consuming anymore, they are PRODUCING!
Treat consumers with far more respect
They will be interacting with us on THEIR terms
That's why the ability to give INPUT is the most important form of customer service!
Must have an OPEN API approach
Look for solutions to be provided from the customer
Jay: If you are already experimenting on the social web, keep trying
See speaker bios and links to blog on webinar link above. Conversation will continue online.
Comments (0)
You don't have permission to comment on this page.