Free-Range Organic Blogs... by John Burton

80% of People Are Basically Idiots; Even the Best CRM System Can’t Fix That (Or Can It?)

Let’s talk about First Contact Resolution (FCR) for a minute. For example, an 81% first call resolution rate might sound great at first glance, right? Eighty-one percent! Woo hoo, awesome, high five! But when you consider that 80% of people are basically idiots (more on that in a minute) then that’s means you are really only solving 1% of the real problems that couldn’t otherwise be easily solved by putting a Google search widget on the front of your company’s Web self service portal. And a 1% resolution rate is pretty bad. Unless of course you are United Airlines, in which case – wow, awesome, high five – you improved 1% from last year!

But let’s get back to that contentious statistic about 80% of people being, well… not particularly bright. I know what you’re probably thinking. Is this just another one of those bullshit statistics that John just made up on the spot? Well, um… yes and no. It is generally acknowledged that smart people sometimes do dumb things. And a college degree certainly doesn’t guarantee rational decision making. Heck, I have  a graduate and a post graduate degree and there isn’t a week that goes by that I don’t do something incredibly stupid. Take for example last week when my wife asked me what I thought was the ideal weight for the average American woman (hint: whatever you do, don’t say 110 lbs or you will be sleeping on the couch for the week).

But don’t just take my word for it that people don’t always think rationally. Let me prove it to you. Before you read any further, answer this simple story problem: Ashton is looking at Anne, but Anne is looking at Justin. Ashton is married, but Justin is not. Is a married person looking at an unmarried person? Yes? No? Cannot be determined?

If you’re like 80% of people (including me) you answered “cannot be determined” because we don’t know if Anne is married or not. And you were wrong. The answer is yes, a married person is indeed looking at an unmarried person. True, we don’t know whether Anne is married or not, but it  doesn’t actually matter because we know that a married person (Ashton) is looking at her, and that she is looking at an unmarried person (Justin). So either way, whether she is married or not, she is either the unmarried person being looked at by a married person (Ashton), or she is the married person looking at the unmarried person (Justin). Simple. Yet so many of us got it wrong.  Similarly most people will get some (if not all) of these five tricky questions wrong as well.

Now in fairness, I don’t really believe that most people are “idiots” (that was just the attention-grabbing headline). But I do however suspect that at least 80% of us would rather do something else with our valuable time than spend hours huddled over an instruction manual frying our brain trying to figure out how to configure the new USB toasterwe received for Christmas. And if the majority of us can’t pass a simple logic quiz without popping a blood vessel in our forehead, how can we be expected to do something as complicated as syncing our iTunes with our iPod or resetting the microwave clock for daylight saving time?

That my friends is what Customer Service was invented for. You pick up the phone and the all knowing powers on the other end talk you through the easy 162-step process. Three hours later, you’re good to go. At least that’s how Service used to work. These days of course it’s all about web self service, telephone IVR systems, chat bots, and social-media crowd sourcing.  Companies have realized that they don’t necessarily need to keep  10,000 college kids on staff at all times, constantly answering calls and gulping down 5 hour energy shots.

With a decent CRM system that includes a modern Web self service portal, telephone IVR, integrated knowledge base, and an online social-media community, companies can deflect an extraordinary number of queries that would have otherwise reached the call center.  Not only do companies save money on reduced agent salaries, but customers get their questions answered faster and with more consistent responses. And then there is proactive service, which allows companies to avoid potential costly service repairs by contacting customers as soon as an issue is detected or anticipated. Throw in some remote diagnostic tools and the products can literally report problems themselves. And don’t forget about online social-media communities that provide a platform for crowd sourcing, allowing customers to help resolve each other’s questions and issues.

Throw it all together and you’ve got a recipe for reduced cost of service, increased customer satisfaction, and yes… perhaps even that allusive 81% first contact resolution rate. Perhaps the only thing that a good CRM system can’t do is activate that other 90% of the human brain that people don’t use. Yes, unfortunately even the best CRM system probably isn’t going to make you any better at Sudoku or Words with Friends – though hopefully it might at least be able to help you figure out how to get that USB toaster up and running.

The Nitwit’s Guide to Dispensing Customer Service: When to Strive for World-Class, and when to not even Bother

There are several, conflicting schools of thought about the importance of providing great Customer Service.  The first school of thought (let’s keep things non-judgmental and call them the clueless, greedy, very-very-naughty folks) see Customer Service as a unavoidable-though-regrettable cost of doing business. In their view, Customer Service is a nefarious drain on the organization’s valuable resources that could otherwise be used to fuel the corporate Marketing and Sales machines. This school of thought is naturally comprised mainly of marketers, sales professionals, venture capitalists, and unenlightened executives – often from the Telco or Banking industry.

The second school of thought (again, let’s keep things neutral and call them naïve, altruistic, head-in-the-sand do-gooders) believe that Customer Service affords organizations a chance to differentiate themselves from competitors, and if done well enough, can completely replace the need to engage in any Marketing or Sales efforts at all. These lost souls reason that if you provide world-class customer service that completely blows everyone else out of the water, happy customers will spontaneously refer you to all of their friends, family, and online communities creating a viral tsunami of goodwill (and corresponding sales orders). The main proponents of this school of thought are of course customer service professionals, ivory tower academics and think-tank geniuses (who haven’t ever gotten their hands dirty in the trenches), and fresh-on-the-scene, Social CRM self-proclaimed (wanna-be) gurus.

As you probably already guessed, both of these schools of thought are (equally) severely delusional. For example, you can’t run a successful business by consistently avoiding your customers and outsourcing your customer service operations to the cheapest, no-frills, off-shore service provider. Doing so will simply annoy your customers and incur their wrath in online communities and social forums. On the other hand, while providing top-notch customer service is a great starting point, it is not going to completely eliminate the need to engage with your customers. You still need to reach out to your customers via targeted, channel-appropriate Marketing efforts. Otherwise your product or service is not going to sell itself (with the possible exception of Apple perhaps).

As with anything however, there are always a few exceptions to the rule (“I before E except after C” and that sort of thing). Hence, I’ve provided a list of unique situations in which companies may not need to worry about Customer Service at all.  If your company finds itself in one of the can’t lose situations below, just sit back and enjoy the ride (or not).

Five Situations in Which Customer Service is Unimportant, Superfluous, or Simply a Lost Cause

1)      You have a monopoly or operate in a tightly regulated market where you have no direct competitors and you are absolutely certain that the market will remain so for at least the next 300 years. In this case, you can safely continue to ignore the desperate pleas of your customers and dole out lackluster (or non-existent) customer service as you see fit with an air of superiority and condescension. These revolting, groveling customers are lucky you even bother to answer their telephone calls or provide a confusing and ultimate useless IVR phone tree. You don’t have time (or money) to waste on setting up a self-service web site or providing 24x7 customer service agents; you need to wisely spend all your resources lobbying government officials to preserve your monopolistic empire.

2)      Your products are cheaper (much, much, cheaper) than any other comparable competitor product. Hasn’t anyone heard the expression, “you get what you pay for”? If people want fancy, expensive Grey-Poupon customer service, let them go to Ritz Carlton or their Lexus dealer. Come on, for what these penny-pinching customers pay they are lucky that you generously throw in a thin paper box and a piece of bubble wrap.

3)      Your company (and your company’s products/services) are way cooler than anyone else’s. Or alternatively, your company’s CEO thinks he/she is way cooler than anyone else. In either case you can probably get away with providing mediocre or sub-par customer service without ruffling too many feathers. Customers are much more willing to tolerate customer service missteps from an a company with a very high “cool” factor like an Apple, Google or Facebook than from a company whose products are seen as commodities.

4)      Customers feel they will die if they don’t have your product (think beer, cigarettes or iPads/iPhones). Or alternatively, customers will actually (literally) die if they don’t have access to your product (think pharmaceuticals, medical devices, etc.). If the law of supply and demand is in your corner, especially when it’s a matter of life (real or perceived) the rules go out the window and you’re in charge. If customer’s complain about your products, just argue that the customer is using your product incorrectly. You don’t need no stinkin’ customer service.

5)      You market and sell products to hardworking, loyal, rural American families who have been buying your products for generations (and who still prefer your products over foreign offerings with the same or lower costs and better service). While this advantage won’t last forever and is most likely already eroding, you might still be able to milk that cash cow for another few years. As a rule of thumb, if your customers tattoo your logo on their body parts or display stickers of your brand logo urinating on a rival’s brand logo, you are probably still safe for a while at least. But on the other hand, nothing lasts forever and perhaps now is a good time to start revamping your customer service processes – if you haven’t already.

 

This post is also available TheSocialCustomer.com at http://thesocialcustomer.com/node/27174/. 

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There’s No Such Thing as “Social Media Samurai” or “Customer Service Ninjas”

I grind my teeth whenever I stumble across any blog that encourages readers to be “social media samurai” or “customer-service ninjas”.  I mean, come on, there is absolutely no such things as a social media samurai or a customer service ninja. Just in case this is not already painfully obvious, ninjas and samurai have never been known for their social media or customer service prowess.

Samurais aren’t experts in search engine optimization or online community management. Ninjas don’t wear hands-free  headsets and hide in the call center waiting for you to have a problem with your PC, broadband access or satellite TV. No, quite the contrary, ninjas sneak up behind you and slit your throat. Or they throw sharp (usually poisoned) deadly objects from behind trees. That’s not customer service. Or, at least not good customer service. So let’s stop urging people to be customer service ninjas. 

Well then, you might ask, if we can’t hire ninjas to save the day and make all of our customer services problems go away, what is a company to do? Well for starters, we can make a concerted effort to suck less. Yes, “sucking less” is a real term; and it’s also a pretty decent business strategy. Sure, it would be great if every business was world class at customer service. But as Will Rodgers once quipped, “We can't all be heroes because somebody has to sit on the curb and clap as they go by.”

However, just because we can’t all be customer service rock stars like at Ritz Carlton and Nordstrom’s doesn’t mean that we all have to absolutely suck like Bank of America or America Online (AOL). Rather, there is probably a happy medium where our customers don’t absolutely loathe us and might actually recommend us to a friend or relative.

So, with that in mind, here are three ways to suck less without breaking the bank or spending an inordinate amount of effort:

• Benchmark your ‘suckiness’.  It is not merely enough to strongly suspect that your company’s service efforts suck. No, you need to know for certain. And more importantly you need to gauge just how truly, madly, deeply your customers dislike you. Do they merely find you annoying and useless, or do they hate you so much that they would stab you with an improvised ‘prison shank’ if they ran into you in the Whole Foods parking lot?
  
  The best way to discern just how much your customers despise you is to benchmark yourself against your worst-in-class peer group via regular satisfaction surveys. There are a lot of good tools on the market that can help you, whether you choose to leverage the survey suite functionality offered by your CRM suite provider or whether you decide to work with one of the  industry-leading stand-alone enterprise feedback management (WFM) vendors. 
  
  For the most part, many of the survey tools are somewhat similar. Any basic tool should give you the ability to send out satisfaction emails to customers are their service process has been completed, or to ask the customer to stay on the phone to complete a survey after the customer service agent has helped them with their issue. More advanced products might provide tools for including social media channels in your feedback collection efforts.
  
  But even the most entry-level tool is better than what you are probably doing now (i.e., absolutely nothing at all). As long as the survey results get looked at things will likely start improving. As any middle manager who ever took a management training course will proudly recite, “what gets measured, gets managed”.
  
  
• Strive to suck a little less each day. Granted, ‘sucking less’ is not the loftiest of goals. But then again, you are not looking to put a customer service rep on the moon for goodness sake. No, your simply want to get to a point where your customer service efforts are like a bland, tasteless meal that satiates the customers hunger without giving them diarrhea or heartburn. Your offerings might not have any Michelin stars or Zagat rating, but at least the customer isn’t going to throw up in the parking lot and call the health department. We’re just aiming for a passing grade here.  
  
  If your customer service operations are a complete disaster (i.e., you are any major Telco, Bank, or Insurance company), then obviously you are not going to be able to fix everything overnight. So start with something small, but meaningful. If customers complain that your website or IVR system are utterly unusable, then start with that.
  
  Fire whoever is currently responsible for the crap you’ve got and hire someone who can help re-design the system from a more customer-centric approach. Provide your customers with menu options and features that make it easier for them to accomplish what it is they’re trying to do. Don’t make them sit through numerous up-sell or cross-sell efforts before you let them check their account balance or reschedule an appointment.
  
  If your customer service operations suck, but don’t suck as much a Telco or Bank, then you’re probably either an airline, a consumer electronics retailer, or a home improvement megastore. In any case, you still have plenty of room to improve. Your website and call center might both be providing adequately just-good-enough lukewarm customer service. But the thing you need to understand is that your frontline employees are just as important to how customers perceive your customer service operations.
  
  Just because airline flight attendants and retail branch employees don’t have the words “customer service” anywhere in their official job title doesn’t mean that they are excepted from treating customers with courtesy, respect, and professionalism. These are the people in your organization who customers deal with on a daily basis, and if these front-line employees aren’t aligned with your customer service strategy, it really doesn’t matter how well your website or telephone IVR system work; customers are still going to hate you.
  
  
• Create a ‘suck-intolerant’ culture.  As surprising as it might sound, most people would rather not completely suck at their job. Very few people wake up in the morning and say to themselves, “let’s go out there today and suck like never before.” To the contrary, event employees who are unmotivated, burned out, or merely going through the motions for a paycheck still would prefer – all other things being equal – to not suck horribly at their jobs. No one wants to fail , and no one enjoys it. The trick is simply giving employees the motivation and the toolset to not suck. We just need to make it easy for people to suck less.
  
  For example, we stack the deck against our own front-line employees and set them up for failure when we first force customers to sit though an annoying IVR phone menu that presents useless options and forces customers to enter the same information several times. When the customer is already pissed off even before reaching a live agent, it’s going to take a spectacular performance from the employee to turn things around.
  
  But unfortunately, most overworked contact center agents are in no mood to deal with angry, disgruntled, antagonistic customers. Working in a high-pressure contact center environment with a supervisor standing over your shoulder and a giant scoreboard keeping track of every second you spend talking on the phone will bring the worst out in anyone. Add to that the repetitive, monotonous nature of contact work and the constant toggling between numerous computer systems and screens and you have a recipie for frustration and failure. 
  
  While this isn't any easy problem to resolve, you can get a long way toward a solution by making sure your Website and telephone IVR systems are optimized for end-user ease of use (rather than aligned with your corporate Marketing agenda) and by leveraging modern CRM software to simply and enrich the employees work environment. If your telephony infrastructure and CRM system have been sitting in the basement since the 1970's, it might be time for an upgrade. (Note: hire a good consultant, not a cut-rate social media assassin).

So, to recap. There’s no such thing as social media samurai or customer service ninjas. And while the code of bushido and the deadly art of ninjitsu definitely have many real-world practical applications (e.g., resolving disputes with pesky neighbors or home owners associations), samurai swords and ninja shurikens have no place in contact center or field service operations. No, if your company’s customer service efforts leave room to improve you might want to skip the Craig’s List ninja want ads and just work on trying to suck less.

And in case there was any doubt about the fact that ninjas don't fight fair, watch this video:

 

New Study Reveals Americans Fear Call Centers More Than Dental Surgery!

According to a recent study published in CRM Aficionado Weekly, nearly 70% of CRM professionals report that they find dealing with call centers to be more stressful than going to the dentist!  That’s a pretty amazing statistic if you really think about it – 70%.

Ok, I totally just made that up. There isn’t really such a magazine or a study (at least not that I am aware of). But it sounds plausible right? After all, while going to the dentist is never fun, dealing with a poorly run customer service organization can be just as stressful and irritating. Right?

I do find it amusing that so many people have an irrational fear of dentists. I mean what’s so scary about being drugged, strapped in a chair, and examined by a guy with a mask wielding a power drill? Oh, um. Well, I guess I just answered my own question. Let’s just pretend it was rhetorical. But personally, I happen to absolutely love my dentist. He’s great. Heck, I’d probably even marry him.

Well, except that I’m not attracted to men. And I’m already married to my wife. Not to mention the fact that I have a lot of cavities and fillings, so I doubt my dentist would even want to marry me. But you get the picture. And no, not a picture of me and the dentist on a tropical beach holding hands and flossing our teeth. Let’s get rid of that mental image and move on…

So what’s so great about my dentist you ask? Does he let me get super silly on nitrous oxide before a routine cleaning or check up? No, though I might have to inquire about that. What I do appreciate about my dentist is all the little things he does; the small human touches that shows that he actually cares about his patients, not just as customers but as people. He looks you in the eye and shakes your hand when he walks into the room. He takes the time to talk with each patient and ask how things are going – with your job, your life, and – of course – your teeth. Contrast this with some other dentists I’ve visited whose conversational topics were limited to, “So, what kind of insurance do you have”?

Speaking of conversationally inept dentists, I recently had to visit a specialist (instead of my regular dentist) to have an existing root canal re-treated. This fellow was quite a character – and not in a good way. I’m not going to name names. Let’s just call him Bruce R. Jesperson D.D.S., of Cupertino, California. While “Bruce” was clearly quite skilled in his profession and did an amazing job on my tooth, he demonstrated a complete lack of bedside manners, professionalism, and common courtesy.

For example, rather than talking me through the procedure to make me feel more comfortable and to let me know what was going on inside my mouth during the 45 minute operation, he instead chatted with his assistant about conducting a cost analysis to see if they could find a lower priced disinfectant solution for the office. WTF? Maybe I was a little loopy due to the local anesthetic, but I swear he even pulled out his phone during middle of the surgery to check his stock portfolio. Who knows, maybe silver and gold commodities were making a run that afternoon?

In any case, this is a perfect example of how a company can execute perfectly and deliver the correct product/service on time without any errors – yet still manage to provide a very dismal customer experience. While the dentist performed his specific job/task very well (i.e., drilling holes in teeth and removing nerve tissue), he completely botched the overall customer experience.

While the customer (yes, I apparently am now referring to myself in the third person) was  actually quite satisfied with the product/service that was provided, the customer was not happy with the experience and likely won’t go out of his way to recommend the business to any family, friends, or acquaintances. In short, the company performed the task with perfection but screwed up the customer experience.

Now, let’s look at a counter example of a company who screwed up the task (they delivered the completely wrong product), but yet still managed to delight the customer with a good customer experience. The customer in this example is a strikingly handsome, intelligent, witty chap from California. Let’s call him “John”. The company is Zappos.com, an online retailer of shoes and apparel well known for their legendary customer service.

It all began when John ordered a Christmas present for his wife from the web site. Zappos seemed to be on top of things; they sent out all the customary order confirmations, shipping confirmations, and tracking information. They even upgraded John’s order to free next-day shipping. So far, so good! But then something funny happened. And not “ha ha, isn’t that funny”. More like, “what the hell, I didn’t order that” kind of funny. In fairness to Zappos, while they got the both the product itself and the color completely wrong, they did at least get the size right. I guess that counts for something?

But here’s where Zappos recovers and gets their act back together. When John calls to complain and ask what’s up, Zappos explains that John’s order must have gotten mixed up with someone else’s. Zappos quickly mutters something almost inaudible about “those damn robots screwed up another order – no TV for them tonight.” Zappos promises that they will re-ship his correct order right away. 

Zappos then says that John can just place the wrong item back in the box it came in and leave it outside on the porch; someone from UPS will come pick it up tomorrow. And as compensation for his inconvenience, Zappos will send him $20 that he can use on his next order for anything he wants. That’s a pretty sweet apology! So, in summary, Zappos screws up a relatively simple task and ships the completely wrong item, but quickly (and politely) fixes the problem and then delights the customer with a generous hard-cash apology.

If only I had $20 bucks for every time a company screwed something up!

You Own a Yacht, a Greek Island, and a Prize-Winning Labradoodle. You Don't Own Your Customer.

Some age-old questions are actually quite easy to answer. For example, what is the meaning of life? Duh, beer! What is the universe made of? Easy, it’s a 40/60 blend of polyester and lycra. Other questions however have proven more elusive. For example, it seems like nearly every other month we stumble across some blog post posing the unsolvable riddle, “Who owns the customer”?

In the past, it was typically assumed that within any organization the Sales department owned the customer, and the role of the Marketing and Customer Service departments was to support Sales – albeit from a safe distance. “Sure, we want your help, but keep your grubby little hands off our customers, or we’ll break your fingers. Don’t talk to our customers. For that matter, don’t even look at our customers.”  And in many organizations it’s still the case. Sales is king, and they own the customer.

Some organizations however have adopted a more loosey-goosey paradigm where no one in particular is directly responsible (or accountable) for managing the complete customer relationship. Marketing does whatever they think will drive the most brand awareness, without bothering to consult with Sales or inform Customer Service. Sales goes off and does their own I’m-such-a-lone-wolf-rock-star-diva thing, ignoring the work cranked out by the folks in Marketing. And poor Customer Service sits around in the call center nervously waiting for all hell to break loose. Which invariably happens.

Can’t there be some kind of happy medium somewhere in between the Sales-dictatorship and the hippie-commune approaches to customer relationship management? Who (or perhaps what) within an organization should actually own the customer? If you ask me, I would say that we’re still asking the wrong question. Nobody actually owns the customer. Unless we are talking about video games like Counter Strike where the terms “own” and “personally own (pwn)” are used to indicate a skillful advantage over someone – you don’t actually own people. Just to be clear, you might own a helicopter, a 200 foot yacht, a private Greek island, and a dozen award-winning best-in-show labradoodles. But you don’t own your customer. So stop thinking of your customer like some possession. Your customer is not a Gucci bag, a Porsche, or a set of Homma Five Stars golf clubs. Get over it.

Perhaps a more semantically correct question might be to ask “who owns the customer relationship?”. Now we’re starting to get somewhere. But even if we change the question to focus on ownership of the customer relationship, rather than ownership of the actual customer, I still take umbrage with the nature of the question itself. Semantics and predicate modifiers aside, we’re still focused on the wrong thing. It’s not about owning. It’s not about one group within the company saying this is my shiny customer, don’t touch it. It’s not about silos, walled gardens, gated communities, locked cupboards, or whatever other metaphor you prefer. Rather it’s about collaboration. Or at least that’s what it should be about.

The question that each department (and each individual) within the company should be asking is, how can my department work together with the rest of the organization to make our customers happier and more successful? What can I contribute? And how do my efforts align with the efforts of the rest of the organizations to deliver a consistent, holistic, end-to-end customer experience? For example, when Marketing decides to create a new promotion or campaign they should consult and align with the Sales organization to make sure that the marketing efforts will actually help the Sales organization achieve their current sales objectives. Similarly, Marketing needs to inform the Customer Service department of any upcoming promotions or campaigns so that the call center and social media customer service teams can get ramped up, educated, and prepared for increased customer inquiries.

And while it’s great to have all departments communicating with each other and fully aligned, there also needs to be a specific person or team who is ultimately responsible (and accountable) for ensuring that things runs smoothly – and perhaps more importantly, that the customer has a positive end-to-end customer experience. It’s probably obvious, but worth calling out: the goal is not just to provide a consistent customer experience across department and communication channels (which is important of course) but to ensure that the consistent customer experience is a positive one! After all, positive experiences results in happy customers. And happy customers buy more stuff (and refer friends).

 

This blog post originally appeared on TheSocialCustomer.com.

With the Rise of Social Media, Will the Call Center Disappear Like the 1970's Porn Mustache?

Perhaps this is not the type of thing one should say in public but… sometimes I find myself reminiscing about the 1970s.  It was a wonderful, glorious bygone era when men (well, at least real men) sported large, unashamed, unwieldy mustaches. Tom Selleck, Burt Reynolds, Charles Bronson, Led Zeppelin, the Beatles, Frank Zappa. Heck, even John Waters grew a ‘stache (or tried to anyway). And I bet a lot of businesses today also wish they could return to the simplicity of the 1970’s – a time when “Customer Service” simply meant having a brick-and-mortar help desk during standard business hours. If a customer had a question or complaint, they either penned you a polite postal letter, or they drove down to your business and stood patiently in line, waiting for their chance to courteously explain their problem.

Today things couldn’t be more different. Customers don’t stand in line. And they certainly don’t write courteous complaint letters. Rather, customers today use strong, angry, colorful words to trash your business, your products, and your brand. And they do it publicly online – in front of all their friends, family, co-workers, and followers. To make it worse, their comments and reviews are saved, indexed, and served up for eternity to anyone who does an Internet search for your business, products, or services. Forever!

Yes, Social Media has changed everything. Today’s customers are more tech-savvy today than ever before. And it’s not just teenagers and college students who have embraced Social Media. Parents, grandparents, and retirees are all blogging, tweeting, texting, and posting online reviews – often from their iPhone, iPad or other mobile device. The days of customers calling your contact center and patiently waiting on hold for half an hour are gone. Today’s customers demand to be able to reach your customer-service department instantly, and via whatever communication channel they find most convenient – whether it be telephone, email, text message, Web chat, Twitter, Facebook, or online community.

And not only do customers expect to be able to reach you online, twenty-four hours a day, via whatever communication channel or device they prefer. But arguably, customer expectations regarding customer-service response times have changed as well – particularly with regards to Social Media. If a customer posts something directly on your Facebook page or tweets directly at your company’s Twitter handle, the customer expects an immediate response. We’re not talking about a response sometime in the next 3 days, or even 3 hours. No, they expect a response within 15 minutes or less. And if you can’t handle that? Well, your customers will likely find someone else who can.

So, where does that leave us? Luckily, it’s not all bad news. Despite the disproportionate media attention and hype, Social Media-based customer service (while continually increasing) still represents only a fraction of the total customer-service interactions for most companies. The majority of customer interactions are still taking place via the contact center, particularly via telephone. And realistically this will still continue for quite some years. Granted, usage of Social Media, Web self-service, and online community-based support is steadily increasing. And yes, older antiquated communication channels like postal letter and fax are declining (while smoke signals, semaphores, telegrams and carrier pigeons seem to have completely faded as modes of business communication). However, the telephone is still the predominant communication tool.

While newer communication channels and platforms such as SMS, Web chat, Twitter, Facebook and online communities are growing fast and catching up, customers today still turn to the telephone when it matters most. For example, if a customer is not able to quickly find an answer to their question or solution to their problem in an online community or Web self-service site, the customer might switch over to a Web text chat session. But if things start getting complicated and confusing, the customer will likely pick up the phone and call the contact center (or in some case, request a call via a Call Me feature on the Web site). When it comes down to it, the hardest issues and questions often require talking to a real person in complete sentences (rather than trying to decipher esoteric 140 character text blocks).

No my friends, the good old fashioned call center is not going away. It will always be around. In many ways the call center is similar to the mighty mustache. Both had their glory days in the 1970s. Yet both refuse to go away or vanish completely. Organizations like the American Mustache Institute and Mustaches for Kids are dedicated to keeping the tradition of the mustache alive. Even young hipsters have started growing mustaches (along with beards, sideburns, and other facial hair) adding it to the list of mandatory hipster artifacts that include skinny jeans, scarves, and American Apparel brand clothing.

So raise your glass, here’s to call centers and mustaches. They might seem old fashioned, antiquated, superfluous, and even downright silly. But they’re here to stay. Embrace them my friends!

This post is also available at TheSocialCustomer.com.

Psst… People are Talking About You. And They’re not Saying Nice Things! Maybe You Should Put Down Your Pumpkin-Spice Latte and Join the Conversation

Psst… people are talking about you.  Well, not you personally; but people are definitely talking about your company.  They’re criticizing your products. They’re badmouthing your customer service department. And they’re trashing your brand – the brand you spent a fortune to build, nurture, and promote. And if you are anything like the rest of us, there’s a fairly decent chance you are either a) not even aware of it, b) aware, but with no real clue how to proceed, or c)  praying that it will go away if you lie completely still and play dead. But guess what? You’re an idiot. Ok, you’re not an idiot – you’re just in the same boat as the rest of us, drifting perilously out to sea. So, what can be done about it?

I don’t know about you, but when I hear people badmouthing me (e.g., “Man that John guy is so full of himself. Sure, he’s intelligent, witty, good looking and great in…”) I just walk over and introduce myself, “Hey, what’s going on? What are you guys talking about?” But admittedly different people have different types coping strategies. Some folks like to deny and disavow (if you can really call that a “strategy”). Others seek to avoid confrontation by not directly engaging with critics; but instead having their PR firm send out perky, sanitized press releases (note: no one actually reads that crap anymore). Now, just to be clear, I’m not advocating that you get aggressive and confrontational. There’s need to strap on body armor and walk into the online conversation armed to the teeth, ready to take out anyone who badmouths your brand. No, definitely try not to get all 5150 on anybody if you can help it. Attacking your detractors – whether they be angry customers, disgruntled former employees, or opportunistic competitors – isn’t going to do anything to help win customers over.

Rather, the truly enlightened among us know that the best strategy, if not the only strategy, is to bare your soul and start to engage with the people talking your brand – whether they be customers, fans, prospects, partners, influencers, employees, competitors, or critics.  Interestingly, a recent study conducted by Burson-Marsteller (full disclosure: John works at SAP, and SAP is a client of Burson-Marsteller) analyzed the adoption of Social Media in Latin America found for example that, “in Colombia, only 29% of companies have a Twitter account, but 86% of companies are being discussed on Twitter, suggesting that many companies are being left out of the conversation about themselves.”  The key takeaway here is that companies are being talked about on Twitter, whether the company has a Twitter account or not! Just because you ignore the conversation doesn’t mean it will go away; it only means your voice and perspective won’t be heard. Essentially you’ll be ceding control of the conversation, and your brand, to the loudest of your detractors. And is that really what you want?

Of course, just having a Twitter account isn’t going to automatically solve any problems. Take for example United Airlines. As you probably know, United sucks. Even with they aren’t busy breaking guitars or stranding passengers, they still suck. They suck so much that someone made a parody website mocking United’s customer (dis)service efforts. Just to demonstrate how badly United sucks, take a look at these survey results of the top 10 major airlines. The leaders in customer satisfaction are Virgin America (97.89%), Jetblue (84.05%), and Southwest (76.92). The industry average for customer satisfaction is 43.02%. And then there’s United at an anemic 18.52%. Exceptionally sucky. Why do I mention all this? Because, perhaps surprisingly, United Airlines has a Twitter account.  Though they seem to use it mainly as a marketing engine to push promotional offers and special TWARES (Twitter fares). It takes more than just a few daily Twitter spam offers to engage with customers online. It’s actually a multi-stage, multi-step process. Let’s just assume for simplicity and plot-contrivance that there are four stages. And let’s throw in an aquatic theme to be cute. So, without further ado I present…

The four stages of learning to sink or swim with Social Media:

Stage 1: You’re clueless and will likely drown. People are talking about you, but you don’t even know it! Basically at this point you could drown in a bathtub if you’re not very careful.

Stage 2: Nice try, but… you still FAIL. You’re at least aware that people are talking about you, but you’re afraid to actually engage in the conversation. Instead you rely on your PR firm or internal marketing department to push out content via social media without encouraging any real dialogue. This is the equivalent of showing up for a swim meet wearing arm floaties.

Stage 3: Congrats, you passed the deep-end swim test. You realize the importance of monitoring what is being said online about your brand, company, and products. You also realize the even greater importance of having an empowered team of customer service professionals (not just PR or marketing folks) who can respond in an authentic voice to engage in conversations and help resolve customer issues when appropriate. Congratulations, you are now allowed to swim in the deep end without adult supervision.

Stage 4: You’re swimming in uncharted waters! You’re an old pro at all this social media monitoring stuff. You’ve even set up a team of experts (both Customer Service and Marketing) to engage with customers, deliver your marketing message, and nip any potential PR or Customer Service disasters in the bud. You don’t just use social media as just another channel for pushing content in a one-directional spam approach; rather you take the time and effort to actively participate in the online community – reading blogs, posts, and tweets; commenting on posts of others and re-tweeting interesting content; and participating in Tweet-ups and other real-time online events in the social Web. Congratulations, you’re swimming with the [insert cool aquatic fish/mammal of choice]. Unless you are involved in a rare, freak sting-ray accident, you should be fine!

 

This post is also available on TheSocialCustomer.com at http://thesocialcustomer.com/node/31219/.

Chocolate Fountains, Cigarette Breaks, Dirty Martinis, Office Naps, Topless Fridays? Office No-No’s or Secrets to Unlocking World-Class Customer Service?

Customer service is not for the squeamish.  Working in a contact center, for example, is fraught with perils. On any given day a contact center agent may interact with one hundred (or more) disgruntled customers, none of whom are just calling to exchange pleasantries. The overworked contact center 
agent often only has as little as 180 seconds to quickly calm the customer, identify the problem, and resolve the customer’s issue. And as soon as the issue is resolved, it’s time to start all over with another unhappy customer. Repeat. Repeat. Repeat. Repeat… Bang!

Not surprisingly, such a work environment can result in elevated levels of stress, anxiety, burnout, and disengagement. That’s part of the reason why there is such high employee turnover (or churn) in many contact center environments. Not only does this lead to higher operational costs (recruiting, on-boarding, training, etc.), but it has a far higher and far more devastating cost on the organization – the cost of subpar customer service, lost business and lost customers.

Numerous surveys and case studies have been published in the last ten years showing a positive correlation between employee job satisfaction and customer satisfaction and customer profitability. The common theme running through these studies is that even relatively modest increases in employee satisfaction and employee attitude can result in measurable increases in both customer satisfaction and customer revenues. As a general rule of thumb: angry, grumpy, moody, disgruntled, suicidal employees are bad for business. Whereas happy, friendly, engaged, empowered employees encourage customers to do more business with you. Shocking and groundbreaking stuff isn’t it?

This is the point in a typical blog entry where you would expect a clever segue to some cheesy list of e.g., “5 ways to improve employee satisfaction without spending any money”. You know all the usual clichéd advice about “compliment them in public, correct them in private” and “award them with handwritten notes”. But forget that !@#$-ing nonsense. Your employees are some of your most valuable corporate assets. They are often the front line to your customers. If you can afford to pay your CEO a million dollars a year (or more) why can’t you afford to provide your employees with proper equipment, infrastructure, working conditions, training, and career advancement options to keep them happy, engaged and productive? Sure, there are plenty of creative low-cost ways to show your appreciation for employees; but you’re also going to need to spend some money from time to time.

Now that we’ve got that out of the way, I proudly present, in no particular order, my list of “4 creative ways to improve employee satisfaction (without breaking any federal laws) and 4 things that you should never-ever-never do (unless you are a complete idiot and desperately want to get fired)”.

1. Pizza and Ice Cream Surprise Party!   Everyone loves pizza. Everyone loves ice cream. Some people even love pizza flavored ice cream [Ed: nobody likes pizza flavored ice cream]. Even in this age of low-calorie, low-fat healthy eating, pizza and ice cream refuse to go gentle into that good night. While perhaps not a great idea on a daily basis, there’s nothing wrong with rewarding your employees with the occasional pizza and ice cream surprise party. Verdict: Yes – time tested and proven. It gets results.
   
2. Hot Tub Tuesdays!   Here’s a great idea that for one reason or another hasn’t caught on yet. Install a hot tub in the office break room! Forget about foosball, ping pong, or video games. What will really help people unwind and relax is a nice 20 person hot tub. A perfect way to melt away the stress of long day dealing with unruly customers. Also great for impromptu team meetings! Sounds good, but there are hidden dangers. For some reason, the folks in legal and human resources tend to object. Not sure if they are worried about potential accidents and liabilities (even the best of swimmers can get a calf cramp and drown in 3 ft of water after all). Or maybe they have just watched too many episodes of Jersey Shore and The Bachelor. In any case it seems like an idea that is still ahead of its time. Verdict: No. While seemingly a great idea at first glance, it’s bound to get you into hot water with HR.
   
3. Afternoon Pajama Party and Power Nap!   Historically the corporate powers-that-be have frowned on napping in the workplace. People who dozed off at their desk with their faces pressed to their desk in a puddle of drool were seen as slackers. If you’re tired, get a coffee and suck it up. Sleep at home on your own time. The times they are a-changin’ however. Modern corporate leaders have started to recognize that efficacy of the power nap. A short 15 minute nap has been shown to make people more refreshed, focused and effective. Companies all over the world, from San Francisco to San Jose, have started to convert conference rooms, janitorial closets, and vacated server rooms into power-nap stations. Verdict: Yes, go for it! Just make sure to enforce “single occupancy” policy for all nap stations to prevent any undesired office hanky-panky.
   
4. Topless Fridays!   Everyone loves casual Friday. Jeans, Bermuda shorts, Hawaiian print shirts, flip flops. So why not take it up a notch to the next level with clothing-optional or even completely-topless Fridays? Bring in a couple thousand pounds of sand and some beach chairs and pretend you are in Mediterranean! Nice, France is quite nice this time of year! And according to an email making its way around the Internet, there was even a study published in the New England Journal of Medicine that purports that a few minutes of daily ogling has unexpected health benefits as well such as lower blood pressure and reduced risk of coronary and artery disease. So not only does a shirtless work environment improve office morale and camaraderie, but italso  improves the health of employees as well! Verdict: Don’t be an idiot! The so-called “research” is bogus. Unless you want to incur the wrath of the human resources and legal departments stick with Hawaiian shirts.
   
5. Death by Chocolate Fountain!   When things are going bad and the tried-and-true methods like pizza and ice cream aren’t getting the job done anymore, it’s time to bring in a heavy hitter. Meet the chocolate fountain! While a simple chocolate bar might be enough to console heartbroken teens, when things hit the fan in the contact center you need a couple hundred gallons of cascading melted chocolate on tap. And don’t forget the accoutrements: strawberries, frozen bananas, cookies, macaroons and shortbread. If a chocolate fountain can’t cheer up the surliest of your contact center agents, I don’t know what will.
   Verdict: Affirmative. Operation “death by chocolate” is a go. Rrepeat, operation “death by chocolate” is a go!
   
6.  Mandatory Smoke Breaks!   Smoking has gotten an unfair rap. Sure, it will probably eventually kill you (if it hasn’t already). And yes, it does coat your lungs with a layer of sticky, black tar. And admittedly it introduces a cocktail of deadly toxins into your bloodstream and internal organs. And sure, it turns your teeth yellow, gives you bad breath, and makes you stink in general. But nicotine, like all good drugs, gets the job done! A few puffs every 15 minutes and you’re good to go. The stress of work just floats away like a plume of smoke. If your employees aren’t already smokers you should institute a company-wide mandatory smoking policy! Not only is it a good stress reliever, but it brings people together in a way that the old water cooler and coffee machine can only envy. Verdict: Probably not a good idea (unless perhaps if you work for a tobacco company).
   
7. Musical Chairs!   I’m not talking about the children’s game we all played at birthday parties. I’m talking about the hidden dangers –both  physical and emotional – of sitting down for long periods of time. A recent article in the New York Times warns that even if you exercise regularly every morning and evening, if you spend the majority of the work day sitting in your chair  you are still putting yourself at  increased risk of obesity, diabetes, heart disease, a variety of cancers and an early death. In contact centers with performance metrics like agent occupancy, adherence, and calls per hour, agents are encouraged to be at their desks working – rather than walking around socializing with co-workers, taking frequent breaks, or doing special ergonomic exercises and stretches. So why not shake things up a little – replacing the standard office chair with a Gaiam ergonomic balance ball chair or even a treadmill desk! Verdict: Go for it! Healthier and happier employees result in more satisfied and more profitable customers.
   
8. All-You-Can-Drink After-Hours Martini Bar!   Employees can’t wait to get out of work on a Thursday or Friday evening to get to the bar. With a proliferation of hipster martini bars making a resurgence these days, why not keep employees at work longer and roll out the all-you-can drink open martini bar at the office? Imagine, employees staying late after their shifts, sipping martinis while jovially chatting and joking with customers on the phone. It’s a win-win-win for everyone. Not only will you improve morale and lower agent churn, but you will certainly improve customer satisfaction as well (who doesn’t enjoy the charm of incoherent rambling and slurred consonants when trying to resolve a technical problem or billing issue?). Verdict: Don’t be daft. Not only will you lose money (as the average contact center agent can put down $30 an hour in premium vokda, significantly more than the $13 an hour industry average salary), but you will likely lose millions per year in legal fees.

 

This post is also available at TheSocialCustomer.com.

Social CRM? Yep, Still Trendy. Wearing Phones on Your Belt? Meh, not so Much!

I’ve always considered myself a relatively forward thinking (and fashion forward) guy. I try to make sure to color coordinate my watch, belt, wallet and pocket protector. And I rarely wear white gym socks with dark slacks and dress shoes anymore (unless I haven’t done laundry in a couple weeks). So I was admittedly caught off guard when a stunning young woman at a swanky martini bar chided me for the fashion faux pas of wearing my cell phone clipped to my belt. 

Seriously? Since when did it become unhip to sport your cell phone (or in my case, cell phones) on your hip? I mean come on, it’s both practical and stylish. And if you have two or three smart phones like I do, you can pull off the super hero utility-belt look (think Batman). I imagine that people even say things like, “Hey, check out that dude. He must be uber-important, he’s got three BlackBerries. Let’s ask for his autograph.” You guys are all with me on this one, right?

Ok fine. So I’m willing to concede that perhaps it is a bit dorky to walk around with three phones mounted prominently on your belt. So I suppose I should probably cancel the iPad belt clip I just ordered yesterday from ThinkGeek.com? But one thing which I refuse to concede is this notion that Social CRM is already out of style, as suggested by Esteban Kolsky (@ekolsky), the otherwise brilliant (though often ahead of his time) enterprise-software analyst-philosopher-guru-prophet-visionary. 

In his recent blog post, Further Than Social, Esteban paints the picture of a futuristic utopian society where there is no need to refer to Social CRM (or “social” anything for matter), because “social” has already permeated all things – corporate and otherwise. Instead of talking about Social CRM, we just call it CRM (with the Social capabilities implied). Social Media simply becomes media. Social Security… well who knows, perhaps even that is somehow fixed and working.

In this futuristic dreamscape, leprechauns ride around on unicorns. CIOs and Line of Business managers are BFFs and have weekly slumber parties. Companies no longer struggle with basic customer service processes like responding to an email in a timely manner or providing you with a reasonable (30 minute) appointment window for a field service repair or installation. Repairmen don’t fall asleep on your couch. Airlines wake sleeping passengers up after the flight lands instead of leaving them onboard locked in the plane. In this mystical and magical land, companies have fully integrated social media channels, online communities, web forums, micro-blogging services, and product review sites with the enterprise software applications – providing a holistic view of you across all channels and touch points.

It sounds great, but I’m not buying it – at least not yet anyway. Perhaps I just need to ask my doctor for a stronger prescription of medical marijuana (for my chronic back pain of course). Or maybe the world would look different if I had a better view (nestled high up in an academic tower with a nice contact buzz) instead of standing ankle deep in the muck and mud here in the trenches (Man, I sure hope that’s mud. It doesn't smell like mud). 

For example, just today I got an email from a company telling me there are only three more days left to sign up for their upcoming event – an upcoming event that I am already registered for. And this is the third such email I’ve received from them. Honestly, how hard would it be to remove my name from their list of prospects once I sign up? This is really basic stuff. But clearly they don’t get it. So how can I really expect these same slackers who can’t even handle basic email marketing to magically figure out how to track me across all communication channels and technologies (Twitter, Facebook, Foursquare, Yelp, YouTube, etc.).

 If you ask me, there’s definitely still a need to talk about “Social” CRM, just as there’s still a need to talk about Customer Relationship Management in general. In fact there’s still a need to do more than just talk about it. Look around at some of the customer service horror stories posted on forums like TheSocialCustomer and others, and you will be forced to agree that most companies (with a few exceptions like Zappos, HP, Lexus, and Ritz Carlton) still haven’t mastered basic customer service, much less customer relationship management – much less social CRM. 

So while I reluctantly agree to unclip all my phones from my belt and walk around with a giant bulge in my pocket (bring on the jokes about “is that a blackberry in your pocket or are you just happy to see me” and the increased risk of testicular cancer) I will continue to yammer about Social CRM to anyone who will listen – even if it’s just my grandmother and my cat.

 

This post is also available at TheSocialCustomer.com at http://thesocialcustomer.com/node/30509/.

Cloud Computing Probably Won't Convince Your Teenager to Take out the Trash, but it Might Help Win Over Rebellious Business Users

We all have our own personal work-related pet peeves. I've seen mild-mannered accountants curse up an alliterative storm directed as those pesky Windows updates that automatically restart the affected computer after the update is completed -- without first asking, and invariably while the owner is away from their desks, with important unsaved documents and emails. And who hasn't ever had to contend with a loud office colleague who talks at full volume (often about non-work related topics) at all hours of the day, annoying everyone within a 7 cubicle radius? My personal pet peeve however is what I refer to as "blog-spam". That is, blatant advertisements that masquerade as innocent blog posts. These poorly-disguised advertisements (usually for some marketing consultancy or systems integrator) contain all the appropriate buzzwords, but fail to deliver any real message or value; their main objective is simply to drive traffic to the blog owner's web site.

We've all come across these types of blog posts that, at first glance, seem quite promising. They contain the requisite tags and buzzwords: Facebook, Twitter, Social Media, and of course, Cloud Computing. But in the end, that's often all these pseudo-blogs have going for them — buzzwords. Let's take "cloud computing" for example. Could computing is hot right now. It's sexy-smoking hot. You could throw cloud computing into the title of almost any random blog and have a hit. A nondescript title like "Knitting patterns for socks (without flaps or gussets)" that might usually only get a few hits suddenly becomes a block buster when you slap on cloud computing: "Knitting in the Clouds: Extreme High-Altitude Sock Patterns". Presto, best seller.

Never mind that many people still don't seem have a firm grasp on what cloud computing actually is (more on that topic in a minute). People are practically willing to embrace cloud computing as a cure all for any corporate malady. Does your company suffer from poor customer engagement? Is senior management apathetic to customer concerns and focused solely on short-term profits? Do your products and services fundamentally suck? No worries, just apply our magical cloud-computing ointment topically, twice a day for three days, and you're good to go. Need to lose those extra holiday pounds? Want to re-grow that receding hairline? Can't get your teenager to pick up their room or take out the trash? Problem solved: cloud computing to the rescue. Voilà!

But let's stop joking and start getting serious. There's been a lot of talk in the blogosphere lately about cloud computing. At times it seems like anyone trying to sell anything feels compelled to adopt the cloud-computing mantra, whether we are talking about CRM software, Marketing Management consultancies, Search-Engine Optimization (SEO) specialists, or whatever. If it doesn't take place in the cloud, it's not cool.

Some of the cloud-computing conversation is driven by software vendors who peddle on-demand (i.e., hosted) versions of their software platforms via the software as a service (SaaS) delivery model; these vendors rightfully recognize cloud computing as an opportunity to lower their costs while positioning themselves on technology's cutting edge. And then of course, the conversation is further fueled by on-premises software vendors who claim, in response, that cloud computing is primarily a just marketing gimmick, which attempts to re-brand already existing technologies such as network storage, virtualization, and load-balanced on-demand web hosting. And there's the analysts and consultants who add to the conversation with their own research findings and insights. And then there's the bloggers, discussing and debating the opinions of everyone else. And so the conversation grows louder.

And as more voices join the conversation, it becomes harder to follow any one conversation. Side conversations develop. Topics shift and go off in new (sometimes strange) directions. Soon, it's almost as if no two people are even talking about the same thing anymore. I think that's actually where we are now with cloud computing. So let's press the reset button and start the conversation over from the beginning. What is cloud computing? Please feel free to disagree, but in my opinion cloud computing is essentially just the delivery of IT services over the Internet using elastic (often offsite, third-party) computing resources. The two main points here are: 1) the company using the software doesn't have to own or maintain the computers on which the software is run, and 2) the usage is elastic, meaning that the number of computer servers in use automatically scales up during peak usage and usage spikes while instantly scaling back down when usage declines.

So how is cloud computing any different than a regular SaaS delivery model? Both delivery models satisfy the first point above, in that the end-user customer doesn't need to work about installing, owning, or maintaining the IT infrastructure. And while its neither a direct result of SaaS or exclusive to SaaS, most SaaS provides charge their customers using a so-called subscription-based pricing model where you pay a monthly service fee, as opposed to a large, one-time capital outlay commonly charged by traditional on-premises software vendors (though to be fair, many on-premises vendors also offer monthly subscription-based pricing models for their on-premises software, so this is not a benefit unique to the SaaS delivery model.)

The main difference between SaaS and cloud computing then is the second point above: usage elasticity. If a traditional SaaS vendor hosts their software on their own servers, they are constrained to some extent as to the capacity they can offer their clients. Sure, they can add more servers as necessary to scale up as demand from their clients grow. And yes, they can install a bunch of extra redundant servers that are just sitting around doing nothing, in order to be ready for any sudden spikes in demand. But those extra servers cost money and take up space; they gobble up electricity and produce heat. It cuts into profit margins to install, run, and maintain a bunch of servers that aren't being used to capacity.

That's the main selling point of cloud computing. As a software vendor, instead of hosting the software you provide on your own servers, you outsource the hosting of the software you provide to some gigantic Internet behemoth (i.e., Amazon, Google, IBM, etc.,) who has a couple of hundred free acres of unused servers sitting in a server farm somewhere. Then, as a software vendor, you focus on writing your code and cashing your monthly subscription checks from customers, while the cloud providers worries about the details of load balancing, CPU cycles, data security, etc.

So clearly cloud computing provides SaaS vendors with obvious benefits -- namely it offloads the hassle of managing IT infrastructure and customer data, while also providing costs savings (as Google or Amazon can host the IT infrastructure more cheaply due to economies of scale). But what about the companies who license SaaS technology? Do they benefit from cloud computing as well? The answer is simple: yes, no, and well… it depends

Of course, the very mention of the words “cloud computing” will instantly win over even the most rebellious business users who have grown accustomed to think of their company's own IT department as fundamentally opposed to anything cool or pro-business. And, sure, customers might also benefit from lower subscription cost due to money the SaaS vendor saves by offloading the hosting of the IT infrastructure -- but that's assuming the SaaS vendor actually passes any of those savings on to their customers. And yes, usage elasticity in theory means less chance of servers getting bogged down and less chance that end users will experience performance problems.

But in practice, cloud vendors face the same architectural problems of trying to gracefully scale applications that any in-house IT department faces. Moving IT to the "clouds" doesn't eliminate servers and databases -- it just moves them to someone else's backyard. Which brings up another point that makes some cloud-computing skeptics nervous; who the heck knows were your valuable customer data actually is and who is guarding it (or if they are guarding it). Just like the old rule of thumb that you shouldn't write anything in an email that you wouldn't want to see on the front page of the Wall Street Journal, some cloud skeptics would probably also advise not to send any data off into the clouds that you wouldn't want to end up on the desk of your main competitor.

 

This post is also availalbe at TheSocialCustomer.com.

Do Barber Shops Need Social Media?

Not too long ago, many self-proclaimed “experts” were still saying that social media was just a passing business fad – great for teenagers and college kids, but not a real business tool for serious companies. [OK, mainly I was the one saying that]. However, now that "serious" companies are making serious money conducting “social business” via social media tools – whether via Twitter-based marketing campaigns, referrals from Facebook fan pages, or leads generated in online communities – skeptics (myself included) are finally willing to concede that social business and social media are probably sticking around for a while.

Yet, even though it’s clear that social media has real business benefit, not everyone is convinced that social media is right for all businesses. For example, some people argue that Social Media is great for businesses that focus on consumers, but that social-media tools like Twitter and Facebook are not particularly well suited for business-to-business environments or commodities products. The mantra about controlling your own brand before somebody else does is great if you're selling soda, beer, or computers and you actually have a "brand". But what if all you have is a commercial warehouse or a post office box? In that case, how do you own your brand?

Would a chemical company really bother to tweet about "injection molding" or how "silicones perform under adverse conditions versus organic carbon compounds"? (Answer: Apparently yes. Check out Dow Corning, @dowcorning, with 293 followers). This question of whether commodity-product companies can really benefit from engaging in social business was recently addressed by Esteban Kolsky in an epic blog comment battle. And for the record, I'm with Esteban on this one. Just take a look around. Even traditionally conservative enterprise software companies are fully embracing social business and social media tools — setting up customer-facing online communities, blogs, and wikis, while also building native integration to social media tools into their products.

So now that everyone agrees social media isn't just a passing fad and is not limited only to consumer-facing brands, perhaps the last interesting un-asked questions relates to the efficacy of social media for small businesses — specifically, very-very-small, local businesses. Can so-called “mom-and-pop” shops benefit from social media? For example, should the local barber, cobbler, haberdasher, and shoe shiner be tweeting on Twitter? Does anybody really want to "friend" their drycleaner or neighborhood liquor store on Facebook? And while online ministries might be growing, is there any real demand for local churches, temples, and mosques to offer worship services in Second Life?

 

Consider me a bit skeptical still. I work for a large, global company with over 50,000 world-wide employees; and the companies that I work with most frequently tend to be Fortune 500 global brands — many larger than my own employer. So perhaps by default I naturally tend to usually view things in the context of big business.

 

Thus, I have to admit that was caught a bit off guard this weekend when my barber Mike asked me if I thought he needed get involved in all of this new-fangled Yelp, Foursquare, MySpace, Facebook, Twitter tomfoolery? My first thought was something to the effect of, "Ha ha. Sure dude — if you've got lots of excess time and money to waste." After all, who in their right mind would want to get a tweet from their barber saying, "Hey, it's Wednesday, 10:00 am. Business is slow. No line/wait right now. Come in today and save $3." Whoa, wait a minute. I just answered my own rhetorical question. I would definitely want to get that tweet. I would actually love to know when I could come in with no wait — and save a few bucks to boot. And I bet so would a bunch of other folks (or at least a few retirees and work-at-home dudes who aren't in the office at 10:00 am on Wednesday). Clearly it's not a huge pool of potential customers. But then again, my barber Mike isn't looking to draw in a million customers; Edward Scissorhands couldn't even cut that much hair in an afternoon. Rather, Mike is only looking for a few, loyal customers who would take him up on this immediate, time-constrained offer. Hmmm, we could be on to something here...

 

So I started doing a little research online to see to what extent other local, small businesses were leveraging social-media tools like Twitter, Yelp, and Foursquare. I was pleasantly shocked and awed. I found great stories about street-food vendors leveraging Twitter to announce their current location and daily menu: "Wafeleurs, we r celebrating Bastille Day at 60th and Madison. Come and yum yum! Password today is Tourmalet” from @waffletruck. I read about a combination coffee-shop slash beer garden that doubled it's customer base using Twitter to take to-go orders from busy customers who didn't want to have to wait in line. I found rave reviews on Yelp for street corner shoe shine outfits, like Famous Wayne's Shoe Shine in the San Francisco Financial District who sells a life-time membership card option for those who are ultra serious about always keeping their Oxford's looking like new. Suddenly I felt like Keanu Reeves (or rather his character Neo) who takes a red pill and is afterwards able to see the world clearly for the first time.

 

Yikes, social media had followed me home from work! It was starting to show up at all the neighborhood hot spots -- health clubs and salons, trendy restaurants and hole-in-the-wall bars, dry cleaners, landscapers, roofers, painters, handywomen and mechanics. I was reminded of the old adage, "if you can't beat em, join em". So I fired up my Blackberry and left my first Yelp review for a local business that had just done me a solid favor earlier that week by fixing (free of charge) a chip in my granite kitchen countertop that was entirely my fault. So if anyone is looking for some nice granite or natural stone tile in the San Jose area, check out the great folks at Eskandari Stone on South Bascom Avenue.

 

This post is also available at TheSocialCustomer.com.