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06.10.10 Gaining Insight On Individual Customers And Their Influence  By Brian Solis There is little doubt that customers are ruling the roost right now - to a point that should be of concern to business - and a reason to rejoice. On the one hand, because we are human, we love to complain and thus the virally negative press and publicity that a bad customer service problem can lead to grab much of the headlines. But there is a converse side to the seemingly scary reality that says, "OMG; the customer can talk about my business outside of my control." It also can mean that the customers, who are not only newly empowered but increasingly pro-active in managing their own experiences and interactions, can become advocates who support you, endorse you and engage others in providing benefits (and sales) to your business. What makes the changes in the world interesting is that even customer engagement strategies, a radical idea not more than one or two years ago, now need to be nuanced to recognize far more than just customer lifetime value (CLV) which measures how much revenue and profit a customer will bring to you over his or her lifetime with a company. The gradations of traditional CLV analysis incorporated the impact that your business decisions would have on the purchasing behavior of that customer and his immediate family - but not much more than that. But now, influence matters. That doesn't just mean the industry pundits either. It means that with the new social tools available, individual customers who could be your friends or enemies could influence tens, hundreds, thousands of people who are not even personally known to them but are "someone like them." Don't underestimate the power of this. The Edelman Trust Barometer, which is the most trusted source for figuring out who the most trusted source is, has indicated that "someone like me" has been the most trusted source since 2004 when it was chosen as that by 51 percent of the respondents. It's only gone up since and as of 2009 was 58 percent. That peer is who the influencer influences. This is where Social CRM for business comes in. Not only do you have to identify the value of a customer or person to an institution from their purchasing habits but also their influencer value which is often, at least in the business world, something that can be non-existent one day and have a major impact a week later. But, it is now so much more than even that. As Brian points out in Engage!, Chapter 23, "The Social Web is distributing influence beyond the customer landscape, allocating authority amongst stakeholders, prospects, and peers." He even goes so far as to eliminate the "C" in Social CRM because it goes beyond customers. He calls it SRM, I call it the collaborative value chain but it's potay-to, potah-to. We are now in a world that not only is forcing businesses to engage customers but to consider the influences on their business that rests among their partners, suppliers, prospects…hell, all the stakeholders in the company's particular ecosystem. This makes business more complex but far more intriguing than ever - with a value proposition and flexible strategy for success that just blows the doors off if carried out effectively. Continue reading this article. About the Author: Brian Solis is principal at FutureWorks PR, an award-winning PR and Social Media agency founded in 1999. FW PR bridges the communications gap between companies and their customers, and between products and their specific benefits for their target markets. Solis blogs at PR2.0, http://www.briansolis.com, and regularly contributes to many industry trades. He is also frequently quoted in articles relating to technology trends and Marketing/PR strategies. |
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