Six Sigma techniques, which involve improving business processes and products by systematically eliminating defects, have made their way to the Internet. Now, companies are applying the art (and science) of “Social Sigma” to gain feedback from Web users through online surveys, blogs, comments, and other feedback mechanisms.
Social Sigma, which most of us have traditionally experienced as online feedback or forums, is evolving past marketing and online user touch points. Cyber blogs, forums, and feedback mechanisms are now being used by companies as data collection points on the quality and satisfaction levels of their products and services -- and as direct pipelines into corporate product development, customer service, sales, and order fulfillment. The process is also being used to communicate upcoming product and process attractions to online users.
Why does Social Sigma work? “Because the social network for a company is trusted and interested,” blogs George Colony, President of Forrester research group.“They have a stake in improved services and products and have built-in incentive to contribute time and ideas to the cause.”
Colony points out that companies that fail at Social Sigma claim to be listening but ultimately fail to incorporate ideas from the social network into their products. You see this as an online user when you submit feedback, get an automatic message that someone will “get back to you,” and then never hear anything further.
Forrester is also practicing what it preaches. “We use blogs to gather input from users on our products and services,” says Jeremiah Owyang, senior analyst at Forrester. “We get input on our research reports, and also use the Internet to survey our business users to find out what is on their minds, and what questions they are looking for answers to. We can do this manually, but the Internet allows us to expedite the process. We can talk to business decision-makers directly, and this speeds time to market for us on our products.”
Other companies are following suit:
Eddie Bauer recently revamped its online store design based on customer feedback and suggestions. Key improvements included abundant use of Web 2.0 to improve Website usability and customer satisfaction.
Credit Mutuel, France’s second largest retail bank, enlisted its customers into product improvement through a program called, Si j'etais banquier -- "If I was a banker." Thus far, the bank has received more than 50,000 suggestions for improvements in products and service. It recently let customers vote on the top 30.
GM's Fast Lane blog is an online forum that gives customers the opportunity to tell GM what they think about designs, quality, and products. Customer comments are piped directly into R&D and Product Development, and are frequently candid observations about how product designs could be improved and errors corrected.
Starbucks recently started the “MyStarbucksIdea” forum, receiving requests from customers like offering free WiFi access in all stores.
“These companies have seen the value of gaining immediate feedback from customers online and are incorporating it into their product and process improvement process,” says Owyang. “Social Sigma is a very important tool that allows companies to rapidly respond to a quickly changing global market.”
Equally important is the availability of tools and software that facilitates the Social Sigma process. Both Salesforce.com and Uservoice.com offer pluggable solutions into business Websites that can be used to conduct Social Sigma operations.
Get Satisfactionfocuses on the customer service side of transactions, and offers a centralized Internet customer satisfaction forum for multiple companies and products.
Use of these tools helps companies to achieve a 360-degree feedback loop with customers and stakeholders without spending hundreds of thousands or even millions of dollars on business reengineering, so they should be a corporate “slam dunk” -- but are they?
“The biggest hurdle for companies that want to engage in Social Sigma will be the CEO and other high-level executives who will cringe at the brutal criticism,” says Colony, “But that's how customers feel -- and the company should use this knowledge to its advantage.”
I once ran an e-commerce operation and we used to smile among ourselves--observing that you always heard from those dissatisfied with the service--but your reward for satisfaction was generally silence! Staff even kiddingly suggested that we establish a metric for number of "quiet" days!
It is just human nature to not say anything when people are satisfied. Thye have so many other priorities in their lives--but it still pays off big, because you never know who they'll share their satisfaction with. Our site visitors grew exponentially, so we knew something "good" was happening beyond what our markeitng efforts would net.
I agree Mary, that the biggest hurdle to live online customer service is the possibility that someone may be dissatisfied, and tell you so. That lets others see that someone is not happy, and gives the impression that it is not a perfect world at company ABC. What is lost in all this is the opportunity to create satisfaction after the sale with how a company responds to a dissatisfied customer and how the interaction is handled.
Certainly there are some business models that lend themself more quickly to services like www.getsatisfaction.com or others. And each company trying to reach customers would be wise to look at employing some type of quick reach customer service.
The downside to this is that if 100 customers are delighted, the tendency is that 5 will tell you so, but if 100 customers are upset, 89 will tell you so. That is what hard knocks educated top execs and CEOs will use to base their reluctance on.
Every once in a while, the status quo is challenged in every enterprise, or at least it should be. When it is, customer satisfation needs to be addressed, and prioritized.
Arguably, increasing the ease whereby a customer can voice dischord also increases the ease by which they can report success and satisfaction with your product or service.
Thanks Mary for the article. It has spurred on the discussion within our walls!
This establishes a "do it right" position for the company--and shows that it is diligent.
It's somewhat like the signs you see posted on the back of semi trucks on the highway--"If you see somethng wrong with my driving, call 800-etc."
Of course, there is always the counterpoint argument about "Big Brother" and also about mischievous reports that are calculated to hurt innocent individuals.
You always have to walk a fine line, and plan to carefully investigate everything.
Mary: Your Social Sigma idea is equally applicable to a company's effort to reduce lawsuits or mitigate damage from them. A company can broadcast to the world its desire to act ethically and lawfully. It can ask its customers, its trading partners and its potential adversaries to let it know if it or any of its employees are doing something wrong. It can exploit technology to open a feedback loop that helps it know about problems as early as possible and show to the courts that it works hard to be a good corporate citizen worthy of leniency. What do you think? --Ben
Solutions from TNS, Buzz Metrics, Attentio are all good--as are the tools I mentioned in my article from Salesforce and My Satisfaction.
You hit the nail on the head when you talked about the organization being willing to adopt and utilize the results from the tool.
I can't tell you how many organizations I have seen purchase a tool--install it--and then never do anything with what it reports except include brief mention in a monthly status.
There are several internal problems that cause this.
First, reporting to the Board that your customers like you (or your products) is not as "sexy" for CEOs as telling the Board about a glowing revenue picture.
Second, if customer reports are not "glowing," the CEO or senior manager doesn't want to be the "messenger" that gets shot--so he avoids it.
Third, middle managers see this, so they don't do anything, either.
Fourth, line staff do nothing because their "incentives" are based on sales--not on retention and customer satisfaction.
This is the real "complex" that successful business that employ this strategy show an ability to overcome.
This is a valuable resource for businesses that gives them instantaneous feedback on the market.
The keys are gaining top manageent support and developing a process infrastutrutre that transforms cusotmer input into immediate business and product improvements. It becomes even more valuable when customers see that what they say really matters.
It is interesting that I spoke with several Six Sigma certification firms recently--and all felt that identifying "Social Sigma" as part of the Six Sigma program was a stretch at best.
I think the term got started simply becasue the Social Sigma tools were a way to try to actually assess user feedback--and to plough it back into products and service. In that sense, the process does mirror the Six Sigma workflow--but that is about it.
These new avenues that are being built for customers to
provide direct feedback to organizations regarding their products or services
can potentially lead to significant improvements if the organization utilizes
them appropriately.
This is another form of pure customer preferences that can
easily be collected and also provides a sense of privilege to them.
It will be vital for businesses to open up a Web 2.0
dialogue for their customers in order to stay in the race in this rapidly
changing global economy.
This is a timely post and builds on thoughts presented in the book , Groundswell.
The core principle thus is to listen more and respond quickly. The challenge is the silo based approach that most companies have. Receiving feedback and then acting on it is very critical. Once a customer gives feedback, the expected response is quick solution. The challenge starts here for most companies.
Experience feedback and tracking on a continuous basis becomes critical. Acting on suggestions even more so.
I have been looking to understand the usefulness of some tools such as TNS Cymphony, Buzz Metrics , Attentio to assist some of our clients. Would like your views and also if you could share some names that companies can evaluate for their businesses.
Actually, I agree with you, just don't think any of the companies cited are anywhere close to what "six sigma" actually means -- six standard deviations, or 99.9997% perfect, 3.4 defects per million.
Again, I'm glad they are asking for feedback, and acting on it, but they've got a long way, make that long long long long long way to go. Especially when you're talking about an "experience" as Starbucks wants it.
Now maybe Cisco is approaching that, since they started letting their customers contribute to their knowledge base in 1999 or earlier. See "The Cluetrain Manifesto."
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