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c h a p t e r5:SOCIAL TECHNOLOGY AND BUSINESS DECISIONS■channels) of communication that exist in many businesses. Add to that the additional
workload of managing customer input gathered through social technologies: It’s that
old cliché that goes “My day was going great until the customers started showing up.”
It’s hard to accept input when you’re already fully loaded, yet (and especially in lean
times) that’s exactly where most businesses really want to operate: smaller numbers of
employees, each of whom is fully tasked.
The successful adoption of social technologies in business is, therefore, as much
about strategy and results as it is about process and efficiency: getting a smaller num-
ber of people to produce better products, faster, for example. Not coincidentally, it is
by collaboration—internally— and by working in cross-functional teams and accept-
ing customers as a key part of the business that a solution emerges. Collaboration has
the potential to bring better solutions to the market faster, partly by the enhanced
synergies and partly by the efficiency of avoided missteps resulting when customers are
brought into the design process earlier. A big part of what is driving the adoption of
social technologies across businesses, therefore, has to do first with knowledge extrac-
tion and collaboration, and second with putting it to use inside the organization.
Of these, getting customers to work together is often the easiest. After all, it is
generally in their collective self-interest to do so, and the Social Web, with or without
your participation, provides the tools needed. The allure of better products, better prices,
and the satisfaction of venting...all ensure that customers will readily self-organize.
Customers will do this spontaneously any time they sense that joining forces will produce
a desired result more quickly than acting alone, and their attraction to the Social Web is
proof positive of their desire to do just this.
Importantly, your primary desire is to encourage customers to work with your
firm or organization. For example, rather than venting to other customers, or suggest-
ing ideas that are as equally visible to competitors as they are to you, wouldn’t it be
better if they were shared with you directly? This is where toolsets like support forums
and ideation platforms come in: They provide customers with a sanctioned forum that
you can monitor, wherein exactly these types of conversations take place.
By comparison, getting employees to work together can be another matter
entirely. But this is exactly what must happen. Fortunately, “there’s an app for that.”
The opportunities for collaboration exist within the organization: between product
managers and Customer Service, between Legal and Operations, and between HR and
everyone else. Effectively resolving challenges exposed on the Social Web is a multidis-
ciplinary task, as is maintaining a great reputation for those more fortunate brands.
The best product in the world combined with poor customer service delivered by
employees who are less than passionate about their jobs will not result in the kinds of
customer conversations that drive long-term success. Facilitating collaboration between
these disparate groups and between customers is the key to the long-term health of the
business.