How to Create a "Seeing Culture".
The mission of innovative marketers today is to open up a continuous dialogue with customers. For them, focus groups and quantitative research are outdated methodologies. They have begun to add "idea partners” who act as catalysts for discussions about new ideas. These are the people at a dinner party who make sure everyone is having a good time.
Is the time ripe to create your panel of experts and idea partners? I look forward to your feedback on the value of deeper customer engagement.
Research by Arcus shows that on average, only 27% of customers are advocates for a company's products and services. The link between higher customer satisfaction and higher revenue growth is clear. To that end, companies need to develop customer engagement processes to measure the revenue at risk for a company based on the levels of satisfaction across customer clusters and whether its products and services excite customers.
Engaging customers to share ideas on how to improve the business is critical to today’s leaders in innovation. An example is Starbucks. According to Starbucks chief Howard Schultz, the company’s customer engagement processes have resulted in surprising ideas. One customer wants Starbucks to make ice cubes out of coffee so when they melt they won't dilute cold drinks; 7,660 fellow customers agree. Another wants the chain to install shelves in restrooms—where else can you put your drink when you've drunk too much? Although some customers are repelled by that suggestion, Starbucks thinks it's a "sleeper idea" worth considering. More than 10,000 Starbucks fans wish for something to plug the hole in lids to prevent sloshing. Starbucks listened and just introduced reusable "splash sticks" to do that.
Why a Customer Advisory Board makes sense
A customer advisory board is like a think tank and sounding board for initiatives that could impact your customer base. Marketers need to pioneer the concept of a customer advisory board to senior management at their companies. Increasingly, it has become important for managers to have an in-depth understanding of issues related to products, services, sustainability practices and customer support. A customer advisory board acts like a board of directors. In this case they provide feedback on broader issues at a high level. This is corporate democracy in action. At the month-old MyStarbucksIdea.com, customers can make suggestions, other customers can vote on and discuss them, and Starbucks can see which ideas gain popular support.
The process has been implemented by several Fortune 500 companies. Several others have set up "panels of experts" or "Think Tanks" for specific initiatives such as sustainability practices, engaging boomers, and retirement plans etc. For example, Bank of Montreal has set up an advisory board to advice managers on retirement related business initiatives.
The idea partners also act as advocates for customers' suggestions back at their departments, so that customers would have a seat at the table when product and brand strategy decisions are being made. To close that loop in an authentic way, a company must make a commitment to building those ideas together with customers. They need to adopt the ideas into their business process, into product development, experience development, and store design.
It's key to plans of innovative companies to invigorate their marketing. Another example is an initiative pioneered by Michael Dell, who returned to Dell Inc., a year earlier and launched IdeaStorm.com to gather and act on customers' ideas. Dell has implemented a score of suggestions, including the introduction of computers running Linux instead of Windows.
How would you achieve deeper customer engagement? Let me know.
