Hey all, its time for the "what do you think of the moves that DirecTV is making at this point?" every other month entry by their SVP of Customer Care, Ellen Filipiak.
What I'd like you to do this time is to judge on the merits of the actions, rather than the authenticity of the entry. What do you think of their actions. Enough? A start? Bogus? Good to go? Let me (and actually Ellen. Her email is below), know what you think and I'll make sure that we move ahead. I'm not commenting because I'm curious as to what you think. I have an opinion and will voice it sometime soon. But first, you guys.
"Hello!
While many of my previous posts have focused on changes we have been making in our in-bound call centers, I would like to share a successful collaboration where listening, responding and working with some of our most enthusiastic and toughest customers not only has helped turn our HD DVR into a much better product, but has opened the door to many other conversations about our business.
While this dialog initially focused on improving our HD DVR, it has led to more constructive conversations about our service.
Thousands of customers now volunteer in a Cutting Edge forum run by our customers (seehttp://www.dbstalk.com/forumdisplay.php?s=&daysprune=-1&f=82), to try out our new software before it is launched. They tell us what works and what doesn't, and allow us to learn what features are most important to fix with the documented detail our Engineers need to isolate problems faster.
The successful collaboration with our customers continues today with our recent HD channel expansion and refining our national DIRECTV on Demand rollout.
Building on this success, we sought out the strongest customer voices online talking about DIRECTV to hear their criticism and provided a platform to ask questions, get clarification and connect with top experts internally to share what they have learned with the thousands participating in their communities. In turn they have provided us threads to affected customers, set up forums to track specific issues, and created polls in their communities to highlight features that they enjoy, need improvement or provide us a pulse on issues our customers care about. Many knowledgeable customers from these communities also participate in our Technical Help Forums (http://forums.directv.com) to assist customers just joining or learning more about DIRECTV to find quick solutions. Some of these customers are unaware of their enthusiastic discussion forums, so our forum provides a strong bridge to their various customer generated communities.
We are now reaching out to our installation techs by providing them a venue to share ideas to improve installations and interact with our field management so they can see "warts and all" the issues impacting customers most.
As you know, it can be tough to embrace criticism and cut our teeth on Web 2.0 each day, but it's the right thing to do. And as I've said in previous posts, we recognize that we still have room for improvement and we are confident that the relationships above are helping DIRECTV close those gaps.
The "it" is Vendor Relationship Management and It's time for a bandwagon amongst CRM practitioners, consumers in general and, yes even vendors. Screw the name for the moment, since its pretty lame and not reflective of that much, though there isn't anything better than VRM, I guess. We've been doing the bridging between CRM and VRM - between the businesses and the customers - with CRM 2.0 as the term - but that's not a whole lot better as a name. But naming convention aside, collaboration and engagement between the business and the customer creates a lot more value than "taking a side" though, admittedly, I'm a customer evangelist first and foremost. I just don't hate businesses for being stupid and think there is a lot to gain if they do things right.
The Definition of VRM/Social CRM/CRM 2.0
As I'm writing, I kind of like the name Social CRM rather than VRM (and also as the one to replace CRM 2.0) I think, but rather than debate it, let's not worry about it, and instead dive into what VRM/social CRM is.
Here's the "official" definition of VRM/Social CRM put rather bluntly in the About section of Project VRM:
"VRM, or Vendor Relationship Management, is the reciprocal of CRM or Customer Relationship Management. It provides customers with tools for engaging with vendors in ways that work for both parties.
CRM systems until now have borne the full burden of relating with customers. VRM will provide customers with the means to bear some of that weight, and to help make markets work for both vendors and customers - in ways that don't require the former to "lock in" the latter.
The goal of VRM is to improve the relationship between Demand and Supply by providing new and better ways for the former to relate to the latter. In a larger sense, VRM immodestly intends to improve markets and their mechanisms by equipping customers to be independent leaders and not just captive followers in their relationships with vendors and other parties on the supply side of the marketplace.
For VRM to work, vendors must have reason to value it, and customers must have reasons to invest the necessary time, effort and attention to making it work. Providing those reasons to both sides is the primary challenge for VRM."
Some Observations
What makes sense to me is that for the longest time (first in 2003, I think), I've been preaching that the business ecosystem has been seized by the customer. I've seen quotes like these emanating from the more foresighted businesses (at least, those that have a theoretician at the helm or in power somewhere) and publications, that certainly should resonate with all you right-brainers out there:
"Today buyers and sellers, friends, fans and flamers are using cheap, ubiquitous technology such as blogs and social networking tools to connect, create, share and communicate with each other-regardless of the time and place. Messages, positioning and brands are suddenly in the hands of millions of people and largely beyond the marketer's control." (Source: "When Customer Take Control", Web Trends, 2007)
"Today's banking customers have a new set of technology tools to use in interacting with their banks, truly putting them in the driver's seat..." (Source: Community Banker, October 2007)
"No longer is the corporation the fulcrum around which customer groups and suppliers revolve. In 2004, the customer is now the pivot point....There are signs that the change from a customer-focused corporate ecosystem to a real-time customer ecosystem is not only well underway but already here." (Source: CRM at the Speed of Light: :Essential Customer Strategies for the 21st Century by Paul Greenberg, 2004)
What makes this movement (of sorts) so compelling is what it calls upon business to do. The truth is that the customer control of the business ecosystem is just part of what actually has gone on with consumers in the past three years or so. What may or may not have occurred to you is that the change has been social, not commercial. Customers also known as human beings have been figuring out that they can communicate in real time or nearly so at low cost and with no real barriers to entry via the Internet or via web-related technologies and forms of community regardless of whether or not anyone but others like them were involved. So it's a peer to peer social transformation going on. The Cluetrain Manifesto in 2001 got it right from the customer side, but even that was merely the tip of this. It is human beings beginning to change the way they communicate and how they personalize that communication. So if they want to send text messages, they do it with their now famous economy of language like OMG, and BFF, etc which is understood by others communicating in the same way. They don't give a rat's you know what if business people think its immature or not professional. Its the way that they communicate. Others like to complain in the fashion of drama queens and kings on Yelp or Yahoo's local communities or via blogs. Others like to comment positively or negatively about content put up in cyberspace for all to view. They don't care whether or not business gets driven by their comments. Its simply the way they've chosen to communicate with their peers.
That said, business is scrambling to figure out how to intersect these peer to peer relationships when the basis for the relationships is so different than the basis for a business relationship between customer and company - apparently (though not really). For example, the foundation of the peer to peer social communications is the equivalent of four friends wearing jeans and sweats getting together at a coffee shop and shooting the breeze. Would you want a company (or corporate flack/hack) in a suit and tie pulling up a chair and saying "hey, let me join in - though I barely know you?" Of course not.
Yet business has to figure out how to change its rules now since the customers can be as indifferent as they care to or as engaged as they care to - if they feel that there is a reason compelling enough to be engaged with a business. That means that say it loud now, compadres, CUSTOMERS ARE IN COMMAND OF THEIR OWN DESTINY BECAUSE THEY ARE HUMANS WITH NEW WAYS TO COMMUNICATE WITH THOSE OF THEIR OWN KIND - HUMANS!
Which makes VRM or Social CRM very compelling as long as it isn't simply an excoriation of business but a legitimate approach in finding ways to get business and customers to collaborate in a customer controlled business environment. That's what it says it does, and, I gotta, say it sounds good to me.
The one thing I don't agree with is a noticeable tendency to dump on CRM by some of the VRM evangelicals. That's a useless exercise and I don't say that because I make a living at CRM. I'm not wedded to anything. In fact, the only living I'd ever be worried about losing is if I played for the Yankees or sat in their front office. Beyond that...nah. I DO say that because CRM has actually been valuable when done right for at least the operational side of a company's relationships with customers. Obviously it has its holes and weaknesses and I'm sure VRM, if and when it gains the traction I hope it does, will too. There is room for refinement in everything. VRM is what I and others have been saying is the model for CRM 2.0 - the move from managing customer relationships to figuring out how to engage and collaborate with customers - and how to build a culture that accepts that control has been ceded to the customer. So, different color outfit, same kind of clothes. That's good too, because the baby can stay, while the bathwater goes.
A Not-So-Modest-Proposal
Okay, so briefly, here is what I'm going to do. I'm going to be writing about this more frequently and inviting more onto the platform to take the dive with me and I'm going to continue to evangelize for the voice of the customer as VRM though I may take the liberty (if its okay with you, Doc Searls) of calling it Social CRM so it isn't too much of a leap for those in the CRM community to make. This will be added somewhere on the CRM 2.0 wiki as a topic that we can delve into and also on the MyCRMCareer website and I'll incorporate some discussion into the fourth edition of CRM at the Speed of Light. I'm also going to begin to participate in the Project VRM wiki a bit (though not 'til early next year) and would encourage you to do the same. I'm also going to write an article or two on it.
That's at least a start for something that I think has strong impact within the CRM community.
I've got some preliminaries on the CRM iPhone bakeoff. For those of you with ADD or who really haven't paid that much attention for many a good reason I can even think of, a few weeks ago, I announced a "bakeoff" for iPhone CRM apps which for some reason proliferated quickly. At the time, I said I would review NetSuite, saleforce.com, Etelos, HEAP, and EBSuite. I decided in the course of it to not review salesforce.com because, to be fair, while they told me (and I believe them), that salesforce works on the iPhone, they, unlike the other four, didn't have version they specifically developed for the iPhone, so to review it in this bakeoff wouldn't be fair to the other entries. So I didn't.
That said, I will take a look at it but not in the context of the bakeoff.
Okay, here's the preliminary findings which I presume are no particular surprise. I've looked at NetSuite and Etelos so far so I'm going to give you the findings for them. Keep in mind, I'm not commenting on their general functionality here. I'm commenting on how well their iPhone specific versions worked - with the iPhone.
I have first tell you, both of them, and I suspect this will carry over with HEAP and EBSuite, are BEARS when EDGE is in play. Ain't their fault, its Apples and AT&T for hooking up with EDGE compatibility. It is PAINFULLY slow to use, even with the small amount of disturbingly limited functionality that Etelos has. With Wi-Fi working, though, its another ballgame. I wouldn't say its lightning fast but it works effectively and, most important, you aren't grinding your teeth or brushing them thoroughly while waiting for a screen to either refresh or come up. So, with the assumption that these things just ain't worth the agony with EDGE, but Wi-Fi advils away the pain, the bakeoff goes on.
I guess not surprisingly (though why I expected something different, I don't know) the functionality in both NetSuite and Etelos carries into their iPhone versions. Etelos functionality is as bad with the iPhone as it is with their CRM for Google app, and makes some strange choices for a CRM application (for Google - or anyone for that matter) like setting up roles for project manager and developer for a CRM (not a PLM) application. On the other hand, NetSuite is an end to end enterprise application that can compete with the on-premise giants for the completeness of its functionality for CRM and ERP and order management and....you get the picture.
So I was pleasantly surprised in the not-particularly-planned head to head that NetSuite was far less buggy than Etelos. Etelos crashed on me several times - just threw me out of Safari and I had to reload. NetSuite somehow got around this was was stable
For example, with Etelos, I got a message four separate times that I had too many screens open when I had one open beyond the one I was trying to open. This seemed somewhat random because I didn't get it other times in the exact same circumstance.
Never had that problem with NetSuite.
Aside from the EDGE problem which made NetSuite unusable with the iPhone, NetSuite's only problem is that its screens are so functionally rich that limiting the view to a 3.5" screen creates some navigation issues that are uncomfortable, if not insoluble. I used the iPhone "pinch" to expand screens far more frequently than I would have liked.
Both apps of course suffered from that other iPhone limitation, lack of security. Not much you can do when you can't guarantee the security of the data you are staring at when the phone itself is the limitation.
Frankly, using the iPhone for CRM on EDGE is probably not worth it unless the circumstances are dire - or soemthing akin to disastrous. Much as I love my iPhone and think its the coolest gadget I've ever owned and can actually use it for my mini-me business empire, you're far better off using the Blackberry CRM applications that are coded for the Blackberry itself. They are fast even on EDGE and even do the same things that - meaning that they are supposed to.
If you have LOTS of WiFi access, then NetSuite on the iPhone is clearly the way to go because its...well...NetSuite and its one of the best on demand applications on the market. Etelos just sucks whether its web-based or iPhone based. The child doesn't get too far from the mother here. They have a long way to go to prove that they should even be calling what they provide CRM - though, of course, they can if they want. But its up to you, whether you believe them or not.
Next up: EBSuite and HEAP for the iPhone. Will they transcend EDGE or fall off it?
Got something to tell you about this afternoon. Something I think is very exciting and well, its really, really, really exciting and its something that I played a bit role in but good enough and something I had to keep my trap shut about until today.
Microsoft Surface formerly known as Milan is hardware - a computer, customer DLP cameras, and software including Vista plus special apps and special layers built on top of Vista that combined (not shaken or stirred) will give you something that provides an immersive experience for customers and a paradigm for the melding of the physical and virtual worlds in a very tactile way. - a new kind of environment for the prosumers amongst you.
What? is probably all you can say at this point, so lets imagine a bit of a scenario:
You have your digital camera with a 4GB SD card loaded with photos. Some are really awesome. Some suck royally. Some are on the cusp of whatever standards you set for "okay." You need to check them out and print the awesome ones, delete the bad ones and decide what to do about the cuspy ones. So you take your digital camera and drop it on this surface - well, place it on the surface. You take your forefinger and press it lightly to the surface right by your actual camera and sorta pull at the camera with your finger moving across the surface. Out comes ALL your photos.
And yes, I've seen that in action (you'll know why in a bit) and it looks magical when it comes out of the camera onto the surface with all the photos that were residing on your SD card. Once the photos are sitting on the Surface surface, you can manipulate them to your hearts content. Put them in any order you want. Expand or contract their size by using the "pinch" technique that Steve Jobs claims that Apple invented for the iPhone. (BTW, its no coincidence that Microsoft released the Surface today, about three weeks before the iPhone. Take that Apple!) Once you decide how you want to handle the photos you can group them in a group or individually lay them out and push them with that forefinger and up pops a customized menu that says maybe "print" or "delete" or, if its a commercial app - "purchase." You can move them to a shopping basket in the commercial version by dragging them over with your finger and they automatically will carry out any action that the shopping cart needs to do like total up a price with tax for each copy of the photo, etc. When you're done, you simply gather 'em all up and whoosh, use that forefinger to slide them back into the camera.
I can't do this the justice it deserves so here's a video I on YouTube that Microsoft is using to show what this does. Watch the whole thing. I can attest to the fact that it really does this. This isn't hoked up special effects.
How It Works
In a nutshell, the customer DLP cameras sense objects, hand gestures and touch. This becomes the "user input" that is processed by the computer and software that sits under the table and on top of a Vista operating system. The results of the processing are displayed on the 30" screen that you see in the above video using rear projection (no, not like parking your butt on a copier).
The system can also recognize tagged objects so that if you have a tagged wine bottle for example, you can place the wine on the surface and up will pop all the info on the wine, the vineyard, the drinkability of the wine, suggested food pairings and you can even order the foods right from the suggested pairings by dragging the food name to a order area on the surface.
I saw ALL of this.
Why Do I Give A Damn?
Actually, for two reasons. First, I think that this could be an environment creator that could affect how you interact with your "life environment" rather than just a physical object like a computer. It also can span the space that links work and home quite easily given future likely iterations of this thing. Second, I had some input into the marketing and experience discussion around this thing that seemed to be taken seriously.
The Input
About four months ago, I got an email from Kyle Warnick, a senior manager of marketing for Microsoft's Consumer Entertainment group (that's what they do, not what they're called. This is the XBox 360, Zune crowd). This email asked me if I'd be interested in participating in an advisory capacity (on a small very limited council) related to something that Microsoft was doing that would blow me away though not exactly the way that Kyle, who is a very nice guy and a real asset to Microsoft, put it. But he couldn't tell me about it more unless I signed a non-disclosure agreement (NDA)
Sounded....mysterious, but I figured "whatthehell" and signed one.
Back then it was Milan and it did blow me away.
I found out, much to my delight that I had been selected to the Advisory Council along with among others a software specialist for the hospitality industry, an experiential architect and a college prof, because my blog indicated that I was VERY strong on the customer experience side and the CRM reputation I had didn't hurt anything (first time for THAT one!! :-))
That was a nice ego boost.
So I hopped a plane to Redmond, we met for a day, I learned a lot, hopefully contributed something and then stayed at the Westin Belleview WA which got me the shower heads I now use for my own home's showers (NO. I didn't steal them. I ordered them. Really). The discussion was informative, spirited and made me realize that these guys were onto something I thought was important. The only disconcerting thing was that the consumer experience side of Microsoft didn't talk at all to the CRM side of Microsoft and that could be a roadblock to at least what I saw as the grand scheme for this in the future.
But that was the only oddity. The rest went swimmingly, old chaps and chappesses.
But what I learned I had to keep to my New York big mouthed self until today. So I did.
But as of today, now I'm able to say that I'm on the Microsoft Surface Advisory Council. I guess.
But enough of my ego.
The Impact
Microsoft Surface is potentially important and maybe even disruptive (in a good way).
Minimally, it can shift the paradigm for how we interact with devices much as the weakly business-featured but uniquely usable Apple iPhone will do for mobile devices. The form and features are both practical and stylish and are just outright cool to play with and use.
Initially its uses are revolving around "concierge" services in mostly the hospitality industry with first-cut partners like Harrahs and Starwood Hotels and Resorts among others. For example, Harrahs, as the official Microsoft press release states
"...guests can reserve tickets to an Elton John concert, review the menu at chic eatery Bradley Ogden, take a tour of the world famous PURE nightclub, book a luxurious spa treatment or redeem Total Rewards loyalty program credits... 'visit' multiple (Harrah's) venues and plan itineraries without ever getting up from their table."
But that's just a beginning, something for a first generation of device and partners. The possibilities for a seamless 24X7 set of uses life experience using your finger (so to speak) are limited by only the imagination here and are particularly rich because of the Bluetooth and 802.11g wireless compatibility. The only real limitation that the first generation device has is that while multiple individuals can move items simultaneously on the screen, the default result is the last one - meaning that it works in serial when it comes to what it does finally.
To make that a LOT clearer. Think of fingerpainting (a test app we saw). If I and two others are happily fingerpainting away at the same time, the color that all of us are fingerpainting in is the last color that was touched in the palette by any one of us. There is no individual biometric recognition of gestures and touch yet. But its only Gen One, people, give 'em a chance.
The customer's idea of value (meaning the human being's) isn't always utilitarian or financial. Beauty, coolness, tactile sensations that lead to a pleasurable feeling - all are part of how a customer might find some true value in a rich experience. Here's a chart that comes from the Making of Meaning by various authors from Cheskin Associates on what provides value to people.
Style is a part of how human beings think about technology. For you long time blog readers, remember the Turay Ultrasuede/Intel study that showed that 76% of the respondents who were technology purchasers felt that the technology had to reflect their personal lifestyle. Not sure of that? Read Engadget Mobile every day and tell me how it is humanly possible to produce that many mobile devices for style?
You engage more fervently and frequently when your mind, emotions and senses are engaged, not just one or the other of those.
Human beings are human beings, not workers by day, consumers by night and on breaks; not mommies and daddies around kids and then advocates around social causes, and then constituents around politicians and then couch potatoes watching TVs. Their expectations as human beings - a holistic set of expectations that might be colored by their particular environment carry into all aspects of their life. So for example, if there is an expectation as a consumer that the company they are dealing with will listen to them, then there is an expectation that the politician will listen to them too. There is also an expectation that the tools that they use to trash the companies that DON'T listen to them will be available to get those politicians when they don't listen, too. So where they differ is in how they experience perhaps the same thing. Maybe one is a good dad and another isn't as good. One is a liberal and another a conservative. Each has hopes, dreams, aspirations, expectations, stresses, loves, hates, likes, dislikes that differ from the next by degree and by what it actually is, but the individuals themselves are not split into some series of schizoid circumstantial identities. Consequently an environment that can support and encompass a person's lifestyle during the day and night so to speak, can can provide them with a unique and facile experience becomes an environment that that individual wants.
Microsoft Surface is one of the first devices that can meet that latter objective - support the individual's control over his environment through the engagement of his mind, emotions and senses.
I don't want to make this too lofty. After all its a piece of technology, when it all boils down to it, but its an exciting one with actual possibilities - unrealized as of yet, but possibilities.
Very promising. But, it could fail too.
Microsoft, as of now, has a goodly number of partners, but needs to expand their partnerships greatly and quickly so they can get buy in from more than the hospitality industry. I URGE them (already have) to begin to explore a partnership with Rearden Commerce which has a highly developed service oriented architecture and has 135,000 business services ranging from car rentals to event planning linked to it AND a deal with American Express that makes it available to all Amex corporate customers. This is the ideal platform for a partnership and provides value to both.
Start prettifying the device (still a bit tub like though not bad) and start looking into providing a mobile version down the road (if Microsoft is not doing it already)
Build up a large open source developers community here - this is the type of things that stoke a neo-developer's juices. The more applications and games that are successfully developed for this the better - and the sooner the better.
Integrate this into a web 2.0 strategy. Because of the wireless capabilities,the possibilities for collaboration are to die for. Fix that lack of biometric recognition problem, though.
This is just the beginning of something that is actually worth watching and keeping up with. There is a lot to get one's arms around because of the change in paradigm. Maybe tactile interactions aren't a big deal to you.
Take a look the right. You'll see that there's no counter anymore on the DirecTV side. Why, you all ask? That is curiouser and curiouser...devotees of Alice In Wonderland might think, lifting their eyebrows.
It's gone because I had what turned out to be a very pleasant and productive chat with the new Senior Vice President (3 weeks on the job) of DirecTV Customer Care, Ellen Filipiak about not just what I saw as my gripes with DirecTV but what I saw as their CRM issues - all those outlined in prior posts. She was candid and because she is THAT new and I admired her candid responses and her charm too, that I won't repeat what she told me. But I will mention what we've worked out.
Ms. Filipiak has agreed that she will post the status of the DirecTV transition from anti-customer (in fairness, my term, not hers) to customer-centric on this blog every two months starting with a post on June 1.
I believe her and with that, down comes the counter.
The calendar for her comments will be:
June 1, 2007
August 1, 2007
October 1, 2007
December 1, 2007
Ad infinitum
I think that she's a good person and was honest and forthright with me. So let's cut her some slack, give her some time and hope that we get the authentic picture from her on what's going on with DirecTV.
Industry watchers and DirecTV customers take note.
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