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Tell Your Stories On Social Networks, Wikis, And Other Social Software

I’m currently working on a story about social software for Bob Thompson’s CRMGuru online community (http://www.crmguru.com , over 200,000 members). I’m looking for good stories/responses to the following questions from folks who are willing to share them. If you have a story to tell* about your company, feel free to drop me an email.

1: Which companies are using social software (esp. social networking, wikis, and the like) in order to better connect with customers? There are quite a few stories regarding blogs and individuals using social networks successfully…how about organizations?
2: Is there an example (or two) of an instance where you have seen a company get closer to its customers as a result of these capabilities?

3: What have been the challenges / downsides for organizations that are attempting it?
4: Are there any things that organizations should consider if they are considering including social software (esp. social networking) as a part of their connection to customers?

So…any good stories out there?

* – PLEASE NOTE: Comments/emails may be quoted in the story. Please feel free to include your name, title, and company.

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RSS: The Most Effective Way to Connect 1:1 With Customers?

Over the past couple of months, a handful of companies have announced their intentions to use RSS (what is RSS?) technology to more effectively communicate with their customers. 

For example, one such company, Coravue, has announced that their new offering "delivers tailored marketing messages to the desktop."  A much-hyped concept for sure, and a goldmine if it works.  But can RSS help bridge the gap to customers more effectively than existing methods such as email and newsletters, not to mention good old-fashioned direct marketing?

In some cases, the answer is yes.  One particular application that springs to mind is the natural synergy between the timely dissemination of information that RSS enables and the emergence of the on-demand software deployment model.  In the on-demand world, some solution providers choose the model of incremental, ongoing implementation of new functionality in their on-demand systems.  This is great for customers, as new features are being implemented all the time.  But how does a company let all the users of the system know about these new features as they become available?  A vendor-specific RSS feed would allow a solution provider to instantly communicate new features, functionality, and links to documentation to all users as soon as the code is migrated to production.  Massive, timely, laser-focused publishing at zero cost is a good thing.  But couldn’t we do the same thing with email?

Well, sure.  But, in addition to being perfectly targeted, RSS feeds do not have an issue with spam.  Since an RSS feed is, by definition, "opt-in" and the publisher controls the channel of communication, spam is non-existent.  Although there are some companies looking to inject ads into RSS feeds, I have a feeling we’re still a year or two away from widespread implementation of this practice.   

Despite some technical challenges with RSS (e.g. the potential for PointCast-like bandwidth abuse), the most notable challenge right now is visibility of the technology to the end-user. Because of that, I think the solution providers (and information providers, particularly in the form of blogs) are going to be pushing a string for a while.  While the publishing tools make it trivial to publish RSS feeds (see that little "Syndicate this site" link over there?), it is still a bit of an effort to receive RSS feeds.  One needs to get an RSS reader* and configure it.  Until the RSS readers are ubiquitous and the killer app from the customer side is found, the uptake will continue to be mostly limited to early adopters.

Some interesting possibilies here.  Any stories of folks using RSS feeds to connect with customers in this way?

* — SharpReader has a decent RSS reader, and I love the RSS support that is built into Thunderbird, which I encourage everyone to download immediately…as well as Firefox.

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You Don’t Know Jack (Wilson, in Accounting)

Over the past few years, we’ve done hundreds of interviews with both customers and sales teams to help companies find out why they are really winning or losing business. In one of our earliest projects, we asked our client to give us a list of customers to contact, including names, phone numbers, titles, and the like. Two days into the project, we realized there was a serious, serious problem.

When we started dialing the phone, we found out that none of the customers actually existed.

Well, that’s not strictly true. The companies existed, but a seeming majority of the contacts either had left the company, had incorrect or missing phone numbers, or had changed extensions. How could this be? The information had been pulled out of our client’s contact management system, for their existing customers. “It should be right…right?” asked our client.

An interesting bit today in SearchCRM entitled “Five Dirty Little Secrets of CRM” bears this out. In the article, Laura Preslan, a research director with AMR Research, states that one organization she is aware of used a social network discovery tool to “spider” their network for email and other personal contact lists. When completed, an analysis was performed that showed that only six percent of the contacts that were in the company’s social network showed up in their CRM / sales force automation tool.

Prediction: The “use social networking to clean up your CRM system” mantra will become a part of the marketing spiel of social network discovery vendors, augmenting or perhaps replacing the “use your social network to get better contacts and close deals faster” spiel.

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Is Social Networking The Gap in eBay’s Armor?

Is the lack of an integrated social network and reputation management system the Achilles heel of the eBay juggernaut? Overstock.com seems to think so. On Friday, Overstock.com launched a new auction site code-named “Ocean” that is “powered by social networking” and is aimed squarely at eBay.

“We sought a way to integrate the trust inherent in these networks into e-commerce. To achieve this, we have integrated into our auction tab a system that allows for social and business networking unlike any that has ever connected businesses and consumers on-line. It may evolve into a massive, intelligent marketing organism, or into a system of personal introductions, or in some direction we have not foreseen. One thing we do anticipate, however, is that these “reputation networks” will work particularly well for on-line auctions, where buyers, sellers, enthusiasts and experts are traditionally anonymous — and opinions are often biased (as evident in the declining value of ratings and the increasing tendency for retaliatory and spiteful ratings). – Patrick Byrne, President, Overstock.com

A quick perusal of the system yielded a number of pros and cons. Overstock’s president seems to strongly feel that there is significant value in providing this “friendly” (their word) connection between users of the network. And anything that brings rational, personal interaction between buyers and sellers is a good thing in my book. That’s where real relationships come from.

Byrne also clearly recognizes that trust and “reputation networks” are important in building a business and a community. He also is willing to take a risk in this ‘ready, fire, aim” approach…he seems to know that there is *something* there in providing these connections, even if the hard benefits of community-building are not clearly defined. On the other hand, getting “into” the network is a bit of a hassle. Multiple registrations are required (one for Overstock, and then a separate one for the auction and social network).

In aggregate, I view this with guarded skepticism. First off is the increasing issue of “social network spam,” where individuals with even the weakest ties to a person are innundated with “requests to join my network.” Additionally, while the fundamental idea is sound, it will likely be difficult for Byrne to build critical mass in this network for the casual buyer/seller. That being said, those individuals who are very deep into a community, however (such as memorabilia collectors), may embrace this to find other individuals who have similar interests and passions.

Of course, the biggest confusion will be the question of “why?” For the average buyer and seller, what will be the benefits to them of investing the time needed to create, grow and nurture their network?

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How To Drive Your Customers Away, The AT&T Wireless Way

Having myself been stung by the AT&T Wireless process and service nightware, I read with great interest the story of their downfall and presumed sale next month. The toll: a significant number of the company’s 31,000+ employees will likely lose their jobs, and the remaining customers will have to migrate. One take on the root cause:

“Years of substandard customer care, spotty coverage and dropped calls had taken their toll.

‘The line from the company was that we lost those people out of bad luck,’ said a regional sales manager. ‘But they walked away flipping us the bird. They aggressively walked away from us. They couldn’t wait to get away from us.'”

Ok, it’s not rocket science, folks. Do these things:

  • Listen to your customers
  • Make sound business decisions based on that input
  • Do what you promise, when you promise to do it
  • When your customers are defecting in droves, don’t spend millions of dollars upgrading the “company’s Falcon 50 jet to a bigger Gulfstream jet for commuting — then put millions of dollars more into a new interior for it.”

(shakes head…)

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I Don’t Trust You. Yet.

The concept of “I can’t trust you, until I get to know you better,” is at the core of a great posting by Christopher Allen in the Life With Alacrity blog. Christopher’s thoughts are a great window into how real relationships are built with customers. When two people are “building rapport” with each other, they are going through this process:

This is how I typically explain progressive trust when I meet someone in-person at a conference:

You are now spending your most precious resource, that most unrenewable commodity — time, in order to listen and understand what I have to say.

Why do you do so? Because by the act of us being here in this common space, at this conference, you have found a very simple credential from me–that I’m willing to spend time here in a place that you are interested in as well. In turn, I’m willing to spend more time chatting with you for the same reason.

Why do we continue to chat, and not move on to other people to discuss with? Because as we chat we are exchanging a number of credentials — people we know in common, common interests, meaningful ideas, etc. We may also present credentials typically issued by others, like our business cards, or explain our relationship to the host…As our collaboration grows, we will find ourselves seeking more and more credentials, endorsements, etc., but they will not be enough. The next level of trust can only be established by experience of commitment — for instance do we call back when we said we would? These tests typically start with small things, and then grow to larger things. At some point this may ultimately grow to form simple verbal contracts; over time richer, deeper social contracts are agreed upon that might not be written down.

Ultimately we may bring in third parties to witness, and thus possibly enforce our mutual obligations…

Some great thoughts there, along with a followup by Clay.

Progressive trust is required to create real relationships with customers. How do you do it?

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Taking Outsourcing One Step Further

Ok, this is pretty cool. In what appears to be a successful effort to both improve customer service and reduce costs, a fast-food restaurant in Brainerd, Minnesota (yes, the same Brainerd of FARGO fame) has outsourced its drive-through to Colorado. According to reports:

As she leaned out the window of her Chevy Blazer to place her order through a speaker box, Feld was greeted by the friendly voice of an order taker she thought was working inside…Four states away in a Colorado Springs, Colo., call center, “Linda” recorded Feld’s order and flashed it onto a computer screen inside the kitchen of the Brainerd McDonald’s. Less than two minutes later, Feld drove away, a smile on her face and a burger in hand.

From a business point of view, management claims that fewer mistakes are being made on orders and turnaround time has improved by an average of 20 seconds per order.

Neat.

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Killing Marketing As We Know It

I love how SUN’s President & COO, Jonathan Schwartz, dispenses with the boring, uber-sterile traditional glossy marketing approach and just tells customers what’s going on.

For example, the organization has recently begun selling their systems directly on eBay. Instead of overdone PR, he states what they are doing, why they are doing it, and how it affects their strategy, customers, and partners (and, not incidently, this move also gives them perfect information on the true market price of their systems). Schwartz also uses it as a bully pulpit to raise doubts about SUN’s competitors. He also dimisses a minor confidentiality leak that took place when the marching orders he gave ended up on a t-shirt wearing dog.

What SUN has done goes beyond simply giving their fromage grand a microphone, however. They actually have set up an environment that is is accessible to any Sun employee to write about anything. Sports. Music. One of their bloggers, “Mary,” even states “I use this blog to explicitly and without apology market to you.”

SUN is in the process of killing Marketing as we know it and, in the process, is getting closer to their customers

(thanks to Rick Klau for the lead)