Your customers are already there. Are you?

In the previous posts we learnt about the groundswell and why it is crucial for companies to be part of this online phenomenon. Today, let’s take a closer look at the strategies for tapping into groundswell.

How to get inside a consumer’s head?

The first step to enter the groundswell is start listening. One way to do it is to create an online community where people could share their experience from dealing with a company and give valuable advice to others or express concerns and even dissatisfaction. While it may sound daunting for a company as no one wants weak points to be highlighted, this is an effective way to generate insights and find out not only what a company is doing well, but at the same time what improvements should be made. Thus, Li and Bernoff advocate for not just tracking where the groundswell buzz is shifting but to channel it in the right direction by setting questions that would lead to substantial answers (Li, Bernoff, p. 86). For example, it is said that Procter & Gamble designed a pop-top can for Pringles after acknowledging that consumers were frustrated that chips break and don’t stack up. Accordingly, listening and acting on groundswell not only reveal problems customers may have with a product but also generate new ideas for company’s future development for free (Li, Bernoff, p. 95).

Listening is not enough – respond and do it meaningfully!

Imagine that after you have spent hours telling your friend about an unforgettable trip to Europe he would remain silent with not even a hint of emotions on his face. How would you feel? Well, at least frustrated if not offended. The same is true about customers whose reviews and comments are left unanswered. Company’s relationship with customers should not differ from interpersonal conversations because customers want to be treated as individuals whose opinions matter.  However, what happens is that companies, having adopted the listening strategy, post on the social media and then merely listen to consumers’ comments or at best provide unsubstantial responses. This creates a one-sided shout that doesn’t differ from traditional advertising whereas the whole point of talking with the groundswell is to engage in ongoing interaction with customers which is beneficial for both sides (Li, Bernoff, p. 117).

It is also vital to remember that bombarding online users with messages that contain just ads and links to make a purchase does not count as effective talking. The groundswell thinking is about pursuing relationships not sales (Li, Bernoff, p. 104), therefore, companies’ blogs and communities may not necessarily be about their products and services. As I mentioned in my last post, Zappos’s blog covers topics that you would normally discuss with your friend. For example, its recent post gives us 8 recipes of treats with pumpkin and in the end reminds subtly that the retailer has pumpkin-inspired clothes that you may want to buy.  Such a huge portion of irrelevant to the brand information and just a tiny commercial message proves company’s perception of consumers not as clients but as personalities. This is called true talking with the groundswell (Li and Bernoff, p. 120).

All right, but what about generating sales?

Obviously, any business needs to gain revenue and it becomes possible by energizing the groundswell. The point is to get your customers to sell each other. It means that a company should artificially create a buzz around itself. One way to do it is to deal with enthusiastic people who are going to talk about your brand (Li, Bernoff, 147). The important rule is that these people should have strong emotional connections to the brand, otherwise word of mouth would not be believable. Let’s see how Starbucks mastered that third groundswell strategy.

The brand’s blog features four coffee stories told by influential artists (with around 150K followers on Instagram) who are at the same time obsessed with coffee and are highly loyal to Starbucks. They explore what makes Starbucks coffee so unique and then create inspirational art works about their discoveries. By tapping into blogosphere and engaging in ambassador program Starbucks has contributed to the building of strong brand and creating a special community of coffee lovers.

Here’s the question for you. Is there any brand to which you are so devoted that you would like to be an ambassador of? 

Recently I have become a fan of Acoustic Java and I just can’t help talking about its top-quality coffee over and over again to anyone who hasn’t tried it yet as well as tagging the location of this coffeeshop on my Instagram. One of my friends already followed my recommendation. That’s the power of word of mouth, ladies and gentlemen.