Loading ...Creating A Rapid Response Culture
(Frank Eliason of Comcast addresses the audience at WOMMA 2008)
It’s so easy to get caught up in the buzz isn’t it? Social this, social that. I’m sick of it. From this point on, I am making a vow to talk in more simple terms (I try to do this already, but I want to improve). So here’s something you should know. Chances are that your organization can’t move as quickly as consumers can, and that needs to change. I’ve met Frank Eliason, the man behind @comcastcares several times now and he knows a few things about this. I fired up our beta-cam at the WOMMA Summit (Word of Mouth Marketing Association) and recorded his talk (view video). Frank talks about building a culture of “rapid response” and he’s right.
Here’s what it means. It means that you need to be able to move as quickly as your consumers. When Motrin inadvertently upset some moms, the moms reacted in minutes and organized in hours. Don’t like what the moms had to say? Tough. That’s the digital world we live in. In contrast, Motrin.com went down for nearly a day, before updating with a message on their homepage. Sure, an e-mail went out very quickly, but I was there and witnessed first-hand as people flocked to Mortrin.com for an official update.
As consumers, customers and users of the Web, we are being re-trained as I write this. We expect immediate responses, (not necessarily decisions), but we are being conditioned to expect some type of response immediately. We’re also making the assumption that conversations are public. To reference the Motrin example again, when the first e-mail went out it of course was copied and pasted on dozens of blogs. Anything you say, can and will be uploaded, screen-grabbed and re-published. Get used to it.
So forget social, forget networks, forget mobile—it’s all about the end customer/user experience. Think like a real person. We don’t draw the line between them. In the end, out interactions with people, brands, and companies will either be either extraordinary, good, ok, terrible, offensive or not worth talking about at all. Social or no social. The line is dissolving and in the end it’s how we feel about what we just experienced that matters. Creating a rapid response culture will be critical to organizations because if they can’t respond at the same pace that their consumers can, it starts the interaction loop off on the wrong foot. I recently said that an organization’s website will now need to be as easy to update as a blog. I stand behind that. Regardless of all things social, when something is going down around your organization, people will still fire up their browser and go to “www.company-x.com” as a starting point. Sure, the best experience anyone can have lies within the actual service or product produced by a brand, but increasingly the first interaction at major touch points plays a significant role when it comes to perception. Social or not, wouldn’t it be remarkable if you could meet people where they are at, when they want it? What if your brand could move as rapidly as your customer?
Yeah baby….
This is SPOT on, and something I have been relaying to my clients for years. Social Media provide us with tools that help us communicate in a more transparent and agile manner. Okay yah, things have changed and we all have to get used to it.
However, the tools are nothing without practical and cultural change. Companies have to get to a place where they 1) understand the existing experience 2) Begin to more proactively engineer experiences to anticipate and respond to customer needs and behavior and 3) Streamline operations so that the organization is RALLIED around the development, delivery and ongoing management (and improvement) of outstanding experience. When companies do this — they become more customer centric… and the willingness and ability to respond with rapidity… with transparency surfaces. This is partially an outcome of the organization developing “increased capabilities” and undergoing a cultural change. But frankly, it’s also an outcome of having a LOT less to be ashamed of, related to they mobilize around customers.
Okay. Off my soapbox. Thanks, David.
Leigh
You bring up some very common sense thoughts. Now comes the real challenge as if we agree that it’s all becoming part of the total customer experience, the fact is that not one group “owns” the customer experience.
Let’s get ready to mosh.
David,
The need for rapid response isn’t just limited to marketing. Companies need to figure out how to accelerate their whole business model to keep up with consumer demands and competitive pressure. This requires a fundamental shift in how companies see, understand and act in the market.
Social media enables real dialog between companies and consumers. As a marketer, I can get a better sense of how my new marketing or product initiative is going by LISTENING. Too many times, companies wait for the measures to roll in 3 to 6 weeks later, but by then, it is too late.
Companies need to accept the same medicine their employees needed to face with the advent of e-mail and laptops…business is 24/7 and accelerating. Companies that learn how to rapidly adjust to the market vs. acting in 5-year strategic plans will win the day.
That is so true. I will explain this to more potential clients in future!
Just the best post I’ve read this week… it’s the customer that matters and too often we hide behind the technology… and forget there’s real people at the end of it.
The on-line world really isn’t that different from the off-line one… and the two are getting closer together by the day…
I really think there’s a notion of INTENT here that very few people are talking about. The web, I feel, is a great revealer of intent, because you have to be in it for the long haul if it is going to work. I liken it back to another graphic of yours David where you talk about a little bit of strategy in-between iterations of a campaign or project, those times should be used to gut-check the intent; are we still be true to our customers? To the users of this site? To ourselves?
One thing I’m keen to see the demise of though is the terminology “social media”. The web is social, irrevocably and unavoidably social. It’s the same as referring to movies back in the 1930’s as “the Talkies”, it’s a phase we’re in and we’ll move past it (the sooner the better in my book). We need to stop thinking that social media is in any way different to the web at large.
Jeremy, you’re right about the convergence of behaviours in the on and off-line worlds. We expect the customisation we enjoy online in our physical lives, and we are finally demanding people speak to use like we’re humans in our digital ones. There are so many opportunities in both, I can’t help but be incredibly excited by it all.
Awesome post. Actionable listening is key here. Listen to customers are act on it - respond, integrate their ideas in you product life cycle or customer cycle, etc.
We found this post and the comments very useful. We have referenced your Post in our expert area in our Flash Animation titled “Tumblr rapid response case study”.
http://vizedu.com/2008/11/tumblr-rapid-response-case-study/
Thanks