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Wednesday, May 16, 2012
Facebook: The Beginning or the End
Facebook is out doing its roadshow and by the time most read this will
have made it initial public offering. At the same time critics are pointing to: 1) the recent announcement
from GM that they will cease to buy paid advertising on Facebook, and 2) a research study that points out that even among
Facebook’s most dedicated segment (18-29 years olds)most (75%) do like Facebook corporate pages, but once they
make those initial visits, the majority (69%) will “rarely” or “never” return to those same corporate
pages again.
I won’t offer any advice on whether either of these announcements mean that Facebook would be a good
or bad investment. But as far as the ability of Facebook to help build awareness, consideration and purchase intent for any
brand, I think many are missing the point. Facebook is important to the future of any company not because
of how many consumers they might draw to their corporate page, nor what ads they do or do not buy, but rather because of the
tens of millions of mentions, postings, conversations (whatever you wish to call them) that the millions of individual people
see through the personal pages of their friends, relatives, etc. in the social media each day. Corporations don’t own the dialog on Facebook, people do.
8:51 am edt
Thursday, April 12, 2012
Which Customer Voice Matters?
The following question was recently
raised in an online community: “What
Voice of Customer is more useful to listen to - the one you ask for, or the one you don’t?"
When you “listen in”
online to what customers are saying you learn what customers consider to be the key strengths and weaknesses.
More formal Customer Satisfaction and Net Promoter studies tend to ask only about the operational issues and attributes
that fit into the internal management silos. And with a limited number of questions satisfaction and NPS
studies skip over many components of the TOTAL customer experience.
We believe the best understanding and management of word of mouth comes with the an ongoing
monitoring of the social media coupled with intermittent objective quantification that can only come from asking a representative
sample of the entire customerbase. What do you think?
The
downside of not asking is of course that only a very small percentage of customers are actually communicating about most products
and service online. You really don’t have a very complete view of all the word of mouth circulating
(through both public and private channels) and management can be lead to focus on issues that are meaningless to the majority
of customers.
9:48 pm edt
Thursday, March 22, 2012
Sorry, but J. D. Powers Missed the Point
Gina Pingitore, Chief Research Officer at J.D. Power and
Associates recently reported that “While value is important, consumers want more than simply the lowest price or a product
that is just good enough”. See:
http://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/170230/50-brands-named-customer-service-champions.html?edition=44638#ixzz1pHnnE8Wi
With all due respect I suggest that there are several
problems with her statement:
1) Like much of
marketing research it tends to draw conclusions based on the belief that all customers are like some statistically “average”
customer. (Which of course we know most are not). 2) It confuses the terms “value” and “price”.
(“Value” actually is about the worth of a given product or service, while “price” has to do
only with the amount of money paid.)
Consciously or sub-consciously every individual calculates “worth” in their own mind when they
buy. They have different expectations of product requirements, desired service levels, and realities of what they are willing
to spend. For some the price weighs heavily in that calculation. For others additional product or service components (be it
style, convenience, miles per gallon, turndown service with a mint on the pillow, etc, etc.) carry greater
weight in determining what the experience is worth. You don’t need to take my word for it. Consider
studies of top retail brands that perennially reveal consumers giving top rankings to both Nordstrom and Costco.
If we all agreed on a single definition of value would we rate both a high service, high price provider and a low service,
low price provider as our favorites?
Unlike the folks in Congress, behavior demonstrates that consumers understand that
they can’t have it all, so they make tradeoff decision. To some consumers those
value tradeoffs include the acceptance of long check-out lines, warehouse décor, no shopping bags, and limited staff,
as long as the price is low. For others personal shoppers, gift wrapping, and a piano playing in the background,
even with higher price, is value.
J.D. Power states that Value
is: a superior product, delivered in a compelling presentation, through a fast and easy-to-understand process, that is supported
by responsive and concerned people, offered at a price that is “perceived as fair and competitive". Sounds great,
but it’s just not that simple.
Saturday, February 25, 2012
What’s the Biggest Challenge to an Improved Customer Experience?
Articles appear all the time with advise on improving your customer experience. Some
tell us all that it's about the need to focus on the integration of channels, or advice that it’s about
learning how as humans to connect with the digital world. Others claim that it's all about increasing
first call resolutions, getting employees to smile, improving website usability, facilities appearance, call waiting times,
the appearance of staff, the image projected by advertising, the smell of the lobby, and dozens of other factors.
We disagree. We believe that the real challenge comes in understanding the experience from the customer
point of view and identifying priorities for improvement. Trying to do it all will never work, it’s
costly and inefficient. The real challenge therefore is one of proper allocation of resources.
Neither
key driver analysis in traditional customer sat nor NPS helps identify those priorities. Those approaches
look at the experience functionally, from an insider’s view. They fail to consider the multiple interactions
and multi-sensory composition of the TOTAL customer experience that brings customers back, causes them to spend and increasing
share of wallet with the brand, causes them to generate more positive word of mouth for the brand -- or drives them to the
competition.
Wednesday, February 15, 2012
Crisis Management through Social Media
Following the grounding of the cruise ship Costa Concordia, parent company Carnival Cruise line has taken much criticism
for its handling of its social media presence. Initially the CEO went dark on Twitter but the company maintained
status quo on Facebook with the usual postings of updates on trips, deals and specific ships. After six
days, with hundreds of negative posts on their Facebook wall and other outlets, they finally stopped online marketing and
announced a temporary halt to their Facebook and Twitter activity “out of respect” and to focus on helping with
the crisis.
Their announcement a week
later that they were ready to “engage” stirred much more negative response. Social media experts
have strongly suggested that Carnival terribly mishandled the situation. They suggest that the company
should have brought forward key individuals in the social media to answer questions, share ideas in chats, hang-outs, or stream
interviews.
That all sounds logical, but
what were they to say: That the captain was really at his post and doing his job? That
they usually conduct safety drills? That the captain and the crew handled the crisis well based upon their
training and valor? But in reality they had failed horrendously on board ship and there was little defense.
Further, it’s likely that their legal counsel had instructed all executives to say nothing.
So what to do? We believe that the proper way to manage a crisis playing
out in social media must begin well in advance
of the event. Yes, the captain and crew of the Costa Concordia
failed horribly. That can’t be explained away or denied. But on the social media front
they could have prepared. Loyal customers who had been on many safe and enjoyable cruises can act as the Best Customer Advocates,
in good times as well as when a crisis strikes. They should have been identified well in advance. They should have been armed
over time with information and stories (safety records, engineering, training, corporate citizenship, staffing, etc.) to
help them generate positive word of mouth for the brand (both online and offline). Such communications could have helped
generate sales in good times and add perspective and balance to the public dialog in bad times.
10:53 am est
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