Customers from Mars, Companies from Venus

Alan Moore and Tomi Ahonen describe the difficulty companies have listening and responding to their customers in their book Communities Dominate Brands under the heading 'Customers from Mars, Companies from Venus'.
Here's an example - an email I've had to send a Toyota dealership today. So far, the only response has been of the automated variety... Where's my two-way flow?

"I turned up this morning with my car to be told you had expected me on May 23.

"My diary only ever showed one date, May 31, I can absolutely assure you.

"I believe May 23 may have initially been offered but was rejected because a courtesy car was not available.

"Whatever the case, can I suggest two ways in which you can improve both your customer service and your internal efficiencies. It cost me the best part of 45mins in additional and wasted travel time. It's just the kind of thing which may also cost Toyota my custom long term.

1. Confirm your appointments in writing - either by post, email or (my preference) text. Offering this service would also build you a database of mobile numbers and email addresses.

You send me letters to ask what I think of your customer service. Is it much of a stretch to make the same effort to actually OFFER that customer service in the first place?

2. If you are faced with a 'no show', call the person in question. In my case you must have ordered an expensive part to be fitted, and scheduled in several hours of labour time. Is it really more efficient not to make that call and to have that part sitting there for who-knows-how-long? I can't believe you have the number of no-shows this approach appears to indicate.

UPDATED JUNE 5, 2007: Still no response from the dealership!!

Reminds me of a recent delay I had with British Airways on my way to New York. The flight got delayed four hours because their new - and no doubt meant-to-be-engaging (in some vague and skewed notion of the concept) - entertainment system had failed.

When - after considerable digging via mobile internet and calls to locations far removed from Heathrow - I discovered the cause for the delay, I pointed out that I'd rather get my entertainment by arriving on time to take in Times Square, Broadway, etc etc. It sure beats watching re-runs of Little Britain - even if it is on cod IPTV.

I suggested if they asked all the other people now faced with a four hour delay what they'd prefer they might get a similar response. The bonus might be that by listening to their customers they'd save the cost of a considerable delay (which necessitated the prep of another 747!).

I found it very difficult for anyone to even take note of my suggestion.

As we all know, information in airports appears to be jealously guarded when it comes to reasons for delays. Perhaps they just couldn't cope with the idea of someone giving them some for free?

Ubiquitous computing - pervasive web - takes a giant step

Techcrunch has this on Microsoft's announcement of surface computing.

Its initial market focus seems to be for restaurants, transferring data from one device from another etc - but that's just the simple stuff - the way in which old things are done more efficiently with the new tech.

Watch the video below and you might start seeing some of the new stuff - the social impacts of new tech which go way beyond those simple efficiencies.

If you still think traditional mass media has a future...

Google's announcement of plans to be so good at knowing what you like that it'll be able to become your personal advisor should send a shudder down the spine of any media company relying on interruptive ads of any description for its survival.

Google' plans to build the most comprehensive database of personal information ever. And while civil libertarians are jumping up and down, google is insisting it will all be on a strictly volunteered basis. ie share more - get more back - in the language of the commons...

According to the Belfast Telegraph: "The ultimate aim is to make Google so personal that it can target people known to be interested in certain products or services just from their Google activities. It is expected that one day users could ask a computer 'What should I do today?' or 'Which job should I take?' and it will tell them the answer."

To be fair, this is just adsense writ large and rather more cleverly. The concept is the same: Deliver things to people they actually want.

Are google in an arms race with engagement marketeers? More likely, it's part of the engagement solution.

What is certain is that a printed ad in a mass media publication, a banner ad not personally targeted on anything but the most niche websites, a TV ad running amid the 10pm news... none of it can hope to get anything close to the power of this.

Bosses who ban: Out of touch and now out of control

The thought police of the old order are being out-thought by digital natives.

This from T-mobile is a fantastic example. Over a quarter of the UK workforce, banned from using the internet by ludicrous blanket bans, are turning to the mobile internet.

You can't stop an idea.

There are employers who are keen to prevent their staff from connecting out of some extraordinary idea that they'll improve productivity as a result.

I'm guessing they are the ones that are heading out of business?

Restrictions, controls, limitations - they don't exactly inspire a better way of working, a break-through idea...

Cutting people off from tools which will improve their work (wot no google?) blogs about their industry, rss feeds and social networks is not only seriously unproductive - it's also - with the advent of mobile internet - impossible.

A generation brought up in constantly connected communities ain't going to put up with it. Create a social vacuum for Generation C and they WILL fill it.

T-mobile's findings, reported on Online Recruitment revealed 23% of employees were subject to company bans on social networking websites. 11% are banned from using web-based email and
7% from using Google.

Nearly half of the employees surveyed (48%) use their mobile phone to access the Internet at work; from downloading music to buying groceries online. In other words - even when you aren't banned from using fixed line internet - you'll still turn to mobile internet for the personal stuff.

In extreme cases they hide in the loos in order to get their online fix. They'd better watch out for the company webcam!

Journalist2.0

I posted this as a response to Ajit Jaoker's post on his excellent OpenGardens blog. You won't read my response there because it was written as a reply to Ajit posting the same item on Forum Oxford, which we both belong to.
Anyway, since it was so relevant to the content of this blog - I thought I ought to record it here, too.

As a journalist (at least that was how I once described myself) of almost 20 years experience, it's hard for me to admit - but the role of the pro is being marginalised by the wisdom of crowds.
But as an evangelist for the new ecology - it makes me excited about the future.
There are some areas where the pro still has advantages - notably access to exclusives and trust with traditional advertisers - but as I've argued in this post (niche brands need ugc, broad brands need ultra exclusives) - when the whole world is a blogger there's no way you have enough control to claim an exclusive.
And over time advertisers will learn that the trust is vested in the community not the brand itself. Response rates will teach them,
But there's an argument that the relevance of the professional journalist lives on - for 'journalist' read blogger. For 'professional' read reputation systems. For 'Highly resourced' read community-funded.
Simply: The professional journalist of yesteryear is being replaced by a community-validated blogger, who gets paid through models like ohmynews or, less-aggregated, google adsense etc.
If his community grows large enough to support his efforts full time - he can perform this role full time.
Journalist2.0 lives and dies by his relevance to his community and reputation as judged by all (now everyone is his employer).
And there is no professional or technical barrier to entry.
One conclusion to draw is that the arrival of blogging deprofessionalises journalism. It makes it something anyone can do and anyone can contribute to.
That's why the likes of Alan Moore describe the arrival of the blogging platform as being as significant as Gutenburg and his printing press. It's all about the decentralisation, the relaxation of control, on information.
We should all end up with a closer approximation of the truth.