After hearing Forrester analyst Diane Clarkson talk on “Customer Service Is the New Social Marketing” at eTail last month, I just had to ask her to share her insights here.

Diane’s work at Forrester focuses on online customer service and she’s become convinced ”social media and customer service are no longer flirting — they are getting serious.”  Take a listen to this interview to hear Diane:

• define what is social customer service
• explain the business benefits of doing it, and
• describes ways to ensure its successful implementation in your organization

You can learn more about Diane and access her research reports here.

Also check out my recap of eTail.

other interviews:

• jonathan salem baskin on the history of social media
• john gerzema on how to connect with today’s consumer
• andy beal on social media and brand building

The sessions at eTail, the conference for multi-channel and online retailers, were chock full of new perspectives and new technologies.

The title for this year’s event, held last month in Palm Springs, was:  “The Future Is Now: Managing ‘What’s Next’ While Remaining Focused on Today’s Brand Experience.”

I learned a lot from my time at eTail — since my work focuses primarily on the strategy and operations of brand experience, while the content of this conference was much more about the tactics and techniques.  I took particular note of 5 ideas about the business and marketing of retail which emerged from all of the presentations I sat in on:

1. “Facebook ‘likes’ are the new email addresses”

This point, made by Mark Pierce, CEO, Marketlive, was reinforced by several speakers who expressed concerned about how companies’ eagerness to accumulate “likes” on Facebook is reminiscent of the pursuit for email addresses a few years back. Back then, CRM was the shiny new object which companies clamored for and many rushed to amass a large database of email addresses.  But they soon found that the value of a CRM database lies less in its size and more in its usage.

Today the phenomenon is repeating, as many companies are focusing on getting a lot of people to “like” them on Facebook. Most aren’t doing or offering anything to prompt a “like” other than asking for it — and they have no plan for following up on the “likes” they get.

It all seems rather pointless unless you use “likes” as part of an engagement strategy.  And it would be so much more impactful for companies to instead focus on doing something that people like so much they decide all by themselves to tell their friends.

2. the impact of mobile extends beyond commerce

With only a very small percentage of retail transactions happening through mobile devices, it might be tempting to write mobile off as a passing fad or perhaps a nascent behavior with little consequence today.  But mobile has broad and influential impact on retail.

Pedro Santos, Chief Strategist, eCommerce, at Akamai painted a clear picture of this impact with some stats:  87% of mobile owners use their devices to locate stores, 75% use them to compare prices, and 38% use them to access product reviews.  We may never see the incidence of mobile commerce top 10%, but mobile is already radically transforming the retail experience.

3. joining existing communities and conversations may be better than starting new ones

In a talk about content marketing, Deanna Brown, Federated Media’s President and COO, encouraged attendees to leverage the power of conversation to engage customers in meaningful relationships.  But she clarified that we shouldn’t simply default to initiating the conversations.  Joining existing ones – through forums, Twitter hashtags, and related parties’ blogs — may be easier and more valuable to customers.

Forrester analyst Diane Clarkson furthered the sentiment, pointing out that building a community is resource intensive — so participating (vs. hosting) a conversation may make sense despite the trade-off of more limited opportunities.

4. mobile has upped the competition for people’s attention

Limelight Networks Chairman and CEO Jeff Lunsford reminded marketers that their biggest competition may be Angry Birds, the mobile game with broad appeal and addictive qualities.  To capture the attention of today’s “hyper connected customer,” we must offer engaging, seamless experiences and use rich media and personalization.

When customers use their mobile devices, they behave very differently. On the plus side, they’re available and on-the-go and so the laws of inertia work in retailers’ favor:  a body in motion tends to stay in motion, so a visit is more likely if you reach someone who is “in the neighborhood.”  But at the same time mobile users are often distracted and have short attention spans, so the call to action needs to be persuasive and urgent.

Ultimately, Akamai’s Santos explained, “E-marketers need to shift their website optimization from simply shortening page load times to creating branded experiences.”

5. new technologies should be used for more than marketing

The marketing applications of new technologies like mobile search and social sharing are obvious – but marketing leverages only a fraction of their value.  Customer service can be greatly enhanced by the new sites, tools, and capabilities.

Tracy Benson, Sr. Director, Best Buy Marketing, explained how her company has placed a priority on using technology to redefine customer service.  She highlighted Twelpforce, Best Buy’s Twitter-fueled program through which employees respond to customer inquiries and issues directly.  She also talked about facilitating knowledge sharing among customers and introduced the idea that, between reviews, forums, and social Q&A, “Friends are now problem solving tools.”

Forrester’s Clarkson gave an entire talk on “Customer Service Is the New Social Marketing.”  She outlined how social media can meet customer service objectives by:
- facilitating – helping people help others
- resolving – using direct and immediate communication tools to solve people’s problems
- redirecting – directing people to other channels where they can be better helped

I’ll be posting an interview with Diane soon, so check back to hear more about how, in her own words, “Social media and customer service are no longer flirting.”

related posts:

• future of marketing
• five leading business ideas for 2011

Forrester’s Customer Experience Forum 2010:  Creating Breakthrough Customer Experiences featured a fantastic line-up of speakers — including company leaders from client organizations as diverse as H&R Block, FedEx, and Sprint, as well as thought leaders from Forrester and other service providers.

From all of the presentations, it was clear that “creating breakthrough customer  experiences” (defined on Wikipedia as “the sum of all experiences a customer has with a supplier of goods or services, over the duration of their relationship with that supplier“) requires systematic, cultural, and organizational changes within a company.

Here are some of the best bits from the presentations (including a brief video of John Costello, Chief Global Customer & Marketing Officer, at Dunkin’ Brands talking about the efforts at his company):

other content recently posted elsewhere:

• my take on Forever 21′s new store in Times Square (video)
• dueling ads: iPhone vs. Verizon (a blogpost on imediaconnection)
• notes and quotes from the Red Herring North America 2010 conference
• Bigger Isn’t Always Better (article from QSR Magazine)

Last week’s Ad Age featured an article called “Why It’s Time to Do Away With the Brand Manager.” The piece, and the Forrester research report which inspired it, argues for “changing the name ‘brand manager‘ to ‘brand advocate,’ and fundamentally changing marketer organizations in response to the onset of the digital age.” It reminded me of an article I wrote several years ago.

Outlining my thoughts on the key roles needed in any marketing department, I argued for the creation of a position called “brand operator” — someone whose role it is to drive brand operationalization. I thought I’d share with you the full article now. I considered updating it to acknowledge the new marketing and communication tools that have arisen since I wrote the piece, but the more I thought about it, I realized that wasn’t necessary. The tools may have changed, but I believe the fundamental marketing roles I outlined are evergreen:

A CMO’s Dream Team

The 1995-96’s Bulls. The 1992 Clinton election team. These are dream teams. Extraordinary individuals who come together to accomplish extraordinary results. Marketing, like sports or politics, requires highly skilled people at the top of their game, working together seamlessly to compete and win.

Chief marketing officers, like coaches and other leaders, who seek dream teams must assemble remarkable individuals to generate remarkable results. In the past, CMOs knew who they needed on their team – some smart brand managers and some functional experts in research and media.

But the marketing landscape has changed dramatically and the skill sets and experiences needed on a CMO’s marketing bench have changed just as dramatically. New media, market fragmentation, and brand proliferation have given birth to new ways to go to market and new challenges in doing so. Today CMOs need to rethink the types of marketing expertise they need on the team.

Here are 6 types of players that can help produce winning results in today’s marketing environment:

1.  A Brand Operator – This isn’t just a fancy new label for the old brand manager function – a Brand Operator contributes a whole different perspective, skill set, and expertise. While brand managers manage activities to promote the brand, Brand Operators operationalize brands throughout the entire Company. Brands represent a way of doing things that should drive business strategy, define operating processes, and impact company culture. As such, a CMO needs someone to activate the brand in all of these areas – working with senior management, operational teams, and human resources. A Brand Operator is someone who truly understands the Company’s business and who can overcome organizational barriers to get things done.

2.  A Connections Planner – With the proliferation of new media options and the fragmentation of traditional ones, a CMO needs someone who understands the impact of different touchpoints on how customers make purchase decisions. A Connections Planner is savvy about search marketing, branded entertainment, and weblogs as well as traditional media – and is always on the lookout for emerging opportunities. He or she combines knowledge about customers’ lifestyles and media usage/exposure with data-based analyses of the efficiency and effectiveness of the different avenues to communicate with them. The result is strategies for making relevant and salient connections between the brand and its target. Until and unless agencies demonstrate the ability to plan and buy media agnostically, the responsibility for Connections Planning must remain an internal function.

3.  A Creative Leader – Far too often, CMOs leave leadership of the brand’s creative expression up to the advertising agency. In rare instances, this may come to make sense over time — but generally speaking, there is too frequent turnover of creative directors and/or agencies themselves to maintain consistency and explore the richness of brand understanding that develops only through many years. Furthermore, a Creative Leader provides inspiration and direction for the expression of the brand at all touchpoints — from tradeshow booths to corporate headquarters to salespeople’s collateral. He or she does this through an intuitive understanding of the essence of the brand and a vision for the brand’s ambitions.

4.  Customer Experts – A CMO needs a Customer Expert for each segment of the Company’s existing customers/prospects and at least one dedicated to uncovering new sources of business. While market researchers have historically been tagged as the “voice of the customer,” this approach falls short of the marketing need. The team needs someone who is more interested in customers than in methodologies — someone who synthesizes insights from all sources of information (database analyses, store audits, cultural scanning, syndicated shopping data, and even “grandmother research”) along with primary consumer research to develop a rich profile and deep understanding of the target customers.

5.  An Investment Analyst – Today’s boardroom requires a CMO to prove the return on marketing investments – and so a CMO requires an Investment Analyst on the team. This person implements the infrastructure and process for collecting the necessary marketing data, analyzes and evaluates marketing investments on a timely basis and in an objective manner, and makes recommendations for future budget allocation. Although the CFO’s office should be consulted, the job shouldn’t be left to controllers. A finance-savvy marketer will figure out how to account for, not dismiss, the subjectivity that comes with the marketing territory – and he or she will be familiar with market research data that can be used in the analyses.

6.  An Independent Advisor – The CMO needs an Independent Advisor for the same reasons Tony Soprano needs his conciliare and Jon Gruden needs a defensive coordinator on headset with a bird’s eye view of the game. When you’re in the trenches, it’s sometimes hard to see the forest for the trees – and it’s even harder to be objective about something the whole team has been passionately pursuing. Free from bandwidth and political constraints, an Independent Advisor can provide the big picture view when a reality check is needed — or dig deep into a problem to uncover an elusive diagnosis. He or she can be the source for “the word on the street,” contribute perspectives from different categories and brands, and play the role of a talent scout.

These 6 types of players can form the foundation for a winning marketing team. Of course, this begs the question of the role of the CMO.

I suggest the CMO’s primary role is one of a maestro – the conductor who brings out the specific talents of each player and brings them together to produce a great work. The CMO has the vision and recruits people with the potential to deliver it, entices and enables them to see it, and enrolls them in engaging in it – and then eliminates distractions and shores up resources. Moreover, a maestro determines spirit and style, setting the culture in which the team will operate.

The right players with the right leader and the right culture. This is the stuff dreams — dream teams, that is — are made of.

(image above is from Bill Frakes/SI)

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