More notes, more insight! The next WOMMA session talked about Corporate Philosophy and Word of Mouth ... or, how the hell did you get this going in your company?
The great Jackie Huba will tell you how to rock this with your Customer Evangelists ... these incredible folks talked great strategy to get it going inside the compound:
- CEO Zane Sagrit talked about strategies for his unsexy product of "Conference Calls Unlimited." After spending oodles of money and time on marketing, he found something new: 'Slaving over customers. That's what worked.' To do this, he talked about creating an internal paradigm shift. He shared insight on empowering his employees to not be fearful (if they did something to make the customer happy, there was NOTHING WRONG WITH THAT.) Another Ritz-Carlton company in the making. (Note: did you know that even a bellboy at RC has access to up to $2000 in petty cash to satisfy a customer? Without needing to get approval? Talk about a paradigm shift.)
- Maggie Colby from Intuit brought a numbers slant to the forum. Net Promoter, she says is the best measurement tool out there for Word of Mouth and Social Media plans. And while it has a definite mathematical backbone, NP's core element is based on one major idea: Ask your customer whether they'd recommend your product or not. Ding, ding, ding. THIS is WOM (and the basis for Fred Reichheld's new book). With these answers, she says, you can measure what's going on out there, and you can ACT.
- Finally, Dave Balter boomed the fact of all facts: "WOM is no longer a program. It is a viable media channel." To create this, he says, change your mindset from "feedback" to "dialogue." This takes time, he acknowledges. But, with 15-20% of companies already having someone in charge of WOM, he says, the more you wait, the farther behind you'll be. He notes, "WOM doesn't have to take the place of other intiatives. In fact, over 40% of WOM has something to do with other media." The power here, he'll share, is in the ripple effect that's created. And it all starts with empowered employees.
Overall, all three panelists attributed their findings to transparent discussions and 'no distance' between managers and employees, company and customer. And once again, this is the core of Frank.
Case in point: John Nielson, co-creator of Frank, has this great visual. Imagine your CEO face-to-face––literally, he'll say, as he holds his hands up inches apart––with your customer. This is a Frank company. Or I'd suggest, in this world of Social Media, no longer is marketing a matter of B-to-B or B-to-C ... Now, it's C-to-C: CEO to customer. And to even start making this happen, your employees need to be on board.
Back to Jackie: on the road to Customer Evangelists, let's first create Employee Evangelists. After all, they are the living manifestation of any CEO's example.
Tags: Social Media, Customer Evangelist, WOMMA, CEO
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