Guru Speak > Mitch Lieberman, Sword Ciboodle (a part of KANA)
Guru Speak Interview: Customer Engagement
Mr Mitch Lieberman
Mr Mitch Lieberman is a Customer Experience Strategist and Architect. A thought leading practitioner in customer experience, customer service, CRM and Social CRM, Mitch has a laser focus on helping businesses understand the proper balance and optimal alignment of people, process, and technology required to achieve goals and objectives.
He takes a modern, unique but practical view of customer strategy, process improvement and technology optimization achieved by creating tight alignment between business strategy, goals and objectives. He is an avid blogger. Currently, Mitch works for Sword Ciboodle (a part of KANA), a multi-channel customer engagement channel. He is responsible for maintaining and expanding upon Sword Ciboodle’s North American marketing efforts, and is in charge of product positioning and messaging. In this interview, Mitch shares his views on customer engagement and social CRM. Excerpts: "Personal Touch is the Critical Component of Social CRM"
Younomy: You talk about the need for aligning strategy with business goals, and business goals, ultimately with customer jobs-to-be-done. However, don't you think customer "things-to-experience" - what customers want to experience, rather what jobs customers want to do - is a better premise to base the business goals on? Mitch Lieberman: Many people feel that goals are the same thing as objectives, so let me start there. Goals are externally facing and Objectives are internal (the way I use them). I have not always been perfect in that, but it is how I believe it should be done. My point is that goals are customer facing - help people do what they need to do and hopefully they can have a good experience doing it. There are lots and lots of things that simply need to get done, buying food, taking a train ride, fixing a car that are simply not meant to be positive experiences - the best we can do is actually make them NON memorable (the best dental experience I ever had is the one I did not remember!) Younomy: What social product features or processes, when added, make a CRM into social CRM?
Mitch Lieberman: Ah, the long running debate of CRM as a product or a strategy.... I actually believe that what really makes CRM Social (Social CRM?) is the culture and human element added to the process. Call this strategy, call it what makes sense. If you take a look at my post where I introduce the Digital Interaction Process, the section where I emphasis that personal touch is the critical component of Social CRM. The word "social", when talking about product or technology, really means Social Media, so communicating on public channels and the capability to do that is the technical angle. Younomy: Broadly, what is the impact of social CRM in enhancing customer experience?
Mitch Lieberman: It is that personal touch - in a way, it is forced transparency. But, it is different for each part of CRM - Social as it relates to sales might mean the company knows more about you. Social in regards to customer support means I have more choice in getting my question answered. Younomy: How does technology - CRM and social CRM included - or how can technology help in evolving "shared value"?
Mitch Lieberman: There are lots of ways and I am sure we could write a book on the specifics. But, here is my perspective on what is most important. The feedback loop is now and agile, real time, and represent an unfiltered feedback loop. When text analytics and sentiment analysis matures and each side of the value equation can see results, that will be very interesting. Value is only determined by the beneficiary (Vargo and Lusch) - technology will add value to the consumer by way of updates, help, collaboration and also to the company, by way of loyalty and lifetime value. Younomy: There is a mushrooming of social platforms and digital touch points. Has this increased or decreased the customer effort (how much effort does a CRM executive has to put forth to handle a request)?
Mitch Lieberman: No, it has increased the company effort (I see customer effort as what the customer has to do, not what the company has to do). If you are asking if the effort to 'manage' customers, yes, but it does not need to be that complex. While the total number of digital platforms is mushrooming, there is a glass ceiling for any particular business. Take Foursquare, very important for some business, but not all. Each business has (or should have) their top ten most important 'places' on social and they should maintain focus where it is most important to their business. Younomy: There could be any number of customer-preferred platforms. But should not a company decide to limit its presence to fewer social or digital channels - for the sake of effective management? Mitch Lieberman: Yes, I agree. Too many companies jumped on Facebook at the recommendation of someone or some report, and now they are a bit stuck. The list for some businesses might be very small. Take for example a business that caters to farmers or people over 65... choose the platform(s) carefully. Younomy: In your opinion and observation, which brands or organizations excel in customer engagement - to quote your own words, "intellectually and emotionally to communicating and interacting with their customers, relative to accomplishing shared goals driven by customer need"?
itch Lieberman: The best in the US is USAA, I am a member. They answer the phone when I need it, they answer an email when I need that. They know the question is financial in nature and they are authentic as well as regimented (because they have to be). USAA is a financial institution and been acting like a social organization for many, many years, before the current platforms existed. I live in a small town in Vermont, I could give you many examples of local businesses who do all of the above, well. The main point is that big businesses are simply trying very hard to act like small businesses, but personalities simply do not scale, unless everyone understands the vision (at USAA they do). I think Amazon does a good job as well. But, they are not the 'poster child' for being social, they just are social in different ways. They are probably one of the biggest, if not the biggest social network in the world. The reviews are extremely valuable and filled with tips, comments and reviews. When I have a problem with Amazon, they respond very quickly and I have not had a problem in the 10 years I have been working with Amazon.
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