Social, brought to you today by the letter ‘C’

If Social CRM, Social Networking, Social Media or Social Business had the sponsor of a letter, it would be the letter ‘C‘. The reason however is not what you think, of course you need to be Customer Centric, but this post goes beyond that. This post aggregates and builds upon the work of others, who highlight this wonderful letter, as you should as well.

(note, this is my first post since starting Comity Technology Advisors)

Generation C (your customer, now or in the very near future)

Generation C – Cross-generation (source: Springwise and Paul Greenberg) Generation C spans from Boomers through Gen X and Gen Y right up to Millennial. From a customer perspective, this represents change, highlights peer influence and alters who I trust. Generation C is:

• Content-driven – We are producers; blogs, text, images, audio and video, etc.,…
• Connected – Phone, Email, Messaging, Twitter, Linkedin, Facebook, RSS
• Creative – We are able to choose the form of Content that allows us to express our thoughts
• Collaborative – We like working with Friends, Peers, Mentors, Partners…Oh, and Customers
• Contextual – What we say, do and think is highly dependent upon where and when we are
• Communicative – Sometimes without a filter, we say what we say

Organizations need to act, react or just prepare

In his book, (RE)(ORGANIZE) FOR RESILIENCE, Author Ranjay Gulati uses the following to describe the “resilience tool kit”. The book is a worthwhile read, an important theme is centered around why organizations are having trouble keeping up with the pace of change displayed by their customers. The following is my interpretation of the author’s “5 Cs”:

• Coordination – The alignment of people, process and technology within the organization
• Cooperation – Focus on breaking down silos, addressing cultural and behavioral issues
• Clout – Decentralizing power and allowing front facing individuals to act
• Capabilities – Education and training of all individuals to be, or become customer facing
• Connections – Create internal social networks which extend outward to partners and customers alike

My own additions to the list

During the course of my reading, implementations, discussions and writing, there are few more which you might want to add to the list. These do not represent a strategy, maybe not even an objective or goal, but focusing your time and energy around what these points mean to you, is time well spent.

• Conversation – Make sure you having conversations,  not one directional monologues
• Co-Creation – Involve your customers in the process of creating value for each other
• Consistent – The message and approach should be as similar as possible with all customers
• Committed – Once you begin to involve the ecosystem, stick with it!
• Community – The creation of place where your ecosystem feels comfortable enough to hang-out and chat
• Cross-Channel – Engage with your customers when, where and how they want (and it may change mid-conversation)

Some words which require more thought

There are some words which begin with the letter ‘C‘ which are words to pay attention to, but be cautious about. I am not going to say they are right or wrong, they simply need some paying attention to, to make sure you are aware of their power.

• Command – no matter what the goal, an approach will likely have unwanted consequences
• Control – Just think through what it means to you and your organization, and be cautious
• Conversion – Many people focus on this metric, what does it mean to you and at what cost
• Convince – Work to create buyers, not convince people to buy your products or services
• Change – The only constant is change – be ready for it

What would you like to add to the list? Did I leave anything out? (Aside from the most obvious, Customer of course)