The social web has empowered and changed behavior and in general is having a broad impact on the way people find information, share information, make decisions and interact on both an individual level and with organizations. In previous posts I’ve looked at the new generation of hyper-connected or Gen C and looked at how the social web is changing employees. In this post I will dive in a little deeper with the concept of a social customer. In examining social CRM we’ve started to look at how organizations are changing to more effectively engage the social customer, but that has been more from the business perspective. Now let’s look at this transformation from the customer’s perspective. What is a social customer entitled to expect from brands in this new era of social business?
- The social customer has the right to interact with companies “when, where and how” the customer chooses.
- The social customer has the right to expect ethical behavior from brands with which they choose to interact.
- The social customer has the right to transparency in their dealings with your company.
- The social customer has the right to responsibly comment on your performance as a company in the social channel of the customer’s choice and for the company to be open to and take action on this feedback.
- The social customer has the right to seek trusted purchase and operational advice from the customer’s social network not just your company sponsored sources.
- The social customer has the right to expect that companies for which the customer is engaged will provide that customer with what’s important to the individual customer. This presumes that the company provide responses at a personal level to the customer.
- The social customer has the right to expect the company to perform to the companies published or implied service levels and have a repeatable process for interactions that are individualized to the customer’s needs.
- The social customer has the right to choose not to engage with your brand.
- The social customer has the right to choose whether and how to involve themselves with the companies online presence (facebook pages, communities, Twitter, etc.).
- The social customer has the right to choose to join in a conversation with your company and perhaps engage at a higher level required for co-creation of value (or not).
- The social customer has the right to increase or decrease their relationship to and interaction level with your brand based on their perception of your company and brand. That perception can be shaped by your actions, your reported actions or by the recommendations of trusted sources to the customer.
- The social customer has the right to expect your company to respect and abide by the customer’s privacy settings and choices.
- The social customer has the right to experience your brand and choose which brands to experience.
- The social customer has the right to be given enough information to make an informed decision on how they choose to interact with a company.
What do you think of this list? What did I miss?
