Stop thinking of yourself as an ‘employee’ of any organization. In reality, you can never be. You are what you are – a living, thinking, caring human. This is exactly you must convey to your customers, that ‘hey, I am not a robot, wanting all the money in your pocket.’
Work on your very own ‘Me-Model’. Ask yourself, what does this model deliver? A profitable business, new strategies, new market acquisitions, commitment or something above the norm?
Here, I bring for you 5 new-age mantras to kick-start Social CEO-ing.
#1 Empower Customer Representatives
As a CEO, you build the rules of your land. Infuse the spirit of openness, in your work culture. Do away with meetings. Plan out issue-based, social-gatherings with your employees, if possible, away from the office. Listen to them, understand their hurdles and work-out the solutions, as a team. After all, they are steering your boat, you can’t just let them burn in the sun.
When you pour your heart to them, they would be more than willing to share constructive ideas and feedback. For they, actually are dealing with the customers. Use their first-hand experience to devise new customer-satisfaction methods for your business. Achieve them together.
#2 Measure Customer Delight
A study conducted by IBM, states that 57% of CEOs will take up social media as opposed to just 16% now. Does this mean that we are done with phone and e-mails to get in touch with customers? No, absolutely not. The study indicates that launching your agenda on social media channels multiplies opportunities of engagement, with customers.
As a matter of fact, customers are searching for you on the mobile. They want to know more about you, interact with you and even bash you for not fulfilling their hopes. Social media is generating meaningful insights into customer data. CEOs have a great chance here to align their customer’s mind-sets to their business message and build resourceful collaborations.
#3 Reward your Customers
It’s just not enough to engage with users, you must reward them. For all their genuine feedback, new feature requests, criticism and off course, loyalty, in your brand and you. The best way to get started is to appoint a Customer-Loyalty Officer. He or she must look into every interaction a customer makes with your brand, whether online or offline (and not just statistically).
Next, is to reward those customers, who have shown consistent loyalty to the company, via thoughtful appreciation. Not just discounts or reward points, I mean. Ask them to contribute a beautiful write-up about their experience with your brand. Invite them to your campus and let them experience who, what, why, when and where of the business. Add them to an official chat (for instance, Skype) to better understand brand perception, and improve it for others.
#4 Win your Customers
If you really want to be the rock-star CEO, you must not lose any chance to talk to your customer. Answer their e-mails personally. You may not have the time to do so for everyone. But you can make room for ones who are not happy with your brand, who have suggestions, or who write to you consistently. You may not want to disappoint them further.
Don’t play defensive all the time. If you find your company has committed a blunder. Ask for pardon and assure them of improvement. Make sure, to deliver the next time. Convey to your customer that you are into this, as they are and that you will do everything it takes, to win/hold their trust.
#5 Connect with your Customers
Roll out a cool blog and a dedicated website, just about You as a person. Share your dreams, aspirations, challenges, promises, gives, takes, frustrations, opinions and even rants. Tell your customers that you may fail sometimes but you won’t give up on them. No matter how busy you maybe, don’t hire someone else to update your blog posts. Do it yourself. Show them your true personality. With time, you will develop regular followers, with whom you can brainstorm issues, discuss hot topics or simply share a feedback. Remember, it’s about inviting the right customer(s) and socializing with them, in a personalized way.
What makes you Stand Out?
What makes leaders like Winston Churchill, Jack Welch, Abraham Lincoln and others like them stand out? It’s their ability to efficiently read people/employees/customers.
In tech-driven times, of today, you have an array of options to easily and quickly leverage the power of human-communication, to drive results.
When you think of the question, what makes you stand out as a leader? It’s not the company you work for or your designation. It’s the real You, that makes you unique for the role.
Customers are more than willing to connect and contribute to brands which are responsive, honest, committed and open. Brands which are human-led and not run by customer statistics, sales targets and market sizes.
Reach out to your customers and see them do the same.
Pratik Kanada is Founder & CEO of 360 Degree Technosoft. His vision to re-innovate and re-set the technological trends. He likes to blog about ‘tech that touches life’. An avid reader, he loves interacting with bright spirited technocrats, in his spare time. Twitter, Facebook
Image Credit: Shutterstock.com
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