Social media usher in the ‘new normal’ for business

Adrian Pok, general manager for business application services at NCS Group, a Singapore-based company offering social media consulting services. (InterAksyon.com photo)

The days when big businesses think they have all the control on how their brand is perceived by customers are over, thanks to the democratizing power of new technologies such as social media, where consumers are now given the ability to influence how brands are seen by the public.
This is according to Adrian Pok, general manager for business application services at NCS Group, a Singapore-based company offering social media consulting services, during the recent Enterprise Innovation forum organized by local telecommunications firm Globe Telecom.
With the advent of social media, Pok said companies are no longer operating in the era of “business as usual” and is actually in the “new normal” phase of how they deal with their products and consumers.
“This new normal is actually faced when, as you carefully curate your brand, it goes to market and then the voice of your brand starts to speak to your customers when they have ‘moments of truth’,” Pok said.
These moments could include the direct experience of the brand in the store, an encounter with a sales clerk, or a support call to the company’s hotline. Pok said these moments could be either positive or negative, but what has changed recently is the power of consumers to actually voice out their opinion of the brand and influence other potential customers.
“Lo and behold, after a whole bunch of stuff later, your brand isn’t what you really think it is. It’s not what you originally thought it could be,” Pok stressed. “The brand of the organization today is not determined by you, it’s determined by your customers. Your buyers now have a voice, a really powerful voice.”
Non-traditional customer service
With the popularity of the Internet, mobile phones and social media, Pok pointed out that customers no longer view the traditional e-mail and call center as a relevant point of customer service.
In a study recently carried out by NCS, it was discovered that less than 1 percent view these channels as customer service. “Their first preference in dealing with organizations is to search for it, and then after that, go to Facebook and ask their friends about it,” Pok said.
The NCS executive said this phenomenon occurred due to the advent of the always-on and always connected customer, who has easy access to information at the palm of his hand anytime, anywhere.
In this new normal, Pok stressed the importance of having a single view of the customer in all possible channels and delivering consistent customer service throughout all of them, whether they receive good comments or bad.
“Whether you like it or not, those negative sentiments are there. If you choose to stick your head in the sand and not respond to it, you’re really missing out on an opportunity to engage your customers in the correct way,” he added.
This becomes especially critical, Pok said, in the wake of the fact that as much as 70 percent of customers will keep coming back once they have found the product or company that they like.
“It’s actually interesting that we are not facing a bunch of customers that are very fickle-minded and that move from brand to brand. What they’re actually looking for is their needs to be validated. And once they find it, they keep on coming back,” Pok explained.
“Businesses are no longer the sole creator of brands, it is actually co-created by consumers through shared experiences and defined by the results of online searches and conversations that they have,” he added.

---credits by InterAksyon.com

Posted in: Tech News