The process of shopping has shifted from the sales cycle to the buying cycle and businesses need to start embracing it. In the old, mass media, days there was sales cycle because the only source of information came from the vendors and the need was motivated by advertising. Since the rise of the internet the limited power of word of mouth has grown to become the main source of recommendations. Now we listen to recommendations from trusted friends and from strangers we trust. It’s very usual to do a search of “Is [x product] good” or “experiences with [x product]”.
Now the shopping process barely involves the seller. It’s no longer sales cycle it’s a buying cycle. The way we buy has changed, yet many businesses still need to change the way they see the process by which a customer ends up buying our products. The information and conversations about the products have become the most important source of information for us. We take a higher value in the amazon reviews than in what the excerpt or the products site said about it. We trust more a yelp review or what we see on Foursquare as a recommendation than the Chef’s special of the day.
First of all businesses need to test how effective is the sales process vs the buying process right now and compare it to the year before. These numbers are tough to get but they can be extracted from the impact of specific campaigns vs a regular month with no campaigns. Statistical Engineers will be needed a lot to start to make sense of all the data that it’s outside and to start to measure the real impact of each individual effort the firm makes on acquiring (or inviting) customers. Once they notice that the sales process isn’t as effective as before, they’ll usually notice when they don’t achieve the sales goals for a period and decide to invest more in ads and still won’t get the goal done.
So what can a business do in this new environment?
Social Media, Web 2.0 or Social Web have brought a huge change on the business environment in which firms operate. The main change has been in that now consumers can produce their own content and don’t even need to rely on what the company says to form opinions of the product and its value. This change requires a major change in the companies processes. Since companies don’t longer have the illusion that they control the message they need to tailor a good message by giving a truly remarkable and excellent experience to the customers. This is why I disagree having an agency doing the community management and social media strategy of a company. This is not about communications, but about business processes that need to be handled internally. As this Forrester blog post says now companies need to focus on what social media can do to them, rather on what it can do for them. Of course it’s a great way to communicate and put helpful content out there, but this also means that any glitch of failure will be out there too. Therefore, making processes quicker, safer, faster and better will help companies meet the new consumer expectations brought by the new tools that have changed the way in which we communicate.
The tone and language of the messages have also changed. Since businesses are now entering a social space we don’t accept sales pitches anymore. Now businesses need to chat with us and talk to us in a more sincere and human way. It’s ok to say human here, because businesses have used dehumanized values for so long that their speeches and executives have lost soul and the ability to transmit purpose (read this post by Tara Hunt about the Gap between human & corporate values).
Consumers will search for information about a product rather than for and advertisement or a message that looks too prepared. This is why businesses need to start producing quality content about their products or services and aim it at the goal the user wants go get from it. A bank can teach it’s users how to invest and manage their money in a better way and a shoe company can promote that people review their shoes so that other users can see how effective they are for running. If the shoes aren’t good the company will get feedback on how to make it better and be able to compete in a quick way.
Quality of service is another key point that businesses need to take care of. Every single contact point is an opportunity to make a good impression with the consumer and if we don’t it’s more than likely that they will talk about it online and bring lot’s of people experiencing the same problem to the conversation. Taking good care of consumers is the only way to go in the customer service arena. Either by having personalized service or by designing the information channels so that the information and processes are easy to access the effort in improving customer service and it’s communication needs to be one of the top 3 priorities of any company evaluating embracing this new networking tools that are changing our communication system.
Speed of response, quality of service and the language in which a business communicate are part of the new buying cycle. To participate in this cycle any business needs to change internally and improve all the possible friction points with it’s users. The firms that do this will be the huge winners of this adaptation process and they will need to start building their competitive advantages from there.
