Notes from Breakfast Keynote Conversation With Richard Binhammer (twitter, blog), Dell & John Cass (twitter, blog), SNCR fellow.
Richard explains the circumstances that lead to Dell’s social media initiatives: the growth of online conversations, and a CEO committed to connecting with customers. In March 2006 we came to the conclusion there were about 4,000 conversations going on about us online. We listened for a while and then we started solving customer service problems online. We asked some of our best customer service technicians and asked them to blog. That was followed by Direct2Dell.
Dell’s strategy is based on the idea that you can’t PR your way out of customer dissatisfaction. You have to make real changes and achieve customer satisfaction. Then you have to tell your own story, and join existing conversations customers are carrying on about you. Another part of Dell’s strategy is to share content and ideas – see Studio Dell and Idea Storm.
Dell’s basic social media tool is search: First, find the conversations going on about you, analyze comments (positive/negative/neutral), reach out to them, and then go back and listen for any change in sentiment. 46% negative conversations online in March 2006, now that percentage is about 25% lower.
Dell’s model is based on customer outreach and support, not on outreach to influencers/opinion leaders. It is not a thought leader outreach model. If a number of customers identify the same problem, we look at that problem and try to solve it. I probably have more relationships with Joe and Samantha blogger than I have with influencers.
Our first goal was to reduce negative conversations. After this, the question is what you can do to incite and grow the positive conversations.
On the international arena, Direct2Dell is available in Spanish, Mandarin, and Norwegian. They are not translations of the English versions, they are driven by the issues the customers in those countries want to talk about. We are experimenting with blogs in other countries, in other languages.
Talking about integrating various social media, Richard considers blogs the most important, because they are the voice of the customer, as opposed to twitter, which seems to attract mostly influentials. In terms of all outreach efforts being integrated, Dell’s social media efforts are quite diverse and spread out. We didn’t start out with a detailed plan, so maybe there’s not enough integration of these efforts. We started with the goal of engaging customers online.
In terms of ROI, negative comments have gone down from 46% in March 2006 to about 21% now. Based on data from politics, it might not be possible to drive the negatives lower than 20%. Some people will maintain their position at one end of the spectrum, you can’t sway everybody’s opinions.
A key take-away from Dell’s story is that it doesn’t hurt to listen. You can learn a lot by listening, you can recognize problems & issues. Other lessons: hear & learn with an open mind; Act rapidly; Be honest and apologize when needed; Converse, don’t lecture; Keep the conversation going long-term.
