Companies & social medias: How far do you listen to your customers?

« How far do you listen to your customers? How are companies getting into social medias?” I have been thinking about asking you for a while now. In your company, do you have set up a platform (a blog, a twitter, a Facebook group, a getsatisfaction account, all of them at once) where they can talk with you? or where you could interact with them? If so, how far will you take into consideration what they say ?

You may be aware of how important are social medias today. You may also acknowledge the importance companies are granting them. Firms that have long been a one way inventing, developing and selling their products are now hiring costly consultants to get into “it“. Of course, “it” refers to social medias, users voice and to a -most of the time- unknown component of management. If they are not doing so, they still can hire a « community manager » or a « twitter manager » in a rush. I am not kidding, this job offer does exist as a twitter internship at Pizza Hut.

Undoubtedly, these jobs openings, this concern to get into social medias seem to be a consequence of several factors somehow connected.

• People now have means to speak about a product thanks to the several existing platforms
• Gathered in a community or through a communication channel, they have a voice and impact
• Firms have discovered (or at least considered) that some people say things about them
• And these things they say could either help them think and develop, benefit or do them harm

There comes the interesting part in terms of behavior and consideration towards customers. In your firm, have you developed something anticipating your users’ expectations or just responding to your boss and shareholders’ orders ? Depending on the answer, you are likely to succeed or fail.

In order to listen to your customers and get involved in discussions, there are already some good readings on the subject. I was surprised that when I asked « How far do you listen to your customer » on a our professional Linkedin Group, people would be likely to share their point of views and links. So there are few of them you may want to read :

• Social Media Monitoring: Why Life Science companies should listen?
• Unraveling the twitter riddle

I agree with statements expressed. Companies should listen to their customers. How far ? I don’t know yet. What is sure is that there must be a good balance between what you want to produce and what our customers’ expectations are. Listen too much to them and you will have the typical “design by committee horse“.

In the field of biotechnologies applied to the internet, listening is something rather new. At novoseek, this is something we put much emphasis on. We have several communications channels open and we try to answer every question that is asked to us. As to development’s needs, we take good care to explain why some of the suggestions are possible while others not. In any case, our Uservoice dedicated platform is the best place to suggest or ask us explanations.

Making long stories short, if you are a service or product’s user, how far do you think they are listening to you? And as a company employee, how far are you listening to them?

We recommend you to read:

• Your handy my novoseek guide v1.0
• Tip #4 to improve searches in novoseek: Create email alerts
• A surprise for our fans on Facebook
• Interview with Christian Blaschke, scientific director of novoseek
• Tip #3 to improve searches in novoseek – use labels to organize your readings