There was a day when organizations could go out, create a
brand, product, or service and introduce it to the market place through
traditional media sources like TV, radio, print, advertising, and e-mail
marketing, relying on no one but themselves. Those days are gone. It was a dog
eat dog world in the business arena where rivalries were as intense as a Friday
night High School football game in Texas!
The difference today is the customer is more engaged with
business through social media and has become savvier in how they consume both
media and the products and services offered by that media. Look at the process
of new movie reviews. At one time the movie critic wielded extensive power in
determining a movies success. If the movie critic panned a movie, it more than
likely died a quick death. Today millions of movie goers don’t wait for the
critics review; they go on web sites like Fandango and see what the people that
have gone to the movie are saying. The website organizes the critiques in an
easy to search format and there are often hundreds and thousands of reviews to
sift through to determine if you should attend the movie. The power of the
people increases and the tradition one man critique reduced to just another
voice of the consumer.
A similar process is happening with many consumer services
and products where the traditional power of the marketing and PR agencies has
been reduced to reacting to the market more than driving it. Don’t get me
wrong, the marketing and PR responsibilities are to develop the message and
deliver it to the mediums but once it hits the marketplace it becomes the
“property” of the social sphere of influence. Products and services that don’t
meet the needs of the market are quickly defined and sent to the ash heap or for
the organizations that understand the new role of social media are more likely
refining and reworking their products and services (quickly) based on the
reaction from the consumer market. It has become collaboration between the
organization and their market place.
This is a good thing, disruptive but good. It is good
because there is a direct line from the consumer to the company and more
importantly to the executive teams that make the decisions to allocate
resources. There is little opportunity for companies to “polish” the product up
with marketing “spin” and glossy flyers. The consumer market demands the
changes or it punishes the organization by ignoring the product or service
being offered.
The New Business
Model is Collaboration
This collaboration in many service organizations has also
forced partnerships amongst former competitors to establish better market
position for both. Companies have been forced to focus on their strengths and
drop products or services that challenge the core mission of the organization.
This is seen extensively in the consulting services industry where technology
providers are working closely with each other where a consumer demands a type
of software but wants it to work on their legacy systems. Or a consumer has a
strong relationship with a particular hardware vendor but wants the software from
a “competitor” to work on their system. Do the organizations work together for
the good of the customer or retain a competitive posture with each other? We
are seeing collaboration winning over competition because the consumer is
driving the market.
Social media is not the end all in the organization’s
strategy, but it has given the consumer and customer a seat at the table in
every board room in the nation. We need to listen to them. After all; isn’t
that who we are serving anyway?
In this new business model customer engagement is the key
differentiator and as contact center professionals we need to take a seat right
next to our customers in the board room advocating for them based on the
feedback we receive. The contact center has never been more critical to an
organizations success. We should leverage that to improve the revenue,
profitability, and reputation of our organizations…
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