“How in the world these people get this job?” we might ask us to hang up or flee the store. “And how in the world of these people are allowed to keep this work?”
One big part of the social media Revolution is the impact it is having on this type of employee and customer experiences that they create. In the past, we might walk away from our meetings with them with a story to share with some friends of ours. Today, we have the ability to broadcast stories around the world, and it can be heard by anyone who is not Google (Nasdaq: GOOG) search for the name of the business. Customers control the conversation, and conversation can provide returns that pretty nasty.
I’ve said in the past that CRM begins with hiring. No matter what type of technology you’re investing in the wrong, employees would sabotage efforts and cause the best intentions of everyone involved-sales, marketing and support –-resulting in huge tits. Social Media amplifies this phenomenon.
Don’t think you can hide the misanthropic employees behind the Office. The reality of business today means that at some point, customers can connect with someone in finance, or in Your warehouse, or in engineering. If the customer does not deal with them directly, they tend to have a negative impact on other employees in customer-facing role with a delayed response, some information and advice services are less complete.
So, how do you cope with this new social media world in which every employee can potentially be selected as a representative of Your entire business? First, your business needs to realize that customer relationship building what business is about-it, like we used to say in the Navy, all evolution. That means that HR and recruiting needs to understand fully how important is customer-centric attitude to every employee.