IBM launched its Smarter Commerce Global Summit on Tuesday by introducing the idea of the Chief Executive Customer. Customers empowered by social media and the Internet need to be considered in charge of the company -- part of the C-suite.
To succeed in the new age of customer empowerment, companies need to enchant customers, said Guy Kawasaki, who hosted the Orlando conference. Not coincidentally, Kawasaki is the author of Enchantment: The Art of Changing Hearts, Minds, and Actions, a book about how to influence other people while maintaining the highest standards of ethics. Kawasaki is former chief evangelist at Apple and co-founder of the Alltop news service.
Craig Hayman, general manager for industry solutions at the IBM Software Group, gave the example of a company that changed its business entirely by listening to its customers. (IBM sponsors Internet Evolution.) During the Great Depression, that company made a product to clean soot off walls. It was very popular and useful at a time when buildings were heated by coal. But the slow economy reduced demand for both coal and the cleaning product. The company discovered that children liked to play with its product, and so the business repurposed the product as a toy.
That product is Play-Doh.
A more recent example: Laura Mercier Cosmetics. When Dr. Phil's wife said that company's products were her favorite, the business had to move quickly to take advantage of the spike in demand. It optimized its Website quickly to focus on searches from the Dr. Phil site, cross-selling, and upselling, and it worked with suppliers and partners to take advantage of demand, Hayman said.
Businesses need to learn from these examples, he said. "Are you one company or a collection of many? Are you collaborating with your partners to organize around the customer?"
Part of optimizing around the customer is improving the supply chain to deliver great products on demand.
For example, Lenovo began to redesign its supply chain seven years ago, when it acquired IBM's PC business. It decided to optimize the supply chain around the customer, rather than cutting costs, said Gerry Smith, senior vice president for global supply chain at Lenovo. The goal was to deliver an excellent customer experience, rather than simply saving money.
In another example, Husqvarna, a Swedish company that makes outdoor power equipment such as chain saws and lawn mowers, created a partner portal to give its customers complete visibility into the supply chain. The customers can see where products will be delivered from, when they will be delivered, and how many units are in stock. The portal was a result of a marketing-IT partnership.
Bank of America used its mobile app as a way to enchant customers. The app lets customers send money using only the recipient's email address or phone number. Aditya Bhasin, senior vice president of customer marketing and digital banking, described how a father used it to send money to his college-age son, along with a bonus to celebrate the son's success in college. The son, who was negligent about staying in touch with parents, as college students often are, responded to tell his parents he loved them.
The functionality of the app was less important than the emotional connection of the message, Bhasin said.
Similarly, Bank of America takes its Facebook page beyond simply accumulating Likes and comments, Bhasin said. He noted that Facebook has 800 million members. "In the old days, if there was a street corner with 800 million people, what would we have done? We would have built a branch there." So Bank of America built a branch on its Facebook page, adding the ability to get live customer support on Facebook.
"We use inhuman technology to create personal human interaction," Bhasin said.
Yes, customer-first has always been a principle of business. But the difference is now that that customers have tools to get information just as good as the information the business has, using the Internet and social media.
Good points, Joanne. It totally has changed the roles, as Mitch outlines.
The power of the customer now links the customer, and their needs, to the C-suite office. Increasingly, it appears that CEO's are recognizing this market power through the consumer; they are directly relating to the information that is coming from social media.
It represents the classic shift from push (i.e., marketing, as Mary refers to), to meeting the pull of the markets (i.e., organizations developing systems to meet the growing demands of customers that now know what they want.) This is where the situation is becoming dynamic.
Yes, Mary. It's a much more authentic approach now to satisfying the real wants and needs of customers. New ways of interacting are required in this dynamic. Most, if not all of the rules have changed!
Good point, Joanne. I'm thinking, though, that in the "old days" it might have been easier for marketing to create its own luck. It may have been easier to keep waning products going, or to adopt a "build it and they will come" approach.
With social networking and other online realities, customers are driving the bus. So it's forcing marketers to figure out how to enchant them instead of how to make them think they want goods and services they didn't know they needed.
The idea of customers being in the C-suite and putting them at the center of attention is more "it's about time" than groundbreaking news. There's been talk for years about the importance of customers, but knowing and not acting on this isn't really knowing, is it? I'm glad to see that the customer is being actively elevated. If it weren't for the customer, come to think of it, there would be no need for the C-Suite!
At first, I found the phrase enchanting customers a bit off-putting; it seemed somehow out of place or ... something. But examining my own reaction, I see it's probably that I simply don't expect to see the term used in the context of business. Like the phrase delighting customers, it seemed over the top at first. Now I can see its merit as a marketing goal. So much livelier and more ambitious than the old, dry "satisfy customer demand."
Every now and again, it's useful to apply new language.
It doesn't seem to be enough to listen to customers; as Karyl Scott pointed out in her blog this week, information isn't much use without an effective context. These examples you cite, Mitch, all show companies not just listening but knowing what to listen to and when to act.
The ThinkerNet does not reflect the views of TechWeb. The ThinkerNet is an informal means of communication to members and visitors of the Internet Evolution site. Individual authors are chosen by Internet Evolution to blog. Neither Internet Evolution nor TechWeb assume responsibility for comments, claims, or opinions made by authors and ThinkerNet bloggers. They are no substitute for your own research and should not be relied upon for trading or any other purpose.
Enterprises are embracing open-source to avoid vendor lock-in, get better-quality software, and gain access to larger libraries of applications. In return, they may be putting themselves at risk for higher, more complex support costs.
Whereas some businesses search externally when they need a CIO, Choice Hotels had to look only at its CTO for someone with the necessary expertise, industry knowledge, and technological know-how to continue leading the company's embrace of enabling technologies.
Local social media can be powerful marketing tools, but they can't just be add-ons. They need to be tightly integrated into the corporate culture, according to Whole Foods social marketers.
Sequestration has only highlighted the financial stranglehold that many federal IT executives are forced to address, yet some agency leaders are using these budget-strapped times to jump-start innovation.
The whole Amazon.reader debate is a double-stupid. It's stupid to think that there's any e-book buyer who doesn't know Amazon's URL, and it was stupider to let ICANN launch the whole free-form TLD initiative to start with.
Showing results is the best way to win over social business doubters, according to Mary Maida, Medtronic lead information solutions manager. Internet Evolution's Mitch Wagner interviewed Maida at the E2 Innovate conference.
Companies need to take advantage of new technologies to simplify interfaces, improve capabilities, and enhance back-office processes. But they can't upgrade their Websites too often.
Wells Fargo uses social software to replace email chains and help its sales team collaborate more effectively to land deals, according to Kelli Carlson-Jagersma, VP Collaboration Strategy for Wells Fargo. Mitch Wagner spoke with Carlson-Jagersma at the E2Innovate conference
Cisco's rumored sale of Linksys suggests we may have problem with innovation and profit at the edge of our Internet, and that could be critical to the evolution of many Internet-delivered services.
A recent release of the popular TweetDeck app for Twitter power-users gives new life to software that had previously taken a wrong turn. Here's a quick walk-through of the new TweetDeck, to show you why it should be at the top of your Twitter toolkit.
A growing number of HR managers are suspicious of individuals who do not take part in social media and view them as anti-social in real life as well as online.
New York's Metropolitan Transit Authority is conducting a pilot test of digital kiosks to guide subway users to where they want to go more efficiently and at lower cost.
Edmunds separates customers into segments based on the info it collects on its site and from partners, and uses that to push out custom content, said Brian Baron, director of business analytics for Edmunds.com, at Predictive Analytics Innovation Summit.
New York's Metropolitan Transit Authority is conducting a pilot test of digital kiosks to guide subway users to where they want to go more efficiently and at lower cost.
The whole Amazon.reader debate is a double-stupid. It's stupid to think that there's any e-book buyer who doesn't know Amazon's URL, and it was stupider to let ICANN launch the whole free-form TLD initiative to start with.
While NFC's original goal was to enhance mobile commerce applications, it is finding its way into a number of other uses, which is creating both opportunity as well as challenges for IT departments.
Enterprises would like to move to cloud computing but are hesitant because they are concerned about providers’ ability to secure company data. Here are some tips that help to ensure that if breaches occur, the business is not left holding the bag.
Edmunds separates customers into segments based on the info it collects on its site and from partners, and uses that to push out custom content, said Brian Baron, director of business analytics for Edmunds.com, at Predictive Analytics Innovation Summit.
The automotive website uses propensity modeling to target ads and customer registration forms, said Brian Baron, director of business analytics for Edmunds.com, at Predictive Analytics Innovation Summit.
Subsidized handsets, rather than locked handsets, should be the focus of regulators. We're not getting good deals, not fostering innovation, and weakening our power as buyers.
Expert Integrated Systems: Changing the Experience & Economics of IT In this e-book, we take an in-depth look at these expert integrated systems -- what they are, how they work, and how they have the potential to help CIOs achieve dramatic savings while restoring IT's role as business innovator. READ THIS eBOOK
your weekly update of news, analysis, and
opinion from Internet Evolution - FREE! REGISTER HERE
Wanted! Site Moderators Internet Evolution is looking for a handful of readers to help moderate the message boards on our site – as well as engaging in high-IQ conversation with the industry mavens on our thinkerNet blogosphere. The job comes with various perks, bags of kudos, and GIANT bragging rights. Interested?
To save this item to your list of favorite Internet Evolution content so you can find it later in your Profile page, click the "Save It" button next to the item.
Email This
