Customer World

Getting your blog strategy right

If you are a company having a blog where potential or current customers visit, Greg Verdino has some great advice on how to make it interesting and compelling:

"..we put together this simple graphic that presents the 7 Strands of Blog DNA - the key elements that, when combined in a unique way, make any given blog what it is.  Original, compelling and unlike anything else on the web."

From FAQs to FDCs

I read this interesting piece by Lee Oddeen on content for business blogs  and how corporations can leverage knowledge residing with employees as an important starting point. He writes:

"One of the best resources for blog content comes out of interactions with prospects and customers. If an organization can tap into the flow of dialog that happens between front line employees such as sales people and customer support there is an abundance of valuable content available. If customers and potential customers have questions about certain topics, then it’s pretty likely that many others will too."

Taking-off from this thought, I felt one of the most important areas where such knowledge resides is in the call centre conversations for companies. Many customer service queries get handled during such interactions. Would it not be a good idea to have a section in a company website called FDCs - Frequently Discussed Conversations or even put them in their business blogs? 

This could be customer conversations on product, service, usage issues, new solutions discovered by customers etc. I think podcasts of the same can be made available on the blog, websites etc. so that customers/prospects can listen to them and bring them closer to the brand & the company.

The future of great customer experience is all about converting interactions into information.

Making Social Networking mainstream

NY Times has a very interesting article on how enterprises are making Social Networking as a platform to get  companies closer to their customers.

I really love the extension of the idea to business because social networking was seen more as a "peripheral community" among industry leaders. These sites were seen as a hub of young consumers getting together more as a hobby and sharing amongst themselves common issues and interests. Imagine, if this can become mainstream for enterprises - making it the hub for its customers! I think this is a big idea and inflection point for social networking this year and the future too.

When large companies & visionaries like Cisco Systems, Ning(the latest venture of the Netscape co-creator Marc Andreessen) put their might behind it, this idea has the capacity to really fly. Look at some examples of how it can be used:

• Imagine a social networking site for Whirpool where women who have bought their products can share their experiences,recipes, usage problems, service issues etc. in a social networking context. This could lead them to meet new friends, new information about raising children, new usage ideas etc. and Whirlpool will be the catalyst for this community. It could end-up in them sharing photos, holiday information etc. and this community will help Whirlpool design its products and services better for them. Imagine they allow customers to build their own site, invite their friends, look and feel are customized etc.
• Or a bank where people talk about money and issues wrt money - How to save, how to increase their wealth, investment opportunities, chat on financial services brands, their agents or Financial planners, their concerns and fears about the future of their investments, retirement plans etc. Imagine a banking website having a social networking site that can allow this community to grow and spread on the web, mobile, TV etc.
• Social networking can become the call centre of the future. The agents are customers themselves!

I think this is a great opportunity but companies need to be just the catalyst for such forums. They need to enable, listen, share, collaborate, engage with these customers and prospects if enterprise social networking has to come of age.

Radio Station extend the customer experience with Videos

Recently, I had a written a post about new media getting the attention of marketers. In fact, I had mentioned there that I hated the use of the word non-traditional media and called it convergent media.

Looks like radio stations are fast adopting convergent media strategies. NY Times has an interesting article on how radio stations are using their websites to have videos that literally 'extend' the listening experience.

I personally think this is an extremely sticky & brilliant idea for radio stations. It just moves seamlessly from offline 'listening' to online 'viewing and listening' very well. Take a look at the opportunities it provides when you view radio media with a convergent mindset:

• A simple camera in the broadcast booth( How about seeing your RJ?)
• Web-only musical performances

Radio Stations can become a visual medium if you have the right imagination!

Forrester's take on ROI of blogs

Forrester has released a research report “The ROI Of Blogging: The “Why” And “How” Of External Blog Accountability”.

It's got some very insights on the kind of metrics brands should use, when it comes to evaluating their corporate blogging initiatives:

Donate your Coke rewards

I just saw an interesting promotion on Coke Rewards. There's a nice touch to this promo. If you go back to my post on Faith Popcorn's 2007 trends, it's quite close to the trend  and insight -"The globally conscious consumer regards altruistic activities as a necessary part of self- improvement." Coke has truly taken advantage of this trend with this promotion.

Here's how it goes:

If you drink Coke you need to start donating those coke codes under the cap to the Donate Your Coke Rewards blog. The site has collected over 1,500 codes and is donating all the prizes from the rewards to a needy St. Jude Children's Research Hospital kid.   

The business impact of blogs

Much has been written about the power of blogs and its power to shape customer opinion. Measuring the business impact of blogs is an area of great interest to me. Some key questions I often ask myself are:

• Is blogging an island without too many inhabitants - Is it a niche waiting to get mainstream?
• Does the opinion of bloggers matter at all when it comes to brand purchase decisions?
• Do consumers consider blogs as a trustworthy source vis-a-vis other forms of media?
• Is user-generated content considered valuable by customers?
• Is it possible to summarize the business impact of blogs by way of addressable customer numbers? Is it a large enough market waiting to be tapped by marketers?

Well, there seems to be some answers for these questions. Here's a research done by IPSOS in Europe - a leading marketing research firm. I think this research clearly gives directions for other markets too, on how customers perceive this new medium and its impact on brands. Here's the presentation:

Preparing for consumer-led IT

Gartner analysts predict there will be a large-scale shift in technology influence toward consumers and away from central corporate IT departments.

In a keynote speech on Monday, Gartner's director of global research, Peter Sondergaard, warned conference attendees that consumerization will be the most significant trend to have an impact on IT over the next 10 years.  "We stand at the foot of a new high tide," Sondergaard said. "There is a shift in technology ownership."  Sondergaard argued that consumers already have a great deal of power over how services and technologies are configured and used.

"Consumers are rapidly creating personal IT architectures capable of running corporate-style IT architectures," he said. "They have faster processors, more storage and more bandwidth."

He advised corporate IT executives to adapt to the changes and prepare for what he called "digital natives," or people so fully immersed in digital culture that they are unconcerned about the effects of their technology choices on the organizations that employ them.

The encroachment of Web 2.0 into the business world, sometimes referred to as "Enterprise 2.0," was a common theme running.

Mashup apps

In a paper prepared by Gene Phifer, David Mitchell Smith and Ray Valdes, Gartner researchers noted that corporate IT departments historically have lagged behind popular technology waves, such as the arrival of graphical user interfaces and the Internet in business.

They argued that the biggest impacts of Web 2.0 within enterprises are collaboration technologies--notably blogs, wikis and social networking sites--and programmable Web sites that allow business users to create mashup applications.

"Mashups are beginning to see corporate deployment, especially in companies that need to relay geographic information to their users (for example, store locations to customers)," according to the report.

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Converstations lists Customer World

Mike Sansone of Converstations has included my blog in his list of blog rolls. 

As you can see, I am in the august company of some of the best blogs in the world.

Thanks Mike for your reference and link.

Corporates have a new playbook

	New Rules	vs.	Old Rules
1	Agile is best; being big can bite you.		Big dogs own the street.
2	Find a niche, create something new.		Be No. 1 or No. 2 in your market.
3	The customer is king.		Shareholders rule.
4	Look out, not in.		Be lean and mean.
5	Hire passionate people.		Rank your players; go with the A's.
6	Hire a courageous CEO.		Hire a charismatic CEO.
7	Admire my soul.		Admire my might.

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