As we begin the final day of CRM Evolution 2009 here at the New York Marriott Marquis in Times Square, we’ve heard a lot about the changing customer. Namely, how businesses will have to start playing on the consumers’ terms rather than the other way around. A large part of that, according to virtually any keynote or session here, will have to do with embracing Web 2.0 tools and social media.

This also means the government — at all levels. In my March feature on government and CRM, one source explained that we could expect to see great movement in Web 2.0 due to — at that time — newly elected President Barack Obama’s call for transparency.

While some time has passed since I wrote that piece, it seems that government agencies are getting the message loud and clear. On the first day, Brian Komar, director of strategic outreach for the Center for American Progress (CAP), talked about his work with Salesforce.com and Eloqua to bring structure, analytics, and a clear view into his business in order to further its mission of striving to improve the lives of Americans. He explained that as CRM continues to evolve, we will begin to see the line blur between non-profit and for-profit organizations.

He had three key takeaways:

1. We may be a non-profit but we are not that different from you, as both public and private sector organizations are generally concerned with products and customers.
2. We are a non profit, and we are a little different from you with regard to what success looks like. He noted the business community is usually about maximizing profits, but for CAP, it can be about exerting influence, and metrics aren’t quite as clear.
3. As CRM becomes more social in nature, non-profits and businesses have more to learn from one another. Komar said the business community is good at maximizing return on investment, while non-profits are good at building communities and soliciting volunteers.

Building upon the work non-profits are doing, yesterday’s session, “Web 2.0 Tools in Federal and State Governments Drive Participation, Transparency, and Citizen Empowerment,” looked even further at just how far government entities have come — and will go.

Casey Coleman, chief information officer of the General Services Administration (GSA) talked about the revolution, not evolution, of how government is interacting with citizens. “This isn’t your father’s federal government … it’s changing,” she said. “The bottom line is government serves the public better when it makes decisions based on citizen input. Everything we do must enable citizens to be part of the process, and Web 2.0 helps us to make that happen.”

She noted the GSA’s use of Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, Flickr, YouTube, and other burgeoning social media sites as evidence that the government is continuing to go to where the people are increasingly flocking in order to provide them the information they need in the form in which they prefer. “Government has a lot to offer,” she said. “The public is hungry for information, and they want to participate and be involved in the dialogue.”

Robert Greenberg, chief executive officer of G&H International Services, gave attendees a sneak peek into what social CRM can — and is starting to –  deliver for the public sector, namely in homeland security. “There’s a significant challenge in homeland security because of who the stakeholders are and how they’re organized,” he said. “The first thing to understand is that everything starts on the local level before moving to state and federal. It’s also an incredibly fragmented community, as there are approximately 55,000 different agencies in terms of police, fire, and emergency medical.”

Combine all of these different audiences with billions of dollars spent in local infrastructure that cannot be ripped and replaced as well as incredibly difficult to get to connect and integrate with one another — and there is a real problem. No one wants another Hurricane Katrina. “The lack of seamless information sharing is what made Katrina that much worse,” he recalled. “In reality, all states that wanted to help out had no easy way of doing so.”

There is hope though, as Greenberg pointed to two projects of government being used as a platform: Virtual Alabama and VIPER.

“At the end of the day, homeland security is about having a capability so when you are under stress from a political, social, or economic standpoint, you can bounce back as rapidly as possible,” Greenberg said. “The key is making information actionable. Without that, what are you going to do?”

It can be argued that is the same problem facing private sector businesses today. Connecting with customers (or citizens) and being able to take the information culled from them and make it actionable, both for the business and for consumers themselves. Are you finding a change in how you can access information from government, regardless of municipality? Do you think that federal government can even be overhauled in these terms, or is it too big to change?

By Mike Fauscette, Software Business Solutions Group, IDC

CRM magazine, June 2009, cover

[EDITORS' NOTE: This is part of a series of posts that began here, dissecting a two-page chart that appeared in CRM magazine's June 2009 issue on social media. The digital edition of that issue can be found here, and a standalone image of the chart itself can be seen here. (Click on the “View Full Size” button at the top right of that page.) To view all posts in the series, please add this RSS feed to your RSS reader.]

JUNE 2, 2009 — First I’d like to thank Josh, the editors of CRM magazine and the destinationCRMblog readers for facilitating this “experiment.” In the spirit shared yesterday by Josh in the introductory post on the Social Media Maturity Model: 30 Posts, 30 People, 30 Days, I’ve agreed to kick this “conversation” off. I’ve had the benefit of chatting about the Model quite a bit and living with it in some form for a few weeks. From that experience I have several observations that I’ll share in no particular order.

Sales: I agree in principal with the Model but there’s something nagging me in the five-year view. Maybe it’s the word “buyer” — I guess I think the end state is more trusted partner, which in fact changes the dynamic into a conversation and a real interactive relationship. The salesperson reaches the level of trusted advisor through the trust relationship created by the shift to social media.

I also think social analytics plays a part here (see my comments on social analytics below). Why doesn’t selling turn into predictive selling at a new level? Because there is a trust relationship between customer and salesperson, and because new tools evolve to help the sales team predict what would be of value and interest to the customer, the conversation changes to one of “I see you have this issue, here’s a solution that fits what you’ve said you like and need.”

[More after the jump...]

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If you haven’t met me before, you know I believe companies live or die by their customer service.

I attended the Web 2.0 Expo in San Francisco earlier this month, and it was great. I’ll write more about that soon, but what I wanted to focus on here was how surprised I was by my hotel accommodations. I was also surprised that I was surprised.

Let me start at the beginning: As I was getting ready to go to the conference, I realized a lot of the hotels were already booked. Since I wasn’t sure where to stay, a friend suggested I call the Pickwick Hotel.

[More after the jump...]

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Let’s face it — the financial services industry is taking a beating right now. The hope is that it will continue to move forward, despite the Rocky Balboa-esque multiple blows to the head it has taken lately.

That’s why it’s no surprise that this vertical, arguably as much — if not more — than any other is furiously trying to find ways to hold onto existing customers.

Customers are scared out of their minds — and justifiably so — about what they can expect moving forward. They also want to know the relationship they have with an existing financial institution is personal, one that can offer numerous benefits. Deluxe mattresses for plummeting Roth IRAs are not included.

During a time in which customers are likely extremely hesitant to bank-hop, the onus is still on the institutions themselves to continue to innovate and offer packages that will keep their respective consumers coming back. Looking to help banks in this aim, Norcross, Ga.–based S1 Enterprise, a global provider of flexible, bank-centric solutions and payment services, unveiled what it hopes to be a Balboa-esque knockout blow to the recession: S1 Online Banking 3.7.

According to Mark Moore, S1 Enterprise’s vice president of marketing, customer intimacy is its key differentiation in the market. “This is definitely resonating with our customer base,” he insists.

At its core, this latest solution combines an enhanced, flexible user interface (UI) with a single platform for personal banking and business banking, along with an entitlements engine. This way, financial institutions can have the wherewithal to tailor services — and enhance the user experience — to individual customer segments without having to deal with silos.

What’s important here is that the tailoring can be in the hands of the line of business users, and not professional services. “From a technical perspective, in the past, to have tailored service capabilities it took a very large professional services engagement,” recalls Jennie Palocsik, senior product marketing manager, retail online, at S1 Enterprise.

Other new features and functionality include:

• cascading style sheets, giving financial institutions the opportunity to add its branding to the Web site to enhance the look-and-feel;
• “My Bank” landing page, displaying most commonly accessed information immediately after logging in, beyond simply account balances;
• class of service entitlements, allowing banks to tailor the accounts viewed by each user in real-time as well as the ability to mix and match business and consumer banking, payments services, reporting capabilities, authority levels, and limits;
• electronic vault, allowing end-users to store critical documents online that can be accessed at any time, not just when the brick-and-mortar institution is open for business; and
• S1 Mobile, an integrated solution allowing end-users to access their banking on their phone.

“The real opportunity here is that the entitlement engine we’re bringing to market … its literally checking a box to turn on different packages for customers,” Moore says. “We’re focused on customer intimacy, and so are our customers.”

For financial institutions out there, is this a la carte approach to banking something you are interested in utilizing for your own customer base? What are your most pressing worries right now — is it keeping customers loyal to your bank? Or, are more macro-level worries about the economy taking precedence right now?

In the April 6th issue of The New Yorker, Mike Peed wrote a piece about the Economic and Social Chamber of the United Nations’s recent “creative community outreach” program. It was a panel discussion to address today’s global problems–”terrorism, torture, religious conflict”–based on lessons learned from the 1978-revived-in-2004-science-fiction TV show, Battlestar Galactica.

The panel consisted of actors from the new Battlestar Galactica (”B.S.G.”)  Edward James Olmos and Mary McDonnell, along with two producers from B.S.G., in addition to U.N. officials including Radhika Coomaraswamy and Craig Mokhiber, a U.N. deputy director.

The purpose?

Dave Howe, the Sci Fi president, declared that, like the U.N., “great science fiction forces us to look at who we are and ask the tough questions: Where are we going? . . . And what can we expect to find when we get there?”

OK, not that this article was so outlandish or anything but I had to take a doubletake (anything too close to April 1st leaves me a little skeptical of anything I read…even if it’s 5 days later). It’s amazing to me that political organizations are making moves, trying new things, being innovative about solving their problems, when it’s still so difficult for businesses to do the same. Granted the results (ah, results) of this meeting aren’t  exactly explained but the point is that at least there’s initiative! Moreover, it’s about life-changing issues and not just “the sale.”

The government has typically been regarded as the industry laggards when it comes to engaging with its citizens. CRM magazine has written extensively about how government is faring in the world of CRM, that is, how it’s using technology like CRM and connecting with the people through social media (President Obama helped with this one). They’ve improved, no doubt, but customer-facing verticals like retail are still leading in customer satisfaction. .

Not to ruin the surprise, but in a to-be-published issue of CRM magazine, I interviewed marketing strategist David Meerman Scott (author of World Wide Rave). In it, he brings up how he recently visited the United States Air Force and spoke with their head of public affairs.

Get this: Everyone in the Air Force is allowed to use social networking. Sure, they’ve got a published set of guidelines around how to behave on these networks, but it’s nothing debilitating. (Scott also brought up examples of large corporations like IBM that permit social networking, but provide clear guidelines.)

Meanwhile, I have a friend who worked at a consulting firm where his only access to the Internet is through the company Webmail. They have a single “Internet kiosk” on which employees take turns using during their free time. It’s for security measures because clients send highly sensitive information to his former company. Whether or not it’s as  security concern (employees are allowed to use their smartphones to access the Internet at their desk) or just a precautionary measure, he’s not sure. Another friend works at a large bank where, he says, “It is mostly blogs, Facebook, all email services they can detect, porn. I think that’s about it.” He also adds that even the cameras on his corporate-issued BlackBerry has been disabled. Some of it has to do with perception. An employee was fired a few years back for watching porn on his work laptop. “The bank doesn’t want that publicity,” my friend says. Not because porn might be laced with viruses? “That could be part of it.”

Maybe I’m underestimating the severity of what damage access to the Internet can do (phishing scams, for instance, can occur through email alone so only allowing Webmail isn’t bulletproof), but even though I understand the rationale behind the security measures, it all just seems so…haphazard.

To quote Scott (again, sorry for the spoiler), “If the US Air Force [and the U.N. --jt] can do it, anyone can do it.”

Q: What do Turkey & Gravy, “I Can Has Cheezburger,”  the Seattle Seahawks, and Ron Paul have in common?

A: Jones Soda + a brilliant social media marketing strategy

This year’s Web 2.0 Expo is, as I expected, chuck full of interesting sessions, keynotes, and well, people. This morning I sat in on a session that left me in awe and a little bit thirsty.

Angel Djambazov, an online performance marketer for quirky beverage company Jones Soda led a case-study session entitled, “Translating Online Success into Offline Retail Sales.” One thing was apparent from the start of the presentation. Jones is no ordinary soda company. “We’ve always positioned Jones as more than a soda – more of a lifestyle opportunity,” Djambazov said. Jones is perhaps best known for its creatively bottled labels. In fact, the company is so meta that it allows users to design their own labels on the Web site. Personalized labels — MyJones account for 80 percent of online sales. Customers can upload photos and add text “to make the soda they drink truly part of their personality and memories,” Djambazov said.

However, Djambazov said that with the company’s successes came a few glitches. Indicating the powerful branding created by the glass bottles and edgy labels, Jones Soda sales took a dip when they introduced cans to cater to the likes of large retailers. In 2007, Jones became the sole soda provider for the Seattle Seahawks stadium. However, as much as people like drinking their soda at football games, Jones found out after releasing a football-themed specialty pack, that fans don’t so much enjoy soda flavors such as “Dirt” and “Perspiration.” Djambazov did say, though that the Turkey & Gravy-flavored soda is a favorite among consumers.

Jones looked to social media for another campaign in the fall of 2008. They decided to spin off of the popularity of lolcats and “I Can Has Cheezburger” and open up a competition for people to submit lolcats for Jones Soda bottle labels.

The winning shot:

Djambazov said that selling lolcats special-edition bottles to retailers wasn’t the easiest thing in the world. Due to these factors…

-expense inherent with retail distribution,
-lead time for specialty packaging could take months to coordinate,
-each chain or store has varying packing and quantity requirements,
-each chain or store caters to a slightly different audience, and
-retailers tend to stick with proven merchandise rather than unproven, specialty products that take up valuable shelf space.

The lolcats made their way to retail spots in Targets and Paneras in the fall to rave consumer reviews. The campaign has gone through several reprints.

Another successful campaign? Limited edition “Campaign Colas” during the presidential election. What’s most surprising? Ron Paul outsold both Clinton and McCain in what Djambazov called “The Ron Paul” Revolution.”

Jones Soda takes a creative spin on all of its endeavors. It’s a company that owns up to its mistakes, but because of its truth to its brand, breeds loyal customers. The key to this? Sticking to your guns. “Building loyalty is about staying true to the brand,” Djambazov said. “You can’t be edgy one day and politically correct the next without losing brand integrity. Your audience will know.”

Wendy Lea

Meet Wendy Lea, the new CEO of Web 2.0 customer service site, Get Satisfaction. Lea brings a breadth of knowledge to Get Satisfaction — a former VP of marketing for Siebel and then an angel investor, Lea seems to understand what makes enterprises tick. She will be taking over the chief operating role for Thor Muller, one of the founders of the company. Muller will continue on as chief technology officer for Get Sat.

I had the opportunity to pick Lea’s brain a bit this week. She was a great sport considering she is only two weeks into the new gig. Here’s a snippet of our conversation:

CRM: What’s the transition been like so far?

Lea: Fun. It’s all good. You know the success we have had on the consumer side. Mid-last year, company sign-ups have really punched there. We’ve got an average of 75 [companies] coming in a day. We have a total of 12,000 in the system. Some are long tail. Some are big, big brands. It’s a fun time for us even with all the craziness around the company. The value proposition is strong because it is about reducing costs and getting closer to the customer.

CRM: So what’s on tap next for Get Satisfaction?

Lea: The trick is finding the right feature set and price points so we can maintain a good set of self-service customers and address what I would call the high-end professional customers, which, for them, is more about integration with their own sites and with CRM systems and with the community systems that they have already purchased. They want us on the front end to create communities and push feedback through and push through their customer service solution sets.

We aren’t a whole product. There is no one whole product. Because of the economic aspect and the consumer sensitivity that we create for companies, it seems — keep in mind, I’m only on week two — that the bigger brands, in particular, that allow themselves to take part are keen to re-engage. They are not just saying “come to our site” but are listening. And for some, we are their sole customer service solution. Read the rest of this entry »

Jessica Tsai spent the early part of the week live-twittering for us from the in San Jose at the first User-Generated Content Conference and Expo . Click to view the agenda. (Not following her on Twitter? She’s @jesstsai there.)

Here are some edited highlights from her tweetstream are below. (Timestamps are GMT, alas.)  If you were there, feel free to share your take in the comments.

We’ll have her two dispatches up shortly over in the news section. I’ll add the links here when they’re live. Here’s the first story, on “The 6 Principles of User-Generated Content.” And here’s the second, entitled “No Money in UGC Video…Yet.”

If you want to see what other twitterers were saying about the show, you can see the hashtag results here (#ugc/#ugcx).

-    Mon Feb 09 17:32    At UGC Conference in San Jose #UGC #ugcx

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It’s evident that Web 2.0 is one of the next waves of technology your business will have to incorporate in some form or fashion in order to keep up with your increasingly Internet-savvy consumer base. We’ve already had countless news stories on our Web site as well as several features on the topic, including one in December 2007 proclaiming that “It’s All Coming 2.0gether.”

Another analyst, Cutter Consortium Senior Consultant San Murugesan, explains that now is not the time for enterprises to wait and see if Web 2.0 is for them, simply because there is not one single definition to define it.

His report, “Business Uses of Web 2.0: Potential and Prospects,” spells out seven steps enterprises must take in order to successfully incorporate Web 2.0:

1. assess the current state of your business;
2. make an informed technological decision, which he says means enterprises must determine exactly how they want to utilize particular tools like blogs, wikis, or forums;
3. evaluate the Web 2.0 application in question for pros, cons, and potential security issues;
4. prepare a plan for the implementation;
5. go through a trial phase;
6. do a hard launch out the new application; and
7. monitor the usage and outcomes of the new technology used.

In Murugesan’s eyes, of the seven steps, the first two are necessary for laying a foundation. With that said, the last step – monitoring the usage and outcomes – is extremely important. “Actually use the content and feedback you gain from the use of Web 2.0,” he says, giving the example of a blog. “If you don’t gain insights from the comments left, it’s not going to benefit the business.”

He admits that this can be a challenge, but that there are tools available to help try and cull all the customer feedback you receive, not the least of which being enterprise feedback management solutions. I dove into this topic with my January 2009 feature, “The Feedback Funnel.”

Essentially, it is one thing to collect data. It’s another to actually use it to better your business. The sentiment from my sources from the January feature in addition to my conversation with Murugesan is unanimous: Customers will know if their insights aren’t being used — and will leave to find another company that does, and can prove it.

Just a brief note today, a discussion of social CRM from an anti-social person.

It isn’t that I’m not incredibly jazzed about the possibilities and potential of CRM 2.0 — far from it. The idea of a custom-crafted and individualized relationship between a business and its customers is exciting to me, and I love reading about it, writing about it, seeing demonstrations, and knowing the people who make it a reality. But there’s a cynical, dour, pessimistic side of me that wonders if it isn’t all too much.

Here’s why: There’s a lot of emphasis on customer-driven dialogue, where motivated individuals converse about their experiences and share them with businesses as well as each other. There are usually two times that I’m motivated to do this — when the experience is really bad, or when it’s really good. That leads to a very skewed view of a company, though on the plus side it exposes the very best and the very worst. Any dialogue I have with a business is still going to be fairly transactional — I’ll be talking about what I want, or giving feedback on what has happened recently, but after that I’m done. Leave the ongoing conversation for people who want it.

Also, I sometimes think I prefer the veneer of a relationship to the real thing. Some of it is probably a distasteful brand of snobbery on my part — when the guy who delivers my dinner starts acting like an old friend, I get the willies, and start thinking about changing restaurants because “the help” is getting too familiar. (Never mind that he probably sees me more often than my own family.) Mostly, though, I think it’s because I start to feel like a business expects something of me beyond my payment for good and services received. I guess I just don’t want the responsibility.

Social CRM 2.0 Web enterprise digital client blah blah isn’t going to go away, and it shouldn’t. There will always be people who are motivated to engage with businesses, whether tactically like me or more long-term. As long as there’s a setting in my user profile that lets me dial back the level of pressure in the relationship, I’m cool. And really, isn’t that what personalization is all about?