Conversations are nice. Scalability is nicer.
Most social media experts will tell you that we live in exciting times. Marketing is shifting from a broadcast model to two-way conversations, they say. Customer service is not about standardized, efficient processes anymore, but about a personal dialogue with real people, not anonymous call center agents.
That’s actually really great news — if you’re a small business.
Small businesses have always differentiated themselves from the big boys by providing superior, more personal customer service. That’s really not new. What is new is that social media tools like Twitter and blogs enable small businesses to provide personal service for geographically distributed customers, maybe even globally.
Unfortunately, this principle doesn’t really scale well for bigger companies. Sure, it would be nice if even huge corporations could suddenly provide service that is as personal as what you’re getting in the small shop around the corner. But you know what? Big companies are big because they are good at standardization. A big scale business — and the low prices for customers that it enables — is only possible through efficient, standardized systems and processes.
Now, the social media experts will tell you that we live in an entirely new era and that the Internet changes everything. Sure, it changes a lot. But how about the need for scalability?
Let’s look at the two companies that are probably the most successful Internet pure plays in history (so far): Amazon and Google. Both companies were tiny startups less than 15 years ago, so nobody can claim that they’re staid old corporations that simply “don’t get it”.
Now, Amazon certainly provides good customer service. The company is highly responsive, no matter what channel you contact it on. Sometimes you get a response within minutes after you send an e-mail request. But that’s because Amazon has huge customer service centers that use sophisticated software. They don’t enter into “conversations” with you, they handle support cases. The Amazon customer service reps don’t build a “relationship” with you, they answer your questions. It’s maybe faster, but not really less anonymous than what you will get at any large company. And that’s even more true with Google, which has an infamously opaque customer service process.
However, both companies provide a highly customized experience. I’ve found many interesting books and other products thanks to Amazon’s recommendations. And Google probably knows more about me than my mother.
But that’s not because they engage in a social relationship with me. It’s because they have scalable, sophisticated systems that collect tons of data about their customers and handle that information in a very efficient way. That’s generally good for both sides: Customers get a better experience, and the companies can count on increased customer loyalty.
This is exactly where social media marketing (and customer service) falls short today: As long as so much manual labor is involved in monitoring social media and engaging with customers through these channels, it is very hard to scale it. Social media is a tremendously important new channel. But bigger companies can only really benefit from it if it integrates with scalable, standardized processes.
That’s why we at Buzzient build scalable social media systems that can integrate with existing business processes and systems. Yes, social media is new and exciting. But to make it useful, it has to scale.