Akio Morita, co-founder of Sony, once said:

“We don’t ask customers what they want – we tell them what they want.”

I’ll take his word for it, since Mr. Morita actual has developed very successful products.

Much is being written about the impact that new communication technologies and channels – blogs, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube – have on traditional marketing and customer service. The deeper question is: Will these new communication channels actually force material changes not just in the way companies market their products but in the strategies and operations they use to develop and build those products as well?

(more…)

Companies most likely to be successful in making change work to their advantage are the ones that no longer view change as a discrete event to be managed, but as a constant opportunity to evolve the business.

Change readiness is the new change management – Change readiness is the ability to continuously initiate and respond to change in ways that create advantage, minimize risk, and sustain performance.

20 inspirational change quotes for your change management initiative:

(more…)

Social media, from the perspective of a business, is great. The ability to communicate directly with an audience and create a more personal relationship with them can be invaluable to a brand and a business.

User generated content, for example, is seeing a huge growth in popularity, and is another way businesses are connecting more directly with their customers. But this shift in focus comes at a price – companies have far less ability to control their image and direct how, where, and when it is seen.

As everyone now knows, it doesn’t take much to damage a brand in today’s world of powerful social media tools. The scope, reach and speed with which harmful content can ricochet around the web are truly alarming. Just like the Somali pirates at sea armed with automatic weapons, disgruntled users can leverage social media to hijack your company and take everyone aboard hostage.

(more…)

Are your customers asking the very same thing Roger Waters famously asked on the 1979 Pink Floyd classic The Wall: “Is There Anybody Out There?”

In today’s competitive world, a company’s reputation for satisfying clients is one of the key factors in whether or not someone will buy from them. From the perspective of a company’s management, customer satisfaction is all about improving revenue, reducing costs and increasing profit.

With today’s internet technologies, unhappy customers can be much more visible than in the past, using social media sites, complaint sites and blogging and micro-blogging sites. It has never been more important for any organization to focus on customer satisfaction strategy and techniques than in today’s environment.

(more…)