From first steps in co-creation to bold idea

In the past twelve months, Center Parcs has made several small inroads into co-creation. One of the first ideas was the search for the name for a new slide at De Vossemeren. Based on a series of pictures, Facebook fans were asked to come up with a name for the new slide. The request resulted in some 1,500 suggestions, which were then whittled down to a shortlist of six finalists. Following a final vote, the name ‘Monkey Splash’ came out the winner. No matter how “small” a step this may seem, a slight change in mentality among marketeers was still necessary. Keep in mind that the name was actually chosen by a consumer, regardless of any other alternatives the marketing team might have preferred.

Consumers make the new brochure: the need for a new procedure

Earlier this year, the suggestion was made to involve the guests in the making of the new brochure. This meant a departure from the traditional and successful recipe. The people from Center Parcs and their agency, Duval Guillaume Modem, decided to go for it and create a brochure together with the Center Parcs guests.

The first step consisted in selecting the guest families. On Facebook and in Close-Up magazine, families were invited to put themselves forward. Over 600 families answered the call and completed a form detailing their motivation. From these forms, Center Parcs selected a number of families that suit the atmosphere and the target group of each park. For example, Erperheide welcomed a family with very young children, whereas Park Zandvoort selected a senior couple.

Next, the families were invited to come to the parks, where they were briefed by the people from Duval Guillaume Modem as well as by the Center Parcs team. The families were told that they could make the new brochure, but they had to keep in mind that the brochure would be read by more than 2 million people. In other words, the guests were asked to look beyond their own personal opinion and preferences. Incidentally, they fully understood what was expected of them.

Work on the brochure began the following day. The guests were asked to describe the unique aspects of the park and they selected those pictures which they felt were representative of the park’s atmosphere. In retrospect, Paul Geraeds, Marketing Director Center Parcs Europe, claimed that 80% of the end result was different from what the Center Parcs marketing team would have come up with; this means the consumers had a great deal of input. According to Paul, “the brochure is a bit less ‘polished’ and perhaps somewhat more cluttered, but that also makes it more personal. In return, the new brochure is more relevant and more credible”.  No final editing was undertaken to modify or correct the brochure compiled by the guests. The actual brochure is based entirely on the input received from the consumer.

A novelty: individual covers per country

The final step was the choice of the cover. The guest families made some suggestions but the actual covers were chosen by the Facebook fans and all guests, with the Center Parcs employees acting as a kind of second opinion. This approach revealed major differences between the various countries and for the first time, Center Parcs decided to adjust the cover to the culture of the individual countries. There used to be just one cover but now the consumers’ input decided which cover was used.

Next year: rely even more on user-generated content

Now that all initial doubts regarding this project have been dispelled, Center Parcs has decided to go with this approach next year as well. A number of ideas have been put forward to take it one step further next year:

• Participants will be better briefed beforehand, so they can prepare even better. In turn, this will leave more time for the brainstorming sessions when they visit the parks.
• This time the pictures were selected from a database of existing photos. Next year, Center Parcs is hoping to have consumers choose from all user-generated photos that have been posted on Flickr, for instance. Center Parcs is hoping to exploit the enormous amount of content available on the parks.

Four steps to increase social media effectiveness

In order to boost social media effectiveness, brands and companies should discuss four steps:

1. Channel & content strategy: define the content-conversion point
2. Build online reach: create a community to increase the return on content creation
3. Create engagement through fantastic content & interaction
4. From likes to ambassadors: change a group of silent people into an active group of brand ambassadors.

Each of these phases are described in an earlier post.

KPIs, Media type & Content type

I am convinced that most companies could use their social channels more effectively. The problem is that most companies only focus on steps 2 and/or 3 of this plan. Most brainstorms start with the question ‘what should we share on Facebook?’. By taking that discussion to a higher level, you will change the way you look at social media touch points.

When using the approach outlined in this paper, it becomes obvious that the KPIs, the media types and the content types differ in each of the steps.

Use this table to plan your social media success. Most companies start without a plan and without knowing what the next step is. This leads to disappointment and low return. It is clear that each of the four steps are not completely separate. There is a lot of overlap between them. By putting them apart, it helps to make a more comprehensive plan. Working with different KPIs in each of the phases, helps to set the right mindset in your organization.

Read the full paper

Check out the entire paper to learn more about this philosophy

So often, companies really try their utmost best to be boring and very stiff in their communication. This conclusion opens up a world of opportunities to stand out. In my book ‘The Conversation Company’, I speak about unused conversation potential. Every company has unused conversation potential. The challenge is to open up your eyes and notice the opportunities.

This blog post shares some very creative ideas on how to turn boring things into something conversation worthy.

A website failure can be conversation worthy

Mint.com a fantastic tool. It offers personal finance advise through on online tool. When customers want to log on and the site is down, they see this page. It’s not your typical ‘Error 400 Page not found’ view. It does not make people angry, but it makes them smile. Further, they offer their customers some alternative pages where they can surf to in the meanwhile..

In a recent post on Hubspot, they shared 10 case of conversation worthy error pages. Most companies don’t think of it, but when you see it, it’s so obvious to do it this way.

An airline safety movie can be conversation worthy

Frequent flyers don’t watch safety video’s on board of airplanes no longer. They are boring and you know the story by heart. Well, the safety video of Air New Zealand is just too good not to watch it. Or, how to make something very boring, very conversation worthy. The more than 8 million views, proof my point.

An insurance app can be conversation worthy

Nothing more boring than insurances? Well, Allianz shows the world that this is not always the case. They connected their life insurance with Nike+. Consumer with a nice track record on Nike+ pay less than people who are not into sports. Check the video to see the details.

Allianz – Run For Your Life from Max Gebhardt on Vimeo.

An out-of-office email can be conversation worthy

Most out-of-the-office messages sound like this:

‘Dear, I am on a business trip until next Monday. I have limited access to my mails. If urgent, call someone else from my team.’

As boring as can be.

I found a more conversation worthy alternative that sounds like this:

“I am currently out of the office on vacation.I know I’m supposed to say that I’ll have limited access to email and won’t be able to respond until I return – but that’s not true. My blackberry will be with me and I can respond if I need to. And I recognize that I’ll probably need to interrupt my vacation from time to time to deal with something urgent.

That said, I promised my wife that I am going to try to disconnect, get away and enjoy our vacation as much as possible. So, I’m going to experiment with something new. I’m going to leave the decision in your hands:

• If your email truly is urgent and you need a response while I’m on vacation, please resend it to interruptyourvacation@[redacted].com  and I’ll try to respond to it promptly.
• If you think someone else at [the company] might be able to help you, feel free to email my assistant, and she’ll try  to point you in the right direction.

· Otherwise, I’ll respond when I return…

Warm regards”

In fact, OOO-messages are a perfect channel to update people about your latest content, your latest achievements or your latest most embarrassing story. Let’s make a promise to never write a boring OOO-message again.

A reaction on Twitter can be conversation worthy

More and more companies are helping clients with their questions on Twitter. This is of course a fantastic evolution. But in all honesty, most answers are pretty boring as well. And of course, it is impossible to make all reply’s conversation worthy, but let’s look for opportunities where we can make the difference. The best example this year was a tweet from Barrack Obama during his election campaign. After Clint Eastwood had a virtual interview with an empty chair (predending President Obama was in that chair) during a Republican conference, the campaign team of Obama replied with a tweet that said ‘The seat is taken’.

Do you see other examples, cases, situations?

It would be great if you could add some cases of conversation worthy situations, preferably of situations that are normally very boring and not conversation worthy at all. Thank you!

I expect the brand manager him/herself to be the main ambassador. The brand manager represents the brand’s values. He/she knows how to communicate these values clearly to the target group and continues the strategic expansion of the brand. This person is the first in line to defend the brand if and when necessary and to promote it when possible. Am I right?

I think that a lot of brand managers do an excellent job. Belgium has some beautiful local brands and the big international brands also enjoy a great reputation here. Yet I do see a source of underused conversation potential. Why do brand managers not talk more frequently on online forums about their brands, their plans and their ideas? I see so few of the brand managers sharing their new campaigns on Facebook with their friends. Chances are, though, that I would view the commercial on Facebook in greater detail than on TV, for the simple reason that I can admire my friends’ work.

The odd thing is that brand managers are always available in offline media to jump in when and where necessary. If any explanation is required for papers, radio or TV, they stand up for the brand. Unfortunately the offline media are a little too interested in brands when things are not going well, which puts the brand manager in a defensive position slightly too often. Strange, in fact, that the spokesperson’s role is always taken up offline, but so rarely online.

Hence my appeal to brand managers: stop hiding behind your brand. Be a proactive, public ambassador for your brand. Share your stories and ideas with your network and with consumers. Show them your face. At congresses we have been talking for years about brands becoming more human. Well the easiest way is to show the person behind the brand. Furthermore, as brand managers, you will receive feedback from the market more rapidly and more directly. The relationship with the target group will be reinforced. The chance of making better decisions will therefore increase. And I think the brand will only benefit from this. I look forward to brand managers who will soon start sharing their stories with us more frequently.

1. Giving existing fans an extra financial advantage: all fans can win a unique discount, to celebrate together that a symbolic number of Facebook fans has been reached.
2. A thank you from the management: fans love knowing that a company’s management appreciates their loyalty. When someone from the top of the company expresses the gratitude, this is appreciated.
3. Giving extra background information on the company: loyal fans love taking a peek behind the scenes. They often want to know more than the general news. That is why they appreciate learning more. A one millionth fan can be a nice occasion of doing so.
4. Trying to thank the fans as personally as possible: social media are about connections between people. The more personal the communication between a brand and its customers, the better. Some companies manage to personally thank millions of people, which is always great.
5. Making a unique product linked to the Facebook fans: fans love the brands and products they become a friend of. To thank them, certain brands develop a special product for their fans or they build a unique and once-off product.
6. Giving a nice prize to the fan who reaches the symbolic number: “Our 1 millionth fan will get a great trip to the Bahamas” could be an example. One single person gets a great prize. This is the most dangerous of all tactics, as existing fans might be very disappointed. If you give a new fan a prize, it is recommended to also do something for the existing fans (or for the first one ever).

In the meantime plenty of cases are available on how Facebook fans have been thanked. Below I am quoting one example for each of the tactics.

Case 1: Southwest Airlines gives a 50% discount

A few weeks back Southwest Airlines reached the symbolic 3 millionth Facebook fan. To celebrate this and to thank the existing fans, the company gave 50% discounts. When booking a flight via the fan page to a large number of destinations, the ticket could be purchased at half price.

Case 2: A Burberry‘s top manager sent a message

Did you know that about 60% of the Burberry marketing budget is spent on digital media? Social media are at the centre of this fashion brand’s marketing mix. At the end of 2011 the brand welcomed its 10 millionth fan. By means of celebration they made a video message, the main character being Christopher Bailey, Chief Creative Officer at Burberry.

Case 3: Disney tells the story of its Facebook page

In December 2010 Disney reached its 100 millionth fan (!) across its 200 official Facebook pages. Early on in the process Disney started posting unique content. The brand is consciously searching for interaction with its fans via its numerous pages. And it appears this strategy works. To celebrate the 100 millionth fan, Disney made a video on the unique story behind its Facebook pages, in order to show the fans how this success grew. Furthermore the film contains a lot of great facts about the fans.

Case 4: Kraft personally thanks its fans

Is it possible to thank thousands of fans personally? Kraft proves it is. In a jolly song they mention the names of more than 4000 fans, in writing or in singing. I think this is simply a very funny and charming way to involve people in your marketing. Quoting people’s names will do the trick. Ever noticed how people tend to look the longest at pictures they themselves are in?

Case 5: Porsche puts the fans’ pictures on a car

This Porsche case has already been used twice in detail by Leo Verdonck on Marketingfacts. By putting the pictures of the fans on a real Porsche, you obviously give an ego-boost to the fans of such a brand. Porsche did it a first time when they welcomed the one millionth fan and they repeated it when they reached 2 million. Curious to see what will happen when they get to 5 million!

Case 6: easyJet gives its 50.000^th fan a phenomenal prize

Another strategy is giving a large prize to the person who reaches the symbolic number. When airline easyJet wanted to celebrate their 50.000th fan in March, they decided to give that person an impressive prize: 2 tickets allowing him/her to fly 50.000 km together with a friend or a family member. Winning such a prize must be wonderful, but I can imagine that a lot of the early-days fans are disappointed that they are not getting anything.

These are 6 examples and tactics that I noticed. Do you know of other fun ways of thanking Facebook fans for their loyalty?

The objectives of structural collaboration
Companies who are working on structural collaboration with their customers have four clear objectives in mind with this approach:
1. Create better products, improve the customer service and communicate in a more impactful way. This is by far the most important objective for large brands to collaborate with consumers. By succeeding in this objective, the overall performance of the organization will increase.
2. Become more agile. By involving customers in every phase of a decision making chain, things move faster. Companies can make better decisions faster and have a better feeling what will be needed to be as successful in the future. A big plus in today’s fast moving world.
3. Add consumer-feeling to the gut-feeling. A lot of managers rely on their gut-feeling, which is wonderful. Structural collaboration should add ‘consumer-feeling’ to it. By collaborating so often, managers create the ability to put on the consumers hat during a meeting and think as the customer. Allowing them to make more consumer relevant choices.
4. Marketing & PR. Companies who are listening and involve consumers in decision making are popular nowadays. Tell all your customers that you take decisions based on consulting other customers, and they will like you more. Leveraging the internal collaboration platforms towards the external communication, has an impact on the overall perception. This is not the main goal, but a very welcomed indirect effect.

Implementation? an evolution, not a revolution!
It’s clear that structural collaboration with consumers is not about having the right technology to make it happen. It is about a mentality shift for most organizations. A shift from a ‘we know best’-attitude towards an open mentality. The most beautiful results of collaborating companies is the creation of what we just called the ‘consumer feeling’. Adding the consumer feeling to the gut feeling of companies is the biggest change one can achieve through structural collaboration.

To reach this situation, there are a number of steps to be taken. Based on our research, we learned that all companies started small and evolved towards bigger and bigger collaboration projects. In the end, collaboration was really embedded in their organization. It was a process of change, not a revolution.

The evolution towards structural collaboration is evolving in three steps:

1. Collaboration always starts with a first time try out. Companies organize a co-creation project in which they allow the customer to participate in one specific project. Most occurring examples are co-creation of a new product, a new package or new marketing communication.
2. If this try out is experienced as a success, the second step is to apply collaboration on a project based level in the organization. In this stage, companies have the habit to involve customers in every important new project they work on.
3. After a while, it becomes hard for them to take decisions without the voice of the customer during the process and they decide to structurally collaborate.

Tomorrow, we discuss the five pillars for success with structural collaboration. Stay tuned! If you can’t wait: here is the full research paper:

To get there, it requires change. To stay there, it requires passion and dedication. I hope you enjoyed the summary of the new book. As said, I’m open for all feedback, suggestions, opinions. And if these 6 posts aren’t enough inspiration, there is one more thing to do: order ‘The Conversation Company’

Three phases every company has to go through

As part of the preparations for this book, we interviewed 25 senior managers. Our purpose was to discuss their views about change projects. We talked to people in organisations that are already well on their way to becoming a true Conversation Company, as well as to people in organisations that have hardly started. In addition, we asked another 400 managers to complete a quantitative questionnaire about the integration of the conversation philosophy into their company. The results of these studies prove that every company goes through similar processes in their attempt to build greater customer-orientation and conversational thinking into their operations. The roadmap consists of three separate steps:

1. The build-up of knowledge: During this first step, the internal knowledge and conviction necessary to apply Conversation Management are built up in a structural manner. You follow a conscious training trajectory, making sure that you involve your legal and HR teams, as well as any other important internal partners. This creates the necessary internal consensus of support. Finally, you need to introduce the necessary hardware and software. These are the bases for a successful evolution.

2. Pilot projects: During this phase the first test projects are implemented. These projects offer important opportunities to learn, but are also a way to demonstrate the added value which can be created by the new methods. This means that as well as accelerating your learning curve, they must also have a positive effect on your marketing and financial results. At the beginning of this phase, it is important to appoint a central person (= the Conversation Manager) who is responsible for developing conversational thinking in your organisation. This is also the phase in which you must start actively listening to conversations.

3. Integration and the lever effect: In this final phase your organisation must embrace the concept of the Conversation Company fully. The 4 C‟s must be applied consistently and the gap between your company and the market must be closed. When this happens, a lever effect will be created. Everything that you do will be magnified in a positive manner and your unused conversation potential will disappear.

MOST COMPANIES HAVE HARDLY STARTED

Our research has revealed that the largest proportion (38%) of companies in Europe and the United States are still in the first phase or have not yet started with their change process. 184 14% of companies claim to have already implemented the philosophy in full. The four sectors in which this is most likely to be the case are telecom, media, travel and foodstuffs. The financial market and the health industry are currently at the bottom of the class. As a general rule, service industries are also further along the change pathway than production industries. Similarly, the largest global companies have made less progress than regional companies with fewer than 500 employees.

The shining examples of Conversation Management include Google, Zappos, Cisco, Dell, Kodak, Intel, Starbucks and Best Buy. Yet notwithstanding the great advances that they have already made, all these companies admit that there is still work to be done – or rather, that the work is never finished. The non-stop evolution of the market requires them to keep their eye continually on the ball. But if the journey to becoming a Conversation Company is a long one, it at least holds the fascination of being a true journey of discovery. There are no certainties: you are never quite sure what is going to happen and you never know in advance whether your plans will work. Everyone is exploring together and learning together. Surely this is something that you also want to be a part of?

CAN IT BE THE SAME FOR EVERY COMPANY?

Are we not missing something with our three step plan? Is there not a risk that in future every company will be more or less the same? How will companies be able to differentiate themselves if everyone follows the same path?

Have you already asked yourself these questions while reading the posts so far? It is, perhaps, an understandable reaction. It is indeed difficult to imagine that every company will seek to implement the same strategy. Even so, the research carried out by InSites Consulting showed clearly that the companies who most closely reflect the Conversation Company philosophy have all taken a remarkably similar route.

Does this mean that there are no longer any differences between companies? Of course not! Even if companies follow identical trajectories, there will always be differences between them. Why? First and foremost because the three steps to change are carried out within the framework of the company culture – and every company culture is different. To give a simple example, this means that every company will draw up its own training programme specific to its own needs. What suits Intel might not suit Unilever – and vice versa. Secondly, the pilot projects are also very different. Once again, these pilot projects are chosen on the basis of their relevance to specific company needs. For Intel this meant the development of a blog strategy, for ING (as we shall read shortly) it meant the creation of a webcare plan. Dependant upon these two variables – company culture and existing strategy – the final outcome will continue to vary from company to company.

Does this then mean that there will be no similarities? On the contrary, there will be plenty of similarities! Just like every company is today organised in accordance with the silo model, in the future companies will be organised along conversational lines. Just like every company today arranges market research to learn more about its customers, in the future this will be done through direct customer communication. A number of elements of the new philosophy offer advantages to every company, so it is reasonable to expect that these will be adopted by every company. But the content and the implementation will continue to be different in almost every case.

The last part of my book describes in detail the projects which every company needs to undertake in order to complete its transformation into a Conversation Company. Completing such a process usually takes between 24 and 48 months. The exact speed (like so many other things) is largely dependent upon the culture of your company. One of the most crucial steps is the selection of the right pilot projects. These projects must have sufficient impact to create both support and movement within the company with minimum delay. No company can afford to wait 48 months for impact! Both in the short term and the medium term, it is important that the change process develops momentum – and then keeps it. Be aware of the fact that this type of process will always create tension and frustrations between the leaders and the followers in your company. For some, things will be much too slow; for others, much too fast. You can help to reduce these tensions and frustrations to a minimum by working through the process in a step-by-step manner. Your leaders will be mentally in stage 3 while your followers are still in stage1! Draw up a clear plan in advance and make sure that everyone keeps to it. In this way, everyone will have the same expectations.

This is it!

Now the real work can begin: the building of your own Conversation Company. I wish you every success! The purpose of the book is to offer you a new business philosophy and to suggest the tools that will be necessary to implement that philosophy. I hope that I have succeeded in that task and I look forward to seeing the first results of your efforts. I really like any kind of feedback and conversations. Please feel free to let me know what you think of the book and where you do not agree with it. I would also love to hear about your practical experiences. On Twitter you can find me at @Steven_InSites. Or you can mail to steven@insites-consulting.com.

Social media are a means, not a target

For the Conversation Company social media are a means, not an end. Social media are the ideal partner for the Conversation Company. The advantages are obvious: speed, a wide potential reach, a human method of communicating, no hierarchy, full transparency, the creation of communities, etc. It is the only channel where feedback from the outside world is transparent and so direct. Social media force companies to be more honest, quicker and clearer in their communication. This trend has allowed companies to develop in the direction of genuine customer-orientation.

The checklist mentality which some companies use when dealing with social media is not the right way to maximise your conversation potential. Regarding Facebook pages and Twitter accounts as some kind of magic trick will only lead to disappointment. The reality is that, with a few exceptions (such as Charlie Sheen), nobody is likely to have a million fans on the first day. For the vast majority of companies, it takes time and effort to build up a community of fans and followers. Besides, wide reach on social media is only one of the important criteria. Building up a strong relationship with the customer is just as important.

In the previous post I discussed the important role played by your employees in helping to make your culture tangible. In this post I will be showing how social media are the ideal way to spread your culture and stories about your company on a wide scale. In addition, social media are also the ideal place to conduct structural collaboration with your customers. The Conversation Company seeks to exploit these possibilities and to integrate social media into all aspects of its organisation.

In recent years, social media have built up a huge following of users, with an enormous potential reach. In July 2011 there are 1.2 billion social media users worldwide. 96% of people have heard of Facebook and 62% are users. 80% know of Twitter and 16% are users. In addition, more and more people are using social network sites to link themselves to particular brands. More than half (600 million people!) follow at least one brand via social media. In Europe 51% of social media users are linked to a brand; the figure for the United States is 57% and in India a massive 70%. Media, fashion, food and retailing are the most popular sectors to follow. People expect information about products, promotions, invitations to events, etc. They want to give feedback and are keen to collaborate on the development of new ideas. These are all opportunities that companies need to exploit.

The two social media dimensions of The Conversation Company

The Conversation Company manages social media on the basis of two dimensions.

Dimension 1: Building up reach
Via social media, it is possible to look at everything your company does through a magnifying glass. Companies which have many fans on Facebook and Twitter have the luxury of being able to spread their stories, content and campaigns on a massive scale. Social media allow the reach of every action you take to be multiplied both directly and indirectly. The built-up reach of your own social media channels is the ideal way to communicate directly with your fans and followers. Coca-Cola makes excellent use of these opportunities. Their „Happiness Machine‟ films are spread exclusively via their social channels. In this advertising gimmick, the traditional drinks machine is transformed into a box full of surprises. Every time that someone orders a can of Coke, they get an extra surprise. This can vary from a second can of Coke to a giant pizza or even fifty free bottles of their favourite drink. The actual machine is only physically „available‟ to a handful of people, but Coca-Cola film the machine and distribute the video to their 26 million Facebook fans worldwide.

In addition to the direct effects of a wide social reach, there are also a number of indirect effects. When the Belgian entrepreneur Wouter Torfs posted a tweet in which he asked for people interested in working in his local chain of shoe-shops, many pundits thought that he was wasting his time. „The target group he is searching for might not be on Twitter,‟ said the critics. However, the tweet brought Torfs a number of interesting indirect benefits. The next day there was a full page article about his tweet in one of Belgium‟s best-read daily newspapers. And, thanks to all this free publicity, just a few days later all his vacancies were filled.

Although a wide reach is important, social media also offer interesting short reach possibilities. Helping individual customers can mean a serious added value for both the person concerned and for your company. The numerous webcare teams in companies such as ING, Delta Airlines, Comcast, Dell, Gatorade, etc. show the value that leading companies attach to this enhanced form of customer service. No single conversation is left unanswered. And by helping individual consumers, you are maximising your conversation potential.

Dimension 2: Building up structural collaboration with the market
For the very first time, companies now have the opportunity to build up a structural relationship with a large group of people. Customers want to be involved with your company. The Conversation Company tries to create a „we‟-feeling between itself and its consumers. The structural involvement of customers in your management processes is a part of this approach. And social media offer a framework that is ideally suited for this purpose. Dunkin Donuts regularly asks the help of its fans to think up new product concepts and the fans do indeed regularly submit fresh ideas for new donuts. Sometimes this collaboration goes further than simple product development. Last summer the brand asked for help in compiling a list of summer songs that fitted well with the tastes of their ice smoothies. Before Dunkin Donuts takes action, it always consults the opinion of its fans.

Notwithstanding the fact that structural relationships are the objective, loose individual contacts can also create added value. If a customer accidentally comes across interesting content from your company, this may immediately result in the sale of a product. Long- term structural relationships often start with this kind of chance internet encounter. And the more of these encounters you can transform into lasting partnerships, the greater the impact of social media on your company will become. In this manner, the quantitative contacts of the first dimension (reach) will be transformed into qualitative contacts via the second dimension (collaboration).

Every company dreams of having a large number of qualitative contacts. This is something that the Conversation Company also wishes to achieve, but without losing sight of the value of individual, one-off contacts. This is the unique aspect of social media: wide or narrow reach, structural collaboration or one-off contact – they all have their value. Every type of conversation is valuable both for the customer (who is helped) and the company (which benefits from positive conversations).

And now? Implementation!

In this and the 3 previous blog posts, you have learned about the philosophy of the Conversation Company. The basis is a strong company culture. This culture is the conversation guide for your staff and your customers. Your people make your culture tangible. At the same time, the Conversation Company also seeks to develop structural collaboration with consumers. Some consumers will even be involved in the management of the company. Via social media, the bond between company and customer is strengthened at all levels. Social media can also magnify aspects of your culture and the experiences of both customers and staff alike. This creates a positive lever. The Conversation Company maximises the conversation potential. The next and last two posts with the summary of my new book, The Conversation Company, will discuss the following two subjects:

1. How can you continue to successfully manage our very own Conversation Company?
2. How can you integrate conversation thinking fully into your company?

And let’s not forget the team behind the scenes. Anke Moerdyck is a true hero. She organized this event and can be very proud on her achievement. Thanks, Anke. Hannes Willaert, our designer, is a hero in making our slideshows to what they are: awesome. The quality of my presentations wouldn’t be the same without Hannes in our team. If you have feedback, suggestions, ideas based upon my book and the event, please let us know. We are always eager to hear how we can improve the things we do.

For the people who missed the event: I will post 6 blog posts in the coming days with a summary of the new book, so you can get an idea as well.
And of course: here is the slidedeck from yesterday with all movies integrated in it. Feel free to download it, share it, use it… (friends in the Netherlands: if you want to keep the surprise, don’t look at it yet. I’m coming to Amsterdam next week with the same show)!

Presentation The Conversation Company

Summary of tweets #convcompany

Determining limits

A company determines its own limits. The art is to do slightly more than what you promise. People tend to do the opposite though and promise a little bit more than what they effectively do. How often does a company promise to ring you back the next morning, yet they only do so in the afternoon? This is not a real drama of course, but it is slightly less than what was promised. Some time back I read a brilliant blog post on that subject, written by Guillaume Van der Stighelen. He described four situations to do with managing expectations.

1. Your company realises less than what was promised. It does not succeed to meet the promises. The customer is disappointed. These are grounds for a negative conversation.
2. Your company realises as promised. You did exactly what you promised the customer. This leads to satisfaction, but not to a perfect score. The number of conversations is rather limited.
3. Your company does slightly more than what was promised and you manage to serve the customer slightly quicker, better and more amiable than expected. If you manage to do so, that is where positive conversations are born. Here are some examples: sending a document earlier than promised, the Apple product packaging, washing a car when it’s in for its service, a small extra dish which is not mentioned in the menu, solving problems with a smile…
4. Your company does a lot more than promised. This situation might be good, but is not all that clever, actually. First of all the chance of your selling a product are reduced, because you promise too little. Secondly this may leave the customer feeling uncomfortable. Imagine that, with your first purchase, you immediately get to enjoy a private dinner with that company’s big boss, it will feel strange. In order to generate positive conversations, you do not need to exaggerate when dealing with the customer, because this may even lead to negative conversations. There is one exception, which is the once-off surprise. Do something exceptional for a customer and position it as such, and you might just make a customer extremely satisfied. A typical example is an upgrade from economy to business class in an airplane. Customers realise this is an exception, but still consider it to be fantastic.

Managing your expectations should become a rational process

Managing expectations is a science. You can train at doing it and thus obtain a gradual increase in conversations about your company. The most difficult moment takes place when you have to write your promise. We tend to think that many promises will make the customer satisfied, yet it will actually increase the risk of dissatisfaction.

Carglass is a company which is very good at this. It all starts when you make an appointment. After having filled out a form on the site, the customer receives a confirmation e-mail, which says a Carglass collaborator will contact them within the next 4 hours. Nothing special, you say? Yet it is, because most people are called within the hour. The expectations have therefore been exceeded a first time already. Carglass could just as well say that they will ring within the hour. Imagine that they succeed to do so in 95% of all cases, that would leave 5% of dissatisfied customers per hour. Remember: you determine the limits yourself. But it goes further than this. When the mechanic is on his way to go and replace the windscreen, he confirms his appointment 20 minutes beforehand.  That way the customer knows exactly when the Carglass collaborator will get there.

In the end the mechanics do not only replace your car windscreen. They also make sure the car is clean. Any possible litter (e.g. an empty Coke can in the footwell) will be removed and if necessary they will rapidly vacuum the car. These are all minor details, but every touch point was well thought out. In every stage the company does that little bit more than what is expected. And customers love it.

Make a touch point score card

Should you be up for the challenge, it is handy to map every touch point with the customer. Check what you promise and how you actually perform. Verify for each point of interaction what could slightly exceed the expectations. Some of the elements you could map are: the reach (how many customers use this touch point), the current conversation value of the touch point, the customers’ satisfaction and also the collaborators’ satisfaction. The latter is not unimportant. The higher your collaborators’ satisfaction is, the higher your customers’ satisfaction will be.