The challenge in ‘managing’ the customer relationship is that no one in the corporate office wants such a messy job. Managing growth, profitability, costs and competitiveness is the language of the executive suite. Minions to the C-Suite work to targets. Compared to those measurable management disciplines, managing the customer relationship is squishy – like nailing Jello to a wall. Yet we have no choice – manage we must. What does it mean to manage? It means to direct an effort with a degree of skill and focus. It comes from the Latin “manus” – or ‘hand’ – like in ‘manual’ or the original usage in Italy: maneggiare. That gives us an idea of the intent: be hands on.

Social Media initiatives serve to underscore this requirement of being hands on in guiding the customer’s experience with the organization. Ideally we’d like figuratively to hold each customer’s hand and insure that they have an acceptable experience with our business or institution. That can be expensive to scale. So we put processes in place, deliver information, simplify steps, aid in decision making, selection, set-up, handling of billing, delivery, payment and inquiry. It is all hand-crafted. CRM can’t be purchased because it is not a technology. As a business discipline, it is designed by you as the advocate for your customer. Technology is laid in behind the process, and analytical tools are put in place to measure efficacy, and feedback systems are put in place to test process integrity. CRM is an evolving, heuristic discipline. Social media are terrific in accelerating the evolution of our customer processes. They give the organization a willing cadre willing and ready to provide advice and insight on what works and doesn’t work with your business processes. But can we listen? Yesterday I was on the phone with my bank. Why? Because I was checking my account and there was a message that said, “Inclearing checks….. $312.72.” I’d never heard of this term ‘inclearing’ and so I typed it into the Search bar on the bank’s website. Nothing. So… of course: Google. Immediately the answer popped up. I checked the bank website: nowhere could I suggest that they add this search term. I called them. Hey: I’m an analyst – I can’t help myself. I suggested that they add the term. bzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz. I could tell that all electroencephalographic activity had stopped in the service agents brain. “Thank you, sir, for your suggestion.”

We have to be at least as good as Google. Google listens without any human listening. But for customer experience improvement, a CRM discipline is the only option for a business to succeed. And that might explain why CRM is the top business term that clients searched Gartner.com for in 2011. “Social” has given new life and urgency to CRM.

I had the privilege to Keynote a CRM Summit on the Gold Coast after meeting clients in Sydney. A poll of audience hands raised showed 80% lines of business leaders and 20% IT. Once one untangles the regional sense of humour (like the organizers insisting I wear a business suit and tie onstage and then discovering no one in the audience had either), it is easy to plunge into very granular discussion about the tools, frustrations, and business value measures that drive customer experience initiatives.

It could in part be the distance from the United States vendor hype machines, but in the region leaders just want to get things done. There is clear frustration at how stymied marketing and Customer Support feel in bringing more real-time marketing into the customer service process. Yet everyone said the same thing: software as a service, and Cloud Computing, were like log-jam clearing for CRM. Rather than queue behind logistics and finance and sales, Customer Service professionals are deploying products to support CRM processes with minimum help or involvement from IT. There is keen desire for local data centers and a fear of placing customer information in the United States, but these are minor issues.

The region is in the throws of a massive focus on customer excellence, and I heard at least ten separate success stories, some of which we hope to highlight at our European CRM Summit next year.

Thanks, Oz. Our Gartner Symposium starts here next week, and if you are not already registered – get over here! http://bit.ly/sosTpL

Or maybe things have changed. We have learned to like doing other people’s (the corporation or government’s) work. We’ve come to think of it as our own work. We print our own itineraries, get the rental car, check and bag groceries, work those kiosks, select our content on all media channels and watch them or read them or listen to them when we want. We search for answers in self service virtual assistants like Siri and a hundred other intelligent voice agents. And now we have advanced Gamification experts to trick, goad, spur us on to believing it is all fun. Whoppy, I helped the IRS collect my money, and a Tax-form company make a billion using their online tools. And we also freely transfer our intellectual capital to them so everyone can use their website.

We love doing everything ourselves. We need to feel needed. We want to show our coolness. But maybe we as businesses need to step back and evaluate our tactics in Social X. Gamification is pretty blatant in some places. Back to Shirky, and his work in Cognitive Surplus, there is the idea that, what the hey, we’ve got plenty of spare bandwidth anyway, we might as well participate. It is empowering. And, we might add, what else is there to do? Read a book? Why do that when Wikipedia and a Reader Forum can summarize and evaluate what your peers think about it instead?

But be careful because there is a small, small chance that rather than customers feel that THEY are driving the ‘self service’ process of providing their input (We LOVE it!), that instead they may perceive that you are inducing them through manipulation (or the polite concept of Gamification). Lucky for most of us that consumers are too poorly educated to have read Vance Packard’s works and to have absorbed the message, and in particular his work, The Hidden Pursuaders. Whatever you do, keep it far from their view, on the top shelf or locked away in the liquor closet.

The Social / Customer participation trend may be a permanent, accelerating part of consumer culture, but make sure you have written your Minority Report (as in the Philip K. Dick short story, or 2002 Film) just in case there is a customer backlash. Then who’s the chump?

How do businesses work through the dense layers of negativity in the Tweets about them, and how do they foster broader participation in communities? One key lies in handing over some of the responsibility that Marketing now bears to Customer Service and Support, or to whoever is in charge of Customer Experience.

Companies are stuck right now, their bows sand-barred on the shoals of Social Media Monitoring and siloed “Social” initiatives. Just as businesses took 15 years to consider hiring a Director of Customer Experience who looks across the holistic picture of what happens to the customer during a marketing, sales and service interaction, it is time to bring on someone to lead a comprehensive view of the ‘social interactions. Do it now, because mobile channels, Facebook communities, Twitter groups, Fan Pages, and your own Web site are all bubbling away with customer chatter. It’s like when a Supernova blasted the ingredients of future life at earth out there now: chaotic but pregnant with possibility. Seize the opportunity and learn to re-think the way that the enterprise engages the customer.

Symposium is filled with presentations on this topic this week, so if you’ve made it down there, attend a session or two tomorrow! Check http://bit.ly/nAbDfw.

Weird coincidence, eh, that this morning I blogged about Big Data and an hour later Oracle announces it has bought Endeca Technologies?

What is wrong with isolated social capabilities? Well, it can’t even be written without seeing that it amounts to an oxymoron. Isolated Social Capabilities? Look at the customer service interfaces that you provide your customers. Or don’t provide. When they have an issue, can they pull up ‘their’ account? Likely: No. Which means they cannot append information relevant to their experience, situation, expectations, desires. And when one of your customer support folks are speaking with the client, are they able to share a version of the same screen that they are looking at? Or when a team of employees are looking for information regarding a client, can they collaboratively share the same customer record or case and commend or append to the record?

The sad fact is that, even as I write, a thousand businesses in the world are deploying yesterday’s software for CRM in customer service, support, eCommerce and the like. Integrators and consultancies are advising on parallel programs: one for ‘Social’ and another for CRM. It’s good for their business, but not great for you or your customers. I’m writing a piece of research on the new CRM interface for Social, and just published another on a related topic (http://bit.ly/nXkrod ) - so stay tuned.

Here is a suggestion to airlines: rather than invest in social networking, invest in the infrastructure to keep the information about flights synchronized. There is no hurry today, which allowed me time to surf channels for accurate information about my delayed (cancelled, maybe) flight – and it’s an eye opener. The flight disappeared entirely from the big board in the airport, but not at the gate. The SMS that was to come to my mobile device never arrived to let me know of a delay. Nor has any update come over the past hours. The poor gate agent knows precious little about what is going on. I dialed the airlines “800″ number, and the customer service agent gave me a morale boosting update that the flight was delayed 1 hour 45 minutes. I told him that the gate agent had already guaranteed us that the information I was now hearing could not possibly be correct. She was right. The gentleman on the phone, “Well, what can I tell you sir, that is what I’m seeing here on my screen.”

The airport terminal is lovely, and there is plenty of food and water ($4.99 for the large bottles). There is free WiFi and the bandwidth is terrific. I went on the airline’s website to see what they might have for me in the way of update. “DELAY.” OK, so far so good. But the amount of the delay differed from the gate agent who differed from the phone agent, and there was no Twitter option and the SMS never arrived.

For anyone who flies, delays are a part of life that one learns to integrate into the larger Gestalt of that wonderful gift called global travel. Get a grip or stay home. On the other hand, it would be so much nicer if information delivery were more consistent, harmonized, available. Maybe a connection to the area weather? Maybe all of the channels would have similar, and reliable, information? Perhaps a candid summary of ones alternatives? Will I be stranded in the terminal, or is a hotel covered? Is there another airline I might transfer over to? Which? And if you want to engage in social networking, maybe connect the folks on the flight to one another – at least they might share information or tips.

So, all is fine. The fruit salad is yummy. The coffee is abundant. I have a great book that I’m in the middle of, and eventually something will give. But as a customer, one can’t escape the feeling of being on a deserted information island, surrounded by water, with unknown and unknowable coordinates. Bring on the Social Media, but after the information kinks are worked out.

So: fear, loathing, dread, anxiety, resignation, capitulation, mild nausea, frustration – just a few of the words that young people 15 – 19, female and male, from North and South America, Europe and Asia (ok, only South Korea, Singapore and Thailand) used to describe their feelings when faced with dialing a Customer Service Contact Center for help. “Those people are mean.” “They’re so old.” “They just yell at you and make you feel stupid.” “They never give you a break.” “It’s so slow.”

All the while, these tight knots of students are thumbing away on their iPhones or Blackberries. They want information fast, they want it easy, they want it right, and they want you to treat them like their peers. Their social rules keep them relatively civil. They know that you have to give a “Like” and post happy birthday and send around great pix and avoid caddiness. My daughter’s birthday was yesterday and by 7:00 AM she had 46 “Happy Birthdays” on her “Wall.” This young woman has connections with a lot of merchants – trust me - yet not ONE sent her a Happy Birthday. Not one sent an SMS or a post or a letter. Before you roll your eyes – think about it again. You are the adversary. They don’t hear from you, you hear from them. When you do contact them it is to entice them to outsource their marketing department by endorsing or commenting on a good or merchandise. Do you think they are naive? They see straight through it. It’s oldsters who are bored and lonely who are responding to you, no?

What do we do about this situation? Yes, you can get more “social” and create more ‘gives and gets.’ Just like any other social compact, but one appropriate to business. And get your Customer Service not only integrated into the community of customers / consumers and/or partners, but also get the customer service representatives into the second decade of the 21st century. They need better tools, better knowledge, better rules of engagement, and a better awareness of the real process the customer goes through.

The Customer Service Contact Center will embrace social media over the next five years until the point where there is no demarcation between the “Social Media” and the other communication media. There will be a continuum, with chat, email, live agents, collaboration, posts to Facebook, absorption of Facebook data into the customer record, the Twitter stream, and an externalization of the agent pool – to the extent that the customer can ‘know’ the agent with whom they are interacting. Mostly they will be using self service and the customer community, but when they want a human, and YOU want them to want a human, they will look forward to that ‘call.’

No one wants to hear my banal tale of failed process and service, because each of us has been bludgeoned by the airline industry to the point where we are grateful if they lighten up during a pat-down, and they bring water once reaching cruising altitude before our tongues swell.

What is so wonderfully and richly ironic is that each of these companies has a robust Marketing / Loyalty program and a Social Media function. Each spends an average of $100 million per year identifying customer segments, marketing trips, selling Credit Cards, and sending endless mailings and special Social Activities (take a picture of our logo on a fast moving city bus while standing in traffic – that could earn you points, if you survive!). They are Masters of their Domains. But the Marketing Domain is a distant island, cut off from the world.

Remember the thought experiment about a tree falls in the woods? It goes back to the 19th century in its modern form, but essentially the experiment asks: if a tree falls, and no ear is present to hear the sound, would there, in fact, be a sound at all? If you are a scientist, the technical answer is, “No,” because sound is vibration that reaches the ear where it is converted by the delicate bones and nerves in the ear into something that our brains call ‘sound.’ (I am sorry if this short-circuits any university drinking games by giving away the answer.)
Enter Social CRM Projects at said companies: Twitter, facebook, YouTube, forums, phone calls, blogs, SMS are captured. Check. Dissatisfaction registered. Check. Reports run. Check. Meetings held to debate the meaning of the nattering nabobs in our customer base. Check. And then? Then our Social Tree, gently falling from the heights of the jungle canopy of the world of the customer, crashes without sound onto the jungle floor, and nary a sound is registered. Customer Service still puts you on hold. The call still gets dropped, the Website process is still different than the phone. The Partners still have different rules. Why? Because, for most of us, despite our attempts at greatness, are forced to live on our functional islands. They are they, and we are we, and though the customer thinks that we are we, there is no we.

But for an extra $90 the British carrier just let me have the honour of pre-booking an actual seat on the plane! Not that their partner has such a policy, but let’s drop it. Now that is service.

The chagrin I felt reading the two magazines/journals was due to the maddening lack of discipline in the pieces about companies that have adopted “Social Media.” For fun, I listed out the corporations called out as the BRIGHT LIGHTS illuminating the way. Then I went onto the Wall Street Journal Online and built a small spreadsheet mapping the changes in sales, profit, and stock price since the beginning of the companies’ big Social Media projects. It was a mixed bag. Mostly the companies followed the secular trends for their industries. There was almost a 50/50 split between companies that had shown improvements and those that hadn’t, and the changes were almost entirely explainable by industry trends or the state of the economy. For some of the companies, even within their industries they performed more poorly than did their peers, even when their peer competitors were not listed as particularly strong in social media.

When I look at the hot areas for improvement in a business, the technologies involved are sometimes for ‘social’ but just as typically in areas such as those exploiting QR Codes, location-based services, real time analytics and predictive marketing, product ratings and feedback systems (real time posting of consumer experience), and enhanced web customer self-service. I couldn’t say that it was “Cloud Computing” or “Software as a Service” or “Social.” Instead, “Social Media” has scored ongoing success where IT and lines of business have really taken the time to prioritize social media amongst the many competing objectives wrestling for attention. The prioritization comes from exposing the extent to which customers feel you are on their side – listening, responding, fostering a give-and-take, and it gets moved forward when you have nailed the metrics. Metrics are around how will you demonstrate value: more hits, more sales, more telephone calls deflected by answers coming from communities, more affinity for the brand, more recommendations, higher responses to campaigns.

Social CRM has a long way to go and there will be tremendous value for those who take a disciplined approach and stick with it. I’m already seeing a second generation of project leaders start Social CRM 2.0: i.e., Social CRM with a plan, and integrated into the broader customer-engagement strategy.

Take a look at some of the case studies published around Social for sales, marketing, and customer support. We’ve published pieces, and so have the key vendors in this area. There are only five vendors who really count right now, and if you want me to name them, just call! The real heroes are the businesses running with Social CRM projects – talk to your colleagues in other industries. Don’t be enamored about the ‘big names’ from the magazines – do your own homework and ask tough questions. And talk to us.

The implication may be that your social media strategy could in fact be paving the off-ramp in your tight relationship with the customer. What is so special about being social? Does it mean your customer no longer feels exclusive? Social systems are all about inclusion – the great leveler. Is that what you want for your customers – to feel common? Is it about cohesiveness? Making them feel that they are a part of a something? And is that something YOU? Or something slightly different?

Now that you have set the genie free, and you have made your first wish, what are you going to do with the next two? Your Social CRM and Social Media projects are likely not yet ‘programs’ with tight measures and an over-arching strategy. It might be time that they were.