Drop me in as keynote speaker at any industry conference you want -- cement, high tech, medical devices, restaurants... and my message is consistent: It's all about quality, and it's all about excellence.
And who determines if you have quality output or excellent performance? Your customers. Listening to the voice of the customer is Step No. 1 in making a quality improvement.
The basics for doing this have been the same for decades. Universities from Harvard to Pepperdine drill into the heads of their MBA candidates: "If you need feedback from your customers you will do the following: surveys, interviews, focus groups, or direct observation (secret shoppers, customer-for-a-day programs...)."
Marketing, strategy, quality, and R&D functions all use these tools. Too bad if they are not extended to Web 2.0.
According to a Deloitte study, marketing still drives most companies' Web 2.0 usage. Add to that the well known emphasis on transparent data gathering related to online sales and advertising, and one conclusion pops out: Many firms may be missing the boat by not expanding Web 2.0 applications to engage a broader spectrum of customer-focused activities.
Web 2.0 usage is lopsided in many firms, with marketing and sales dominating the usage. If more departments than marketing leveraged Web 2.0 to bring traditional, manual customer tracking efforts into cyberspace, they could experience exponential gains in their results.
Some companies do issue online surveys instead of paper ones. They may even have a Facebook or LinkedIn page. How many, though, are employing the existing technology to have meaningful dialogues with the people who keep them in business?
A quality control group could easily set up a virtual focus group to discuss recent shipping problems. R&D could remotely view people in their homes, interacting with product prototypes and asking questions real-time. Strategy groups could leverage Web technology to zero in on, and communicate in real-time with, members of key customer groups.
It's not just about B2C communications, either; Web 2.0 social networks also boost C2C communications. We used to hear that an upset customer will tell 10 others. With today's blogs and social networks, one upset customer can now tell 100,000.
As online purchasing continues to grow, the notion that customers can post influential feedback about your products is driving more of an emphasis on quality and ensuring excellence in meeting customer needs. What if you went to your corner grocery and under each product was customer feedback? Might that influence your purchase? At Amazon.com it does.
But that’s a reactive example. How about getting ahead of the game? Use social media and other Web 2.0 tools proactively -- not for marketing or issuing coupons, but to engage in real dialogues that will instill customer loyalty.
Following are some uses of Web 2.0 that enterprise strategy and quality functions could deploy:
Real-time focus groups and panel studies
Direct dialogues with product designers and engineers
Virtual plant tours and design reviews
E-town-halls with company management
Virtual user forums
Customer involvement in helping to plan product lines and set strategy
Company-provided training and Webinars on topics suggested by customers
So here’s the opportunity:
Move beyond marketing and sales dominating the use of Web 2.0. Let the other functions get to the table.
Move from manual use of consumer-voice tools to leverage the automation available today.
Once marketing moves over and lets the strategy and quality functions sit at the Web 2.0 big-boy table, I have to believe we'll see some significant new trends in how companies communicate with their customer communities.
— Jeff Cole is president of JCG Management Consulting Ltd., a firm specializing in business process improvement and change management.
DHAgar - Good points about leadership. W.Edwards Deming (the quality guru) used to say that most quality problems can ultimately be traced back to management. If the question leaders are asking is "How can I make more$$ right now?" you get one form of behavior with the web.
If the questions were "How can we improve quality?" "How can our strategies be more solid and flexible at the same time?" "Are there any latent customer needs we have not uncovered?" or "How can we improve customer loyalty?" you may see a very different usage!
Dhagar - another reason for limited use of web 2.0 is probably the desire to reduce outward communication to only what is necessary . A company which does not understand the importance of corresponding with customers over products may deem it as a waste of time, or fail even to think of it in the first place. Goes back to reflecting limited leadership.
Jeff, I think that the point is how effective the marketing functions truly are. What both you and modza are saying is that it is being used for a very narrow function. In your reference to marketing, I think one of the points is that not all companies are truly marketing (meaning understanding their customer) as much as trying to sell. So Web 2.0 is being used for a one-way message.
If you take modza's point of leadership, you would both drive the two-way C2C communications, better understand your customer, and actually build short-term and long-term relationships, as leading companies like Proctor & Gamble are.
I think the limited use reflects the limited leadership in some companies. As always, the communication lines just follow that narrow line of effectiveness.
I can agree with most of that - I don't see Marketing specifically working hard to deny the other functions access. It's more that the other functions need to wake up to the opportunity. That said, I have seen some companies' communication functions try to put blockades up under the banner of "protecting the message", etc. Your points are all well stated!
I agree completely with every line of your essay...except the last -- and even there my disagreement is only partial. It's not a question of marketing "letting" other corporate functions use social media, at least not originally. Originally, few other functional areas of the company were interested, with the exception of customer service. See "@ComcastFrank" for a stellar example.
To your point, it's probably true now that Marketing has such a big stake in social media, they're loath to share it. But it's in the nature of social media that no one has control of it, so there's really nothing stopping anyone else in the company from using SM in the ways you list.
What's still missing from most companies, of course, is leadership. And in this arena, that's especially difficult, because the traditional view of leadership in companies is one man (typically), sending control messages down the layers of the pyramid. But now, the base of the pyramid is sending control messages UP. See Charlene Li's latest book, "Open Leadership."
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