Once upon a time there was a seismic event known as the dotcom boom where all business moved to the internet, ecommerce sites led the way and were the tool of the time to leverage this new powerful new sales channel. As the tools and methodologies matured the solutions became more sophisticated and allowed ever more data to be captured about the customers of these businesses and what products or services they were purchasing right down to their birthdays. For a time, this was then simple, normal, the standard approach. The customer used the internet, came into a high street store or gave them a call on the phone. The systems were integrated to allow the same customer information to be available to telephone operators (Sales, Customer Service etc...), store clerks and the online decision making systems that would offer contextual offers or dynamic discounts based on the customer currently undertaking that journey.
For a while this worked well, Marketing teams got better at analysing the data and segmenting it into manageable information that was actionable. User experiences became more tailored and customised, offers and advertising were more targeted to the user and began to get a better return as the offers were of interest to the users and slowly but surely the picture became as complete as possible for these businesses operating in the internet space. Customer service was considered value add, yes you may lose a single customer if you didn't get it right, but it wasn't like word of mouth extended more than a handful of people.
...Fast Forward 15 years and we are right in the middle of the advent of the social media eruption...
Suddenly Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and other tools allowed individual people more power than they have ever had before. The social media space suddenly gives the individual a voice that everyone can hear and is fundamentally changing the face of Customer Service and Brand Management. It blows open old ways of doing business via the internet and highlights massive gaps in the understanding businesses have of their customers. A great example of this was highlighted to me the other day by a colleague working with a massive global Enterprise customer.
One of the tranches of business this customer provides is printers and printing supplies to both businesses and individuals and traditionally their customer service operations were geared towards providing a better level of service to business customers as they traditionally did the large, considered purchases and the business was keen to provide them with exceptional post-sales service. Social Media has seismically rearranged the landscape here! Ever since a part time nanny called Molly Katchpole, businesses can no longer afford to ignore the individual as they now have the power to do massive damage to brands and share prices. Customers now expect the highest level of customer services from their product and service providers.
Now how can businesses do this? How can you now get to know a customer who has access to multiple channels of communication? An individual who can speak to the masses every bit as effectively as your marketing department, and how can you learn all you need to know about this customer to give them the service they require?
Yes, there are tools out there to help you do this. Radian 6, Salesforce, Buddy Media, BlueConic and Eloqua being the first few that sprint to mind but the most key word there is that they are tools!!! I myself am not particularly gifted in the realms of DIY although I have every manner of tool conceivable, I have Hammers, Pliers, Drills, Spanners, tools for tiling, tools for plastering, tools for woodwork, tools for plumbing, tools for brickwork and masonry and a whole separate toolbox for stuff I'm not quite sure what they are for but they look as if they have been used at some point in their life. My point to this reference is that I wouldn't decide one day to build a house based on the fact I have the correct tools for the job. I admit I can Google and watch YouTube videos to tell me how to lay foundations, lay bricks, insulate walls, put in a central heating system but the simple fact of the matter is I would be very quickly swamped with data that I cannot make any sense of and certainly couldn't be able to action as I'd find myself plastering walls before putting in the electrics. The resultant mess would be catastrophic.
To expand my analogy, to get to know your customer in an ever changing environment you need to think how your house needs to be built, who will be living there(Individuals, personas and customer demographics), what sort of style they like (What products or services interest them), what rooms will be necessary (Marketing Segmentations). Only then once you have thought about this you can begin the journey to truly knowing your customer, knowing what makes them tick, knowing what they buy, how they behave, who they interact with, what they are saying about you. The old dotcom houses were great at their time, they were the right size, the walls were all magnolia and the one size fits all approach seemed to be more widespread than you would imagine but these houses are getting old, they are no longer big enough, they no longer do the jobs we need them to do. In short, new houses are needed for modern times.
With the ever increasing amount of data being gathered about customers from Tweets, posts, blogs, cookies, online purchases etc. it would be very easy to take all this and try and pack it on, build an extension if you will pardon one more stretching of the analogy but we the advent of Social Media, I believe it's time to think about moving!
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