“Industry only experience” is not a new requirement, of course, and exceptions have always been made for talented candidates. However, in a down economy, it seems industry experience becomes a highly enforced criterion used to close the door on marketing talent.

I am not in Human Resources (HR), so I cannot tell you why it happens (I have my suspicions though). However, I have been a hiring manager and will say industry experience is something I avoid like the plague when reviewing resumes. Why? Because industry experience has absolutely NOTHING to do with the level of experience, talent, drive, problem-solving skills, enthusiasm and passion a candidate has to offer, which should always be the benchmark when hiring. A smart employee can learn any industry. It isn’t rocket science—unless you are handling marketing and PR for NASA.

[Sidebar: Please do not use the ‘regulations excuse.’ Again, a smart employee can learn regulations. An exceptional employee, however, learns them and then figures out how to stay within mandatory regulations without allowing them to chokehold company goals and objectives (Read: Growth).]

According to Executive Staffing Solutions’ latest newsletter, there is good news and bad news when it comes to filling open positions. The good news is that there are many good positions opening up for candidates. The bad news is companies are not recognizing top talent when it comes through the door.

Back to my suspicions. Hiring companies are not recognizing top talent because they have their heads in the proverbial sand when it comes to “industry experience only” being a benefit (something that promotes well-being; an advantage). It is not a benefit, it is a disadvantage that is hurting your customers, employees, and shareholders (or whoever is backing your business financially).

Customers

Customers (whether B2B or B2C) are not in need of the products and services that ‘industry experience only’ people develop. Customers ARE the industry (or market) and they have seen it all already. Unfortunately, inside-out driven product and service innovations often miss the boat when it comes to providing customers with much needed solutions because they usually never take the time to ask the market what they needed (even if that need is as simple as a new pair of jeans. The Gap has learned this lesson).

It doesn’t take industry experience to “break the code” for what customers want. It takes employees with the willingness to step back, listen, understand, and work to aggregate common customer needs (an outside-in perspective) and work towards fulfilling them. Employees with alternative industry experience are often more capable of identifying unfulfilled needs because they don’t look through the same rose-colored glasses. They are the employees that will topple the competition and secure long-term loyalty from customers for an employer. Yes, these employees buck the system, turn their backs on the status quo, and rock the boat. All of the uncomfortable things that the industry experience only mindset made comfortable.

Employees

When companies hire within the industry a certain inbred mindset develops, which leads to complacency. “This is the way we do it.” If the way you have always done it has always worked then why are companies losing market share and revenues or barely holding steady? Sure, learning new techniques, tools, and strategies from outside the industry can be scary, challenging and… make you work harder than you ever have.

Whoever said marketing, PR or communications was easy?

Employees with the same industry experience and backgrounds stifle each other. Energy, creativity and problem-solving occurs when unique backgrounds are brought together.

Shareholders

According to Ranjay Gulati’s latest book, Reorganize for Resilience, “customer-driven companies were significantly more successful than shareholder-driven ones, providing a 36 percent advantage in shareholder returns, compared with their industry median; shareholder-aligned organizations provided only a 17 percent advantage.”

Who wouldn’t want those returns?

Unfortunately, any company that stays with an “industry experience only” mindset won’t be able to deliver because they have already set the precedent for the status quo. In a down economy, more of the same is not the solution. Customers have limited budgets and they are only willing to spend it with companies who fulfill their exact needs and treat them as valuable assets (versus a marketing expense).

Perhaps it is time for a new criterion. “Customer Experienced Only” need apply.

[Image Source: Joseph Paul Haines]

“No company will tell you, ‘I don’t want to be customer centric,’ but do you know the difference between taking an inside-out versus an outside-in approach?” - Ranjay Gulati

An organization’s goal for being social with customers is, presumably, to gain a better understand of what customers want and need. Typically used to warehouse customer data, marketing campaigns, and customer service endeavors, CRM systems now must also capture the social interactions of customers and prospects as well. It is those social interactions— in a natural setting—that will provide organizations with untarnished insights.

More importantly, by drawing the customer closer, the organization will find a refreshing ‘outside-in’ view that leads to budget, resource, and time savings when it comes to new product or service development, customer service and marketing communications.

While Inc. magazine declares 2011 to be the year of Social CRM, we need to question whether or not most organizations have the culture to be social let alone allowing their customers to become an integrated part of their business through social CRM.

Is social CRM bringing  companies & customers together in harmony today? Not for most organizations. There is a long road ahead for social CRM to becoming the norm. But when properly constructed and utilized, it is a road that will pay huge dividends—for both organizations and customers.

While it may not be recognized today, the insights social CRM provides are the customer and market dynamics nirvana that most organizations (and marketers) seek.

Social Media Examiner: What is Social CRM?

“In [social CRM] the customer is actually the focal point of how an organization operates. Instead of marketing or pushing messages to customers, brands now talk to and collaborate with customers to solve business problems, empower customers to shape their own experiences and build customer relationships, which will hopefully turn into customer advocates.”

Jacob Morgan: How CRM and Social Media Evolved to Social CRM

“The voice of customers across the social landscape is forcing organizations to take steps to deliver on the original promises of CRM. It’s a great opportunity. Organizations now have the capability (and the mandate) to listen, interact, and respond to their customers and prospects. They also have the capability to create, facilitate, and enable customers and other stakeholders to interact with each other. Social has opened up new infinite opportunities for innovation, co-creation, and customer responsiveness.”

Ray Wang (Altimeter Group): Research Report: The 18 Use Cases of Social CRM – The New Rules of Relationship Management

“Customers continue to adopt social technologies at a blinding speed and organizations are unable to keep up.  Social technologies continue to proliferate. Because the conversations about organizations increasingly occur outside of the organization’s control in social channels, organizations need to:

1. Discover where the conversations are happening in this new social world.
2. Identify who’s influential and if they are customers or not.
3. Assess friend or foe status and their willingness to engage
4. Determine a tiered approach to engagement or re-engagement.
5. Tie social channels to business value and objectives
6. Bring the social channel back to existing CRM systems.
7. Reallocate resources to support Social CRM efforts

This is the basis for the groundswell in Social CRM. But keep in mind, Social CRM does not replace existing CRM efforts – instead it brings more value to existing efforts and should complement the uber CRM strategy.”

Conversion Marketing Forum: Social CRM and customer-centricity: the social media experts’ point of view

“Adapting a customer-centric philosophy is always something that has to take place throughout the company. A lot of companies struggle while trying to do so, for instance because of departments within the company that act like independent silos from one and another. Customer-centric thinking asks for support from the management, uniform data, integration of platforms and processes, but especially cross-divisional cooperation.”

Conversionation: Social CRM: social media and communities in customer relationship management and marketing

“[McGovern and Zhivago] further write that ‘thousands of customer interviews have convinced them that the ‘company’s list’ and the ‘customer’s list’ are always significantly different – including the items on the list, the specific characteristics of the items on the list, and the priority of the items on the list’.”

Gartner: Social CRM Projects and the Curtain of Doubt

“You will face a wall without slicing up Social CRM into addressable bits. But if you do convince yourself that you do not need everything to be momentous, that there can be greatness in a grain of sand, then you will push through that curtain of doubt and create a self-sustaining culture of measuring each tiny milestone.”

Inc Magazine: 2011: The Year Social CRM Goes Mainstream

“The challenge is that most companies have been wired from the ground up to operate in a world of company-controlled communication, and they’re simply not equipped to engage in conversations. But, the rules have changed,” says Greg Gianforte , founder and CEO of customer experience solutions provider RightNow. ”To be truly conversant with social customers, companies are rewiring their operations to be more customer-centered, more relationship oriented, and more transparent. They’re collaborating across departmental silos, working beyond the capabilities of traditional CRM tools, and weaving social into business as usual. “

The good news is that true Social CRM offers companies a seamless and real-time view across the many different channels that customers converse in, new and old alike (e.g.,Twitter, Facebook, e-mail, chat, phone), Gianforte says.  “With this view, companies can truly get to know and proactively care for their customers, ultimately fulfilling their brand promises, the social way.”

[Image source: Chess Media Group]

Happy reading!

In a recent BNET post “Lying to Your Customers? Come on, Everyone’s Doing It,” author and customer advocate Christopher Elliott shares six companies who have lied to their customers: Tavern on the Green, Ford, Microsoft, Office Depot, Cablevision, and Apple.

Lies or Business As Usual?

The chef at Tavern on the Green lied about gluten free pasta. What is the big deal, right? If a diner has food allergies, it is a huge deal. While Chef Damian Cardone may not have thought too much about the “white lie,” those with gluten allergies likely suffered the consequences of their meal. Tavern on the Green’s reputation is known far and wide—making it an iconic brand. Now, it’s doors are closed after filing for bankruptcy.

A Ford engineer told NPR that the gas tanks in Ford cars register full when they are not actually full. We are currently living in a depressed economy and gas prices are soaring. With all of Ford’s efforts to be social and bring customers to the center of their organization, how does this admission affect their brand? Is stating that the gas gauge’s purpose is “giving a customer ‘a prediction’ of what will happen” enough to protect the reputation they have worked so hard to preserve? If all car manufactures have this same challenge, is it a lie or a limitation of technology?

Due to pressure, Office Depot sales people lie about stock in order to upsell customers. There is just one little problem with this sales philosophy: customers have changed. They are more likely to have done their research, reached out to friends and experts, read all of the reviews and calculated the level of risk they are comfortable with. The days of thinking customers do not know what they want are over, they know want long before they walk into a store. Upselling them from their needs will most likely make them walk on over to the competitor.

Cablevision lied to its customers about an FCC ruling allowing them to earn potentially millions in additional revenue. According to The Consumerist, the FCC is well aware of the lies. Is lying acceptable in regulated industries? Are consumers so addicted to TV that they’ll just pay the price?

Apparently, Apple employees lie to customers all of the time about things like why they shouldn’t unlock their iPhones. However, this is just one employee’s “inside scoop.” Does one bad apple mean the whole company lies? Of course not. It does indicate, however, that a larger issue might be brewing inside of corporations today. Employees can be just as much a threat to your brand reputation as customers.

The Benefits of Lying

• Sick Customers
• Reputation Challenges
• Lost Sales
• Indentured Customers
• Rogue Employees

Not to mention everything that comes along for the ride… like negative word of mouth, blog posts, tweets, reviews, etc.

Not Lying—Easier Said Than Done?

Is a little white lie—or even a big one—okay when it means more revenues? The obvious answer would be no, one would hope. But perhaps there are times when lying is a necessary evil of doing business. Who is to decide what is ethical and what isn’t?

How does a marketing or PR professional handle this internal conflict?

Additional considerations: Do you do as told to keep your job? Is counsel regarding what could go wrong enough when money is the shiny object in management’s eye? Who is the customer advocate?

[Image source: toptenz.net]

I just finished reading Ernan Roman’s latest book, Voice-of-the-Customer Marketing: A Revolutionary 5-Step Process to Create Customers Who Care, Spend, and Stay and I must say, this book is a gift to marketers, management and any business owners who truly cares about their customers.

I first learned about Ernan’s new book when Denise Lee Yohn interviewed him on her blog. (If you don’t read Denise’s blog, Brand as Business Bites, you should. It’s full of great branding insights!)

After reading the interview, I knew that I had to put this book on the top of my reading list because it not only embodies my beliefs on customer-centric business—it provides a process to bring the customer closer to the center of the organization.

While “voice of the customer ” research has been around for a while, Ernan shares his five-step process so that companies can put VOC research into practice. For those who might be speculative, the process is backed with solid case studies.

Listening Versus Understanding

The foundation to any well thought out social media strategy is listening. If you are familiar with social media, you know listening means using tools like Radian6, SM2 or Google Alerts to capture what people are saying about your brand on the Internet.

However, there is a lot of work that needs to take place between listening, understanding and implementing change. Listening online alone often leads to a misunderstanding of context and nuance.

Scott Rogers captures that best in his post, Listening Versus Understanding: There is a Difference.

“The first step in listening (and any VOC program) involves obtaining customer feedback.  Customer feedback, whether it happens in real-time or later, is the customer’s viewpoint.

Customer feedback comes from those whose desire to give feedback exceeds the personal constraints for giving feedback – time, place, personality traits, etc.  Back in 2007, J. Walter Smith from Yankelovich gave a speech at the CRMC Conference in Chicago where he mentioned, from their national survey, the dollar value the average person thought a minute of their time was worth – it came to well over 3 times the national average income.  In other words, we must cherish the feedback customers give us, because it shows how much value it had to them to provide that feedback.

It is human nature to simplify, categorize, clarify, and make things black and white. Those of us who practice the art (or science, depending on your bent) of ‘listening’ to customer feedback need to not only understand that ‘if no two people interpret anything in the exact same way’, this pertains not only to the customers we are ‘listening to’, but to us too – the listener.”

The pitfall with using social media listening alone is that it is just one channel.  Obviously, it’s not smart to use the feedback of one channel to determine what business shifts must take place to meet customer needs and wants. It takes on- and off-line interactions and multiple channel analysis.

Voice of the Customer Marketing is the key to unlocking the full benefit of listening to, learning from and tapping into the wisdom of the customer.

The Five-Step Process

Step One: Conduct and Apply VOC Relationship Research

• Interviewing customers, prospects, and key stakeholders to understand how they expect the marketer to satisfy their needs for a high-value relationship.

Step Two: Create VOC-Driven Opt-In Relationship Strategies

• Engaging prospects and customers to tell you exactly what they value and want from you…and what they don’t want from you.

Step Three: Create a VOC-Driven Multichanel Mix

• Creating an integrated, multichannel marketing program that engages and inspires your customer.

Step Four: Create a VOC-Driven Social Media Presence

• Creating strategies for real-time engagement with your customers and prospects.

Step Five: Invest in an Excellent Customer Service Experience

• Not pretending that customer service is something for operations to worry about.

Companies That Gave Their Customers a Voice

Voice of the Customer Marketing offers case studies that show step-by-step how companies have not only tapped into their customers, but have changed the game in their industry by doing so. Companies like:

• Walt Disney Company
• IBM
• Microsoft
• Tiny Prints
• Ford Motor Company
• HMS National
• Nike
• Lifeline Screening
• Palms Trading Company
• MSC Industrial Direct

The mix of case studies proves that Voice of the Customer Marketing works regardless of industry or size. There is no room for the “that’s only for B2C or large companies” excuse.

How about it? Will you consider giving your customers a voice? There is no reason not to now that someone has provided you with a process.

[Disclaimer: I received a free copy of Voice of the Customer Marketing through McGraw-Hill’s Business Insider Program. I had the opportunity to select this book as part of the program and did so because it focuses on customer-centric business.]

[Image: TMS ]

Yes, it is a double entendre if you didn’t catch it.

When was the last time you asked, “what is the lifetime value of our customers?” (also known as customer lifetime value ), or –more importantly— “what is the lifetime value we offer our customers?”

Is it smart to have one without the other? I don’t think so.

Is calculating CLV a normal event for your organization? I don’t know about you, but calculating ROI seems like child’s play compared to calculating CLV.

Let’s take a look, shall we?

According to Wikipedia:

Your job as a marketer is to gather all of those figures and then do the math! Easy, right? Roll up those sleeves and get down to work. (I don’t know about you, but my head hurts & my stomach feels queasy just looking at that formula!)

Here’s the formula for the rest of us:

So then… The bigger question is what is the calculation for determining the value offered to customers? Anyone?

Buelller? Buelller? Buelller?

marketing [m.o.]: How to calculate customer lifetime value

“Do you know how much profit your customers produce over their lifetime?  “Customer lifetime value”, or “CLV”, is a valuable metric that helps you target your most profitable customer segments and understand how much you can spend to acquire them.”

ClickZ: What Should You Spend to Acquire a Customer?

“Knowing your overall profit margin allows you to guesstimate how much revenue customers must generate for different goals to be achieved. Goals will vary based on what you know about your business. How would your customers need to behave for you to break even in the first year? Is that behavior reasonable? You can adjust goals accordingly”.

ClickZ: How Are You Measuring Customers?

“Around the time of September 11, lots of folks decided they’d give airplanes a miss and turn to alternative forms of transportation. Enterprise Rent-A-Car didn’t have a logistics system to offer or track one-way rentals. But it did have a customer-centric corporate culture. So, the local managers took matters into their own hands and made one-way rentals available. One regional manager explained, ‘We knew we had to do the right thing and worry about the rest later.’

The cost to Enterprise was the displacement of thousands of its cars — operational chaos. What was the benefit? In a struggling economy, Enterprise now leads its category and is stronger this year than it was last year.

Lifetime value is not difficult to measure; it’s just math. All you need is the courage to examine the customer lifecycle and call the end to a customer life. It really gets very simple after that.”

McKinsey Quarterly: Uncovering the value of brands

“Many marketers believe brands are important because they shape customer decisions and, ultimately, create economic value. Few however, would be able to back up their beliefs with facts and figures, as little attempt has been made to measure the actual value of brands.”

MarketingProfs Daily Fix: Loyalty and Lifetime Value [Leigh Durst]

“‘Sorry. We only care about what you’ve done for us lately.’ Should you say this to a frequent traveler who has slept in one of your properties for over one year? Should you say this to a customer who has chosen your airline consistently for a decade of travel? The seasoned road warrior doesn’t need a study to tell us that this type treatment may feel slightly punitive in a manner that goes far beyond the color of the membership card.

Unfortunately, most travel and hospitality loyalty programs fail to take the natural patterns of people into consideration. Beyond this, it isn’t evident that these companies actually forecast customer lifetime value or take into consideration a value a customer’s accrued value in the establishment of loyalty programs. Unless of course, those customers accrue an incredibly high number of points…”

Brands Create Customers: Value-based brands: Overview

“Attention and pizzazz is a not a basis for customer value, and neither is glitz, glory, flash and spin. They might blitz a few eyeballs, but they don’t have what it takes to grow and sustain customers.

Value-based brands are fueled by organic, customer-generated emotion, rather than artificial campaign-generated emotion. ”

Happy Reading!

[Image Source: Forbes.com]