The 10 Commandments of Collaboration for Exceptional Customer Service. Practices that Drive Loyalty and New Business

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1 The 10 Commandments of Collaboration for Exceptional Customer Service Practices that Drive Loyalty and New Business 1

2 The 10 Commandments of Collaboration for Exceptional Customer Service Practices that Drive Brand Affinity and Repeat Business Every organization has different needs and requirements. Because of this, collaboration solutions cannot be one-size-fits-all solutions. When undertaking the project to make a collaboration strategy an integral part of your organization, don t fall in the trap of considering only the benefits to your organization internally. Developing a customer collaboration strategy gives you a better insight into how to improve your product and processes. In addition, it provides a level of customer service that many consumers have come to expect from best-in-class businesses. For organizations where the customer experience is key, customer collaboration is one of the best ways to build trusted relationships. It allows organizations to develop holistic customer service strategies that lead to a continual loop of feedback and improvement to create customer loyalty. A collaboration strategy allows you to leverage the power of technology in order to provide better customer experiences that cultivate positive, long-term relationships. Customer collaboration is one of the best ways to build trusted relationships. 2

3 By following the 10 Commandments of Best-in-Class Collaboration for Customer Service, you will learn how to build a strong community that includes customers as valuable members of your organization, not just as potential sources of revenue. 1. THOU SHALT INCLUDE EVERYONE Collaboration with customers isn t a practice that just a few people should be engaging in. Your customer collaboration efforts must involve every level of your organization, from the humblest mail clerk to the CEO. By engaging your entire organization in the work of customer service-based collaboration, you connect them with the people they are truly working for: the customer. This gives every employee a better perspective on why and how they do their jobs, and gives a personal face to consider while they are completing the day-to-day tasks of the organization. 2. THOU SHALT KNOW THY GOALS It is vital to know what you expect to accomplish through collaboration between you and your customers. Do you expect to see higher sales? Do you want to increase the number of customers you are engaging? Whatever your goals are, you need to ensure that they are both quantifiable and specific. How will you measure whether your customers are truly engaged? Create concrete goals such as gaining a 5% increase in positive customer service surveys or focus specifically on increasing content of users posts, which can improve SEO and lead to better traffic. These kinds of concrete collaboration goals will allow you to know if your efforts are really meeting your organization s unique needs. 3. THOU SHALT FOCUS ON INTERACTION Although there are many elements to creating and sustaining a vibrant community (releasing good content, using the community as a marketing tool, and providing information libraries), do not forget that the main focus of your community must be on interaction. Personal interactions between your employees and your customers humanize your brand. These interactions lower the barriers between service provider and service receiver, making for better long-term relationships that lead to brand evangelism and affinity, as well as generational loyalty. A customer community that has a high level of interaction can also be very beneficial for the brand itself. The more interactive your community is, the more likely that those who are already fans of your product will be to market your brand to those in the evaluation and purchasing stages. This halo effect of interaction is a natural way to increase your engagement and extend your collaboration community beyond its current reach. In a very organic way, your message and branding can be shared and re-shared to provide you with better SEO results and more sales success. 3

4 4. THOU SHALT MAKE IT CUSTOMER-CENTRIC From the interface to the information that you share, your community must be entirely focused on the customer experience. What does that mean for your organization? It must be easy for customers to get what they want, when they want it, from the people who are best equipped to help meet their needs. There are several good ways to make your community more customer-centric. Some of the most effective are: Replacing automated and phone systems with real people. Providing a resource library with how-to videos, help forums, and product manuals. Make certain to keep a steady stream of new and fresh content versus dated and stale content that is no longer accurate. Including a live instant messaging or live video chat function. Assigning a single representative as a reallife guide or social customer care specialist. Providing easy virtual access to high-level team members who quickly respond to questions. In each of these cases, the customer benefits from increased access to information, resources, and individuals who help answer their questions. Organizations who implement these kinds of policies see the true benefits of collaboration: real connections with customers that lead to long-term relationships and unprecedented brand loyalty. 5. THOU SHALT LISTEN TO FEEDBACK AND RESPOND In order to make the most of your community, it is vital to make sure that you re really listening and acting on the information that your customers are sharing. Remember, your community is designed to give them the best experience possible. That means that you need to be flexible and responsive when they give your tips and hints on how to improve your products, processes, or the community itself. Great feedback ideas include: Polls In-app voting buttons that highlight popular ideas and comments Weekly blog post highlighting how customer suggestions have been implemented Customer rewards for participating in live events A virtual suggestion box By creating an atmosphere of honesty and responsiveness, your customers will continually give you suggestions on how to improve your service. This, in turn, leads to better service, and a reputation that your organization cares about customers. Thus, you create a feedback cycle that continually meets customers needs, makes them feel heard, and creates exceptional brand loyalty. 4

5 6. THOU SHALT USE COLLABORATION AS A MARKETING TOOL A community isn t just a way to hear customer concerns, meet their needs and introduce and promote new products and services; it is also a vital tool for market research. In a well-organized customer community, customers are an integral part to the product innovation and creation process, or ideation. Their insights from their feedback and input can be used to create more targeted marketing campaigns and provide the bedrock data for new product designs and services that you know they ll invest in. The ideation process can become even more valuable to customers when you couple it with gamification. By turning customer data-mining and idea-generating into a game, more consumers are likely to engage and have a positive experience with your brand. Allow customers to vote-up new ideas or products that they think are valuable. This creates amazing marketing momentum, even before a product is created. And, since customers are co-creators, there is much more motivation to market the product on their own sites, through social media, and by word-of-mouth. 7. THOU SHALT CONSISTENTLY DELIVER VALUABLE CONTENT AND INTERACTIONS Both within your organization and without, no community can be successful if good content is absent. As a customer-oriented organization, content is vital to the success of your collaboration efforts. If you don t provide customers with real solutions, insights, or relationship-building activities, they will have no reason to keep coming back. In order to keep them engaged, you must release resources for them on a regular basis, and giving them a forum to discuss, analyze, and even improve upon your information. Value also includes rewarding customers for performing valuable behaviors. In addition to content, you need to provide your community with a designated employee who will provide consistent value. A community manager typically fulfills this roll. Community managers must guide and direct your customers to the information and interactions that will benefit them the most. They must be trained to connect people who may help answer their questions, direct them to resources they might not know about, and to provide guidance on navigating the community. 8. THOU SHALT INTEGRATE WITH THY SOCIAL MEDIA CHANNELS Collaboration communities don t do very well when they are designed in a vacuum. Can you imagine what Twitter would be like without the ability to connect it to third-party applications, websites, and s? Your community must be able to be integrated into larger social and technological arenas. By making this option available for your customers, you attract new users and customers. In addition, by connecting your app to products that your customers already use in their daily lives (such as Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn or Pinterest), you ll increase the activity levels in your community. And, of course, an active community is a successful community. 5

6 9. THOU SHALT BE TRANSPARENT 10. THOU SHALT MAKE IT FUN For customers, one of the most attractive elements of a community is that it allows them to see what s really going on behind the corporate veil. They know what your organization is planning, what matters to you, and what role customers play in the development of new ideas. As such, it is imperative that you are as honest with your community as you are in real life. Don t lure users in with the claim of interactive discourse just to hound them with sales pitches. Tell them up front what your community is all about and how they can get the most benefit from it. They will be more likely to engage the way you want them to if they clearly know the rules and goals for their involvement. Creating interaction between a brand and customers can be difficult, especially in an environment that s stilted and unwelcoming. Make your community a fun, safe place for customers to share ideas and air concerns. Tell a joke of the day. Highlight some fun, interesting stories from the break room. Let your customers know that this is the place they can go to really understand what your organization is all about. Having fun not only humanizes your brand, but also allows your employees to let down their guard when communicating with customers. This leads to more authentic relationship building, and a more positive atmosphere, both inside your organization and with the community-at-large. 6

7 Conclusion Even though your organization is unique in its needs and goals, a methodical customer collaboration solution has amazing intrinsic benefits for both you and your customers. By keeping your interactions transparent, authentic, and beneficial, you have the opportunity to gather vital information that can assist you in developing better products and stronger customer relationships. In addition, you establish yourself as an industry leader by your willingness to incorporate customer input into your ideation processes and business practices at every level of your organization, and all the while, staying ahead of your competition Chess Media Group. All rights reserved. About Chess Media Group With offices in San Francisco and Vancouver, Chess Media Group is a leading management consulting and strategic advisory firm on collaboration and "the future of work. Chess helps companies understand how changes in technology and behavior are shaping the future workplace. The strategic approaches that Chess uses were included in The Future of Work: Attract New Talent, Build Better Leaders, and Create a Competitive Organization, a book published by Wylie and endorsed by leaders such as the CEO of SAP, Global Chairman of KPMG, CEO of Zappos, CEO of Whirlpool, CEO of Schneider Electric, Dan Pink, Gary Hamel and others. Chess also founded The FOW Community, a by invitation only membership online community dedicated to the future of work and collaboration. Visit and About Jive Jive Software is the world s leading provider of social business solutions. Our products apply powerful technology that helps people connect, communicate and collaborate to solve their biggest business challenges. Inside companies, Jive-powered enterprise networks dramatically improve employee productivity, alignment and innovation. Externally, Jive supports vibrant customer and partner communities that drive higher sales, better service and greater satisfaction. Millions of users and many of the world s most successful companies rely on Jive day in and day out to get work done, delight their customers and stay ahead of their competitors. 7