“After Outcry, Verizon Abandons $2 Fee” screams a headline from today’s online edition of the New York Times. And the article makes it very clear that Social Media played no small role in telecom giant’s hasty retreat from levying a new $2 fee on bill payments. This story is a harbinger of things to come in 2012 and CEO and CMO of every large and medium sized company should pay attention to it.
As I explained in my previous post titled 2012: Year of Empowered and Assertive Digital Customer, thanks to Mobile, Tablet computing and Social Networking revolutions, customers are empowered like never before and they are leveraging technology not only for shopping online, but also for highlighting poor customer service experiences. This growing trend of empowered and assertive customers leveraging technology for connecting with other like minded individuals to share their experience about products and services will be the big story of 2012.
In order to make sure that 2012 doesn’t become a year of Social Media disasters or Social CRM crises, CEOs and CMOs of large and medium sized companies should include following three new year resolutions on their 2012 list:
1. Improve collaboration within the enterprise and invest in collaboration tools
2. Listen to what customers/prospects are saying on Social Media channels and learn from it
3. Empower employees to engage customers/prospects on social media channels and invest in customer collaboration platform
How important are these to the survival and growth of business? In my opinion, these are as important as resolving to lose weight for someone who may suffer a heart attack if he/she doesn’t lose weight, or as important as bringing debt/expenses under control for someone who may face financial ruin or bankruptcy otherwise.
One may argue that these doesn’t apply to leading companies or brands that enjoy dominant position in their market. Well, think again. It doesn’t take long for assertive customers, empowered by social media to drive home their point of view. If you want proof, look no further than Netflix or GoDaddy in this regard. So as I said, better to lose weight than suffer a heart attack and better to control expenses/debt than face financial ruin.
Dear CEOs and CMOs, are you listening? Wouldn’t you include these three New Year’s resolutions to your 2012 list?
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