Communication makes it better or worse

Last week everyone in Belgium was quite shocked with the closing of the Ford factory in Genk. The closing of the plant is a terrible thing to happen, but the (non) communication was even worse. Everyone has serious doubts about a management that decides to fire 10.000 people but does not have the decency to tell those people the news themselves. It made me think back to the BP accident a few years ago. They ruined an ocean with their oil leakage, but they made it worse through the terrible communication by their CEO. Quotes as ‘I want my life back’ and ‘there are other oceans without oil problems’, didn’t help to create empathy for their problems, on the contrary.

Strongest influencer of customer experience is communication

As the direct impact of traditional communication forms is decreasing and the impact of word-of-mouth is increasing, consumer conversations are the biggest influencer of a company’s reputation. Consumers share positive and negative experiences on social media.  These experiences are strongly influenced by the communication skills of your client facing employees (and your official communication channels). Every client interaction is a form of communication. Every client interaction can be a conversation starter. Create awareness about this reality within your organization. Modern communication is about employees that act within the philosophy of the organization. The rewards if you succeed are positive conversations.

Please, train your people

Communication is no longer the privilege of a communication department. These days, everyone can communicate on public platforms. I am still surprised with the limited number of companies that train their employees to become better communicators. Most managers agree that communication becomes more important than ever before, but still, it is only a limited group of companies that invests in this new communication.

One of the mistakes managers make, is brief their employees with sentences like ‘treat our customers like you want to be treated yourself’. It’s probably the worst briefing you can give. Everybody has different expectations towards companies and every employee will make his own interpretation of that briefing. A company needs clear and unique values that describe the way employees should treat clients. Of course, the briefing should not balance to the other side where every client interaction becomes programmed and there is no room for personal creativity.

While making your marketing plans for 2013, maybe consider some communication training for all your employees. It will be worth the investment.

You know what I observed? Well, you can know how advanced a company is in integrating social media by the facts they use to show off.

Most companies tell the world about their number of fans. Others talk about some brilliant campaign they ran. In most cases, this campaign invested a limited amount in paid media, but the earned media is booming. We’ve seen a few of those, haven’t we.

But if a company is really advanced in social media integration, they show off with something else. They tell the world how many employees have been fully trained in using social media. Last week during a conference in Canada, Dell told the world that they have more than 8000 fully trained people.

Efficient training

Companies that have come a long way in social media integration have all elaborated a detailed training process. Social Media training is taken very seriously. Intel for example has created a ‘Digital IQ’ programme. This programme consists of some 60 training modules. The system is organised like an American university: you have to participate in training A first before moving up to the next level. The bottom level of the training is compulsory for all commercial profiles. Furthermore, we should add that this is one of the few training sessions accessible to all at Intel. Also at Cisco (see earlier article), it’s clear they take training very seriously. Their ultimate goal is to lift the general knowledge level, in order to integrate social media into their entire company management. Many Belgian and Dutch companies are too noncommittal where this type of training is concerned. Unfortunately, a lack of knowledge often leads to rather conservative decisions . Improving knowledge is absolutely the first condition for dealing with social media in a serious manner.

Technical & social infrastructure

How can you expect your company to get organised for social media when the infrastructure is not optimal ? 56% of companies still block social media (InSites Consulting research). It is difficult to learn how to work with Twitter if you can’t use it. I really like the Rabobank principle on the matter: employees are not only allowed to use social media, they are actively encouraged. And if you can convince your management that you need a smartphone or a tablet for your job, chances are you will get one. That way you help employees to get used to the new reality we’re living in.

A second aspect of providing a social infrastructure is determining your social media presence. How can you create a link between owned and earned media and what are the targets of the different touch points? Overzealous companies sometimes skip this step; they quickly create a Facebook or Twitter account that is not linked in any way with their own online media.

Engaging in difficult conversations at an early stage

I recently organised a workshop for a pharmaceutical company, the marketers were really enthusiastic about the opportunities of social media . But at the same time, they were ‘afraid’ that nothing would be allowed in their company, given the attitude of their legal department in such matters. The pharmaceutical sector has quite some legal limitations so indeed it’s not that easy. There is one thing you can do however, and that is involving all parties in the conversation at an early stage. My interviews with Intel, Cisco and Kodak taught me that these companies involve their ‘difficult’ conversation partners at an early stage. They don’t do this in a defensive frame, but they approach them on the following basis: we need your help, can you please help us with this? Postponing that conversation and therefore creating insecurity will only entail problems. In order to go all the way, you need their buy-in.

Adapting the HR recruitment criteria

Another important step in the preparation of your company for the total integration of social media is the evaluation of your HR policy. What criteria do you take into account when recruiting people? Do you only check relevant work experience and the person’s capacities, or do you go beyond that? To fully grasp the opportunities of social media, it is good to add some extra criteria. Not every candidate needs to obtain good scores for these criteria, but try to obtain a good balance in your total staff based on these criteria.

1. Look for digital experts: this often limits you to the post-1987 generation, but that’s not necessarily the case. Checking one’s social profile (followers on Twitter, LinkedIn profile) will tell you a lot about how someone deals with new media. As an organisation, it is important to actively look for ‘conversational’ profiles.

2. Check the influence and network of people. If someone is a large opinion influencer online, this could be useful in your marketing mix. However, keep in mind that this person still needs to fit within the company values.

3. Open to change. The world is evolving at greater speed all the time. The ability to adapt will become an important aspect for a modern company. Recruiting people who are open to change will help the company to become more flexible.

4. The extent to which a person is happy. Zappos asks applicants how happy they are, on a 10 points scale. Those who give a score below 8 are not recruited. Scientific surveys have shown that this one question can be linked to IQ and EQ.

Can you think of any other basic needs that need to be fulfilled and do you agree with the four I have listed above?

Dado and I are working on a whitepaper, which will contain all our conclusions from these conversations. Should you be interested in it, send us a mail (steven@insites.eu and dado@insites.eu) and we’ll keep you posted.