Developing new ways of understanding, analysing and engaging with customers requires investment.
Organisations have shown that they are willing to experiment with social media projects, but significant enterprise-wide change requires a compelling business case. “An empire in social media can’t be built on the back of a few Excel spreadsheets,” says Chris Brogan. co-author of Trust Agents.
Trying out different ways of approaching customer engagement is one thing; to move out of that experimental phase, to become the kind of collaborative, adaptive organisation that social media make possible, will require top-down change, argues Brian Solis, a customer engagement expert. “But to get support from the top, you don’t need a conversation about social media, you need a conversation about competing for the future,” he says.
Procter & Gamble only started to become an exemplar of customer engagement when a new chief executive, A.G. Lafley, made it clear that the business had to change. Having spent nearly 30 years working for the company he gained first-hand experience of its heavily siloed structure. Mr Lafley, while CEO, made a focus on the customer experience his priority. “We have to create a great experience every time you touch the brand,” he said at the time. He added that some of P&G’s businesses could not wait to set out on the new direction, but others were less certain.
That reluctance is easy to rationalise. Collaboration and engagement require a relaxation of control, which is an undoubted risk. Companies are rightly careful about protecting their brands. The downside is very real, while the potential wider business benefits of deeper customer engagement have been hard to quantify.
Mr Solis believes that the kind of metrics that organisations are capturing now are not sufficient to drive the degree of change needed: “You have to show your top executives, through business language, business numbers and real concrete data, that there is an opportunity here that they must consider. It’s going to take more than mentions of your brand, or sentiment, or share of voice.”
Taken from “Re-envisioning customer value. A report from the Economist Intelligence Unit Sponsored by SAS”
