The document discusses the paradoxes in modern business, primarily how conversations drive growth despite many companies ignoring them or managing them poorly. Customer service failures and employee silence hinder potential growth, showing that organizations should focus on culture, empowering employees as brand ambassadors, and actively engaging in conversations. To succeed, companies need to embrace change and integrate conversation management into their strategies, emphasizing a culture that supports communication and responsiveness.

1. The
superstar
company
Prof Steven Van Belleghem
@Steven_InSites
#cm48

2. Look at today’s business world.
It’s full of paradox’s. Really.

3. Conversations are the key driver of growth
But we are afraid to manage or join them.

4. 16%
Even believes
word-of-mouth
is not relevant in
their business

5. Happy clients are drivers to positive
conversations.
But customer service often sucks.

6. 10% NEVER answers customer questions!
Shocking, isn’t it?

7. Helping people helps.
Exceeding customer expectations builds loyalty (81% repeats, 63% recommends)
and falling below customer expectations erodes loyalty (5%/71%).
* Forrester, Build Loyalty By Exceeding Expectations When Resolving Customer Problems, 2010

8. Most companies even wait for their critical
incident.
Question is why being so reactive?
@Steven_InSites #cm48

9. On May 22nd 2010, Foodwatch and Kassa awarded
Actimel het Gouden Windei, for misleading Dutch
consumers.

10. And…they knew this was a conversation topic.

11. Youp Van’t Hek, famous Dutch Cabaretier
Started twittering about the lousy customer 45.000 followers
service of Dutch telco T-Mobile, after his son
experienced weeks of problems with their
helpdesk.

12. 45.000 followers

13. Youp was contacted 45.000 followers
by the boss of
T-Mobile 30’ after
the tweets!

14. The generated negative buzz 45.000 followers
(increase of 19%) resulted in
serious image damage
estimated at
€ 300.000 !
(source: buzzcaputure)
A central complaints address
youp@nrc.nl already received
more than 5000 stories!

15. A crisis is like a vulcano.
You always get a warning signal first, so also time to react.

16. “Wij erkennen dat ook binnen ons bedrijf fouten worden gemaakt. Dat willen wij
niet goedpraten en daar doen we wat aan. De oproep aan grote bedrijven om te
luisteren naar hun klanten en hen niet van het kastje naar de muur te sturen,
is duidelijk. Wij zijn ons ervan bewust dat niet altijd alles vlekkeloos verloopt,
daarom blijven we werken aan een verdere verbetering van onze dienstverlening.
Concreet betekent dit onder andere dat wij ons de komende periode zullen
richten op het verkorten van onze wachttijden en het aanpassen van het
toestelreparatieproces.“
http://www.t-mobile.nl/persoonlijk/htdocs/popup/youpvanthek.aspx

17. We want our employees to be ambassadors.
But we block them from all social media.

18. Before we continu...
I would like to take you back in time..... #flashback

19. Once upon a time,
About 50 years ago,
a new & very dangerous technology was invented!
Companies did everything in their power to
keep this new technology out of their premises.
It would decrease efficiency and
caused a serious threat for the securty of the company.

21. Let’s continue to travel back to our time.
But have a quick stop 15 years ago..... #flashback

22. Once upon a time,
About 15 years ago,
a new & very dangerous technology was invented!
Companies did everything in their power to
keep this new technology out of their premises.
It would decrease efficiency and
caused a serious threat for the securty of the company.

24. We’re back in our current world.
Nothing changed, we are still afraid of change & innovation.

25. Limited knowledge brings FEAR!
The famous ‘what if someone will be negative?’ question pops up.
We solve it by blocking people. Not the way to grasp opportunities.

26. Note by Steven to audience
Sorry for this dumb question I’m
about to ask you...
(please, please don’t tweet it)

27. Dilemma! Which company will grow faster?
Company B
Company A
1000 employees
1000 employees
10% are sending positive 40% are sending positive
stories about their job to their
stories about their job to their
friends. This happens based on a
friends. This happens organic, no
great culture & facilitation in
guidance from their employer
sharing great stories

28. Dilemma! Which company will grow faster?
Company B
1000 employees
40% are sending positive
stories about their job to their
friends. This happens based on a
great culture & facilitation in
sharing great stories

29. Note by Steven to himself
But hey, why should I say sorry for this
dumb question as...
The large majority of the companies is in
situation A (or worse)

30. And by the way, it’s not just guessing.
McKinsey proved that connected
enterprises experience faster growth
than closed enterprises.
#fact

31. Conversations are drivers of growth,
but we don’t manage them.
Happy clients are drivers of
conversations, but our service sucks.
Our employees need to be our
ambassadors, but we block them
from social media.
Look at today’s business world
It’s full of paradox’s. Really.

32. Breaking the paradox brings you to the pot of gold.
Happy people that don’t speak about your great company.

33. 28%
On average: 28% of your customers is in this pot.

34. The bad news:
A Conversation Manager is not enough.

35. It is time to
change
your
company
into a
Superstar
Company

36. Superstar
Company?
A company in which people are the key driver for growth, sharing
engaging content through all relevant touchpoints, building upon the
company’s culture and business objectives.

37. People
Touchpoints
Content
In line with company culture & business objectives

38. STRATEGY
company culture & business objectives

39. People
Touchpoints
Content
Tactics

40. It all starts with company culture.
Culture identification or is it brand identification.

41. Quick question.
How many value sets does your
company has?

42. Quick question.
How many value sets does your
company has?
Identical for
customers & employees?

43. Possible answers
0: disaster
1: cool
2: I don’t understand

44. “Brand positioning is the long term effect
of company culture.” Toni Shieh, CEO Zappos

45. If someone asks you a question, answer politely.
Zappos invites every employee to WOW their customers. By the way: 11% of
organizations doesn’t reply to customer emails.
* InSites Consulting, Meet The Joneses Research, 2010

46. A remarkable company culture works.
Every company has it’s stories and ambassadors, like Nike’s Ekins. Capitalize on
these stories and turn your employees in an army of ambassadors.

47. You think culture is
important,
but are you serious about it?

48. This guys probably thinks healthy food is
important…

49. These guys are pretty serious about it.
And they outperform the market.

50. These guys are pretty serious about it.
And they outperform the market.

51. These guys are pretty serious about it.
And they outperform the market.

52. These guys are pretty serious about it.
And they outperform the market.

53. We are pretty serious about it.
And we outperform the market.

54. Step 1:
Culture becomes
part of your
marketing strategy

55. Step 2:
The road to
implementation

56. People
Touchpoints
Content
Tactics

57. People
Touchpoints
Content
Tactics

58. Conversations from internal stakeholders
Proud company Conversational
Company
Boring company Adored company
Conversations from external stakeholders

59. Conversations from internal stakeholders
Proud company Conversational
Company
Boring company Adored company
Conversations from external stakeholders

60. Sentiment engagement framework.
How to react and respond to different peopleonline.
Fans Positives Neutrals Negatives Haters
Success stories Acquisition Prejudices
Action Sentiment Content
WIIFM Perceptions
Bugs & Flaws
Temp problems
It is great I want to make It could be It should be It cannot be
it better better better better
Feed Embrace Engage Neutralize Isolate
Celebrate Activate Ignore
Learn
h

61. 40% 7%
negative negative
@Steven_InSites #cm48

62. Position your customer,
not your brand

63. Make them look good, using your brand.

64. Conversations from internal stakeholders
Proud company Conversational
Company
Boring company Adored company
Conversations from external stakeholders

65. Help them in being proud about their own job.

66. You do it offline, now do it online as well.

67. People
Touchpoints
Content
Tactics

68. Formal Informal
Central content creation.
Everyone can create
Created by a central team.
informal content but within
One voice towards the world.
the limitations.
Control of content going out.

69. 3 social media teams create formal content.
‘Common Sense’ policy for informal content.

70. Create some cool bed-time stories.
Stories that will go down in history as myths & legends. Build your
own heroes.

71. People
Touchpoints
Content
Tactics

72. Conversation worthiness
Put a spotlight Star
on it
Make sure it works
Hygiene
Conv. worthy?
Reach

73. Spotlight strategy.
Small act, but huge reach.

74. Example for a Telco player
Conversation worthiness
Press conference Facebook
Home visit Advertising
Stores
Internet connection
Niche product
Invoice
Reach

75. Touchpoint expectations management.
Simple rule: Under promise & over deliver.
@Steven_InSites #cm48

76. Deal with increasing expectations.
People know what you can do, they don’t care about your agenda.

77. Deal with increasing expectations.
People know what you can do, they don’t care about your agenda.

78. Deal with increasing expectations.
People know what you can do, they don’t care about your agenda.

79. Create spotlights for your conversational
stories.

80. Step 2:
People, content,
touchpoints

81. Step 3:
Structure?

82. Who facilitates
the content,
people &
touchpoints of
the Superstar
Company?

83. Not so easy due to the SILO-structure of our
organisations.

84. Management
Customer
HR Sales Marketing R&D IT ...
Care

85. Often seen solution to cope with
conversation management = add another silo...

86. Management
Social
Customer
HR Sales Marketing R&D IT ... Media/
Care
Conv Mgr

87. You can’t make an omelette without breaking
some eggs.
Time to RE-think company structure.

88. Facilitate the integration of Conversation
Management
in EVERYTHING you do.

89. 89
Companies organize for social in 5 ways

90. HR
General
Sales
Mgm
Conversation
R&D Mkt
Manager
Cust
IT
Care
Legal

91. Step 3:
The Conversation
Manager as
facilitator

92. Superstar
companies are
fast growing.
Time to start your
change.

93. And now…
Just do it!

94. It all starts with:
“the man in the mirror”

95. You have 48
hours left to start
your change

96. Thank you!
Let’s connect:
Via LinkedIn
@steven_insites
steven@insites.eu