-
About
Notes and views on CRM, open business models, and what the Web means for customer relationships. [more]
-
Speaking at:
Telecoms CRM, CEM and User Experience 2008
Travel
Linkblog
Photos
Indeed
How not to drown in crowds
I have been waiting for this sacred cow to be slaughtered - it’s about time: Sometimes Crowds Aren’t That Wise. Good that someone noticed. We need to clear our vocabulary of this collectivist crap: social this and social that, crowds; you name it, I hate it.
Back to the point, though.
Inviting “crowds” to collaborate with you shouldn’t mean you give up control. Your website isn’t subject to democratic rule. It’s your website.
It means an ongoing elimination of trolls and other vermin so that those who have something valuable to add to the debate can do so safely.
The best examples of co-creation (P&G Connect+Develop, Dell’s IdeaStorm) all show that: you let the public in, but set the rules and stay engaged. Crowds aren’t wise by default, they must be steered in the right direction.
via Broadstuff
Sphere: Related ContentStill selling your attention?
I just noticed a couple of low-profile ads in Prague trams luring passengers to get paid for receiving 4 commercials SMS’s a day.
It’s ironic how little are certain industry changing, even though the change they are facing is more an opportunity than a threat.
Consider this: the technology we’re using every day, such as cell phones, has fundamental advantages over the old one, such as newspaper or TV. Cell phones are location-aware. They are interaction-capable. One would think the ad agencies (don’t they employ creatives?) would come up with something more, uh, sophisticated.
Get this, geniuses: a mobile phone display is not just a miniature TV screen.
“Channels” are none of the customer’s concern
I am with Guido on this one:
I am one of the typical “1st try an email…” type of guys. And guess what, I am getting really upset when it takes 3 weeks to answer my email but the agent on the phone can resolve the issue within 10 secs. Does it also take three weeks to answer a mail - or are they considered more important?
Read his take - I’d only re-iterate my yesterday’s point - why should I care about the channel at all? Design your processes from the customer’s point of view, and all else will fall into place.
Sphere: Related ContentWalking the extra mile is a must
I got a call from my bank today that my card may have been skimmed in the UK. They advised me to have it blocked. “For free, obviously, ” the helpful lady added.
But.
I’ll have to visit my branch to do that.
Hello?
When was the last time you had to go to a bank?
Are they making me go there because they really, really cannot block my card over the phone, or because they noticed I haven’t been there in 2.5 years and they figured, what the hell, this guy is ripe for some old-fashioned cross-selling?
Maybe. Perhaps they just haven’t connected the dots yet. When your processes aren’t driven by the customer but by your organization’s needs, this will inevitably happen: inconveniencing the customer just because “the systems” (IT powers to be) don’t support a particular action, or because you’ve got a hundred-years old internal directive saying a customer can only block his card in person.
There’s always a reason not to do something. When that something could mightily add to your customer’s satisfaction, however, you better make damn sure to eliminate them all.
Or else.
Sphere: Related Contentlinks for 2008-05-14
-
A multi-angled view at what may happen to loyalty programs. I don’t share the author’s belief that they’ll become omni-present; I’d argue they’ll end up on the trash heap of old-style marketing tactics. I should say why, but I’ve run out of space.
-
Another look at customer loyalty and how not to build it; this is what happens when WOM gets adopted just like another “push” method.
Study: customers “impossible to please”
Yes, and the study is mine; I am conducting it this week and have collected mountains of data:
That’s my younger son Ri-chan, scolding me for not serving him his lunch quickly enough.
I’m home at his command between 6AM - 8PM while my wife is attending a workshop in another town, all week long. Not only he is impossible to please, he’s also making sure I don’t get to think, blog, or otherwise act on my stuff.
Talk to you next week.
Sphere: Related ContentHow viral is too viral?
Imagine this: you walk into a bookstore, pick a title, walk up to the cashier’s desk only to be told you have to woo 8 other customers into purchasing the same book, otherwise - no deal.
Ludicrous?
Facebook apps do that. I’ve given one, What’s your real age? or somesuch, 5 minutes of my time, only to realize they wouldn’t reveal my “real age” to me unless I signed up 8 of my “friends”. At that time, I’ve only had 6 of them there, and wouldn’t bother any of them.
Sure, it’s a *free* app, free in the sense I don’t have to pay with my money. But I still had to pay with my time, which is of infinite value since I’ll die one day. How are they going to refund me now that I am pissed?
This isn’t viral marketing, it’s a school-bus-hijack marketing done by companies who either don’t have a product capable of gaining momentum based on its quality, or have seriously misunderstood of what “word of mouth” is.
For the slow learners among you culprits: it’s when your customers talk about you because they want to!
links for 2008-05-07
-
Dell is blogging, mostly about their gear - not that there’s anything wrong with that
I’d give it a strong C; good effort, not as personal as it could - should - be.
CRM 2.0 isn’t like holding hands and smelling flowers
What is CRM 2.0? Here’s a thought:
It’s a nice thought, but my gut feeling says these forces (CRM, VRM, etc.) are not converging, not in a harmonious way. In fact, where CRM now represents the established order (organizations with their processes & tools to “push” value / messages to the customer), VRM is an underdog, a disruptor that doesn’t care at all about what companies are doing.
In a hypothetical VRM scenario, I say here’s my contact information that I choose to share with you, you, but not THEM, and by the way I’d like to refinance my mortgage so I’m open for bids. Vendors, do whatever you want to do as long as you play by my rules.
Time will tell whether this scenario is viable enough, but there is no denying companies are much less enthusiastic about the customer-driven economy then they would like you to think. I believe their default mode would be charging you money for nothing if they could get away with it, and some - like the managament consulting industry - are quite good at it.
Here’s my diagram of CRM 2.0:
The blue box is the company. It’s doing whatever it’s doing - there’s too many acronyms out there to remember. And CRM strikes it from outside; the company doesn’t know how big it is because it doesn’t come from the comfortable blue box. It will only react when the balls start rolling.
I liked what Paul G. said in his latest podcast (ep. 15): CRM 2.0 is the company’s response to what the customer is demanding. It can be proactive but it’s ultimately driven by market necessity rather than shareholders’ preferences. There is no harmony in the picture (as in “closing the loop”) but rather conflict, drama, tension, and uncertainty.
Which is exactly the environment most nurturing to business innovation.
Sphere: Related Content-
Recently featured
-
Stay in touch
-
Blogroll
Promotion
