![\"\"](\"https:\/\/img.skitch.com\/20110526-naihaesu8r6487xyk522t3thnx.jpg\" "\\"Centricity\\"")
Customer-centricity or getting closer to customers is often the focus of many executive meetings I attend these days. The question always arises, \u201chow can we use new media to get closer to customers?\u201d<\/p>\nCustomer-centricity or getting closer to customers is often the focus of many executive meetings I attend these days. The question always arises, \u201chow can we use new media to get closer to customers?\u201d<\/p>\n
The answer is not, develop a social media strategy to start engaging with customers. The answer is, change. Any organization that focuses on operations, margins, and efficiencies over customer experiences will find itself unfavored by tomorrow\u2019s connected customer. It\u2019s difficult to see the customer or empathize with them if you\u2019re focused on a spreadsheet. It\u2019s impossible to change if you can\u2019t see what it is they value<\/a>.<\/p>\n Social media is as rewarding as it is complex. For businesses seeking to engage customers in the social web, lucidity is the key to relevance. However, social media is not static nor is it constant in any one state. It\u2019s part of the new media revolution and it\u2019s driving the new information economy<\/a>.<\/p>\n Its importance lies in maturation and the stages we experience as we experiment and learn. As we dive deeper into understanding its potential, we uncover new opportunities to create not only a social business, but an adaptive business. Social media\u2019s true promise lies in its ability to reveal human behavior, emotions, and experiences to inspire brand empathy. While we talk of humanizing our brand and our business or becoming a more consumer-facing brand, the reality is that we are merely at the beginning of an important shift in business philosophy. Customer-centricity begins with internal transformation and the willingness to adapt or create processes and programs that break down internal silos. It\u2019s not just about communicating with customers; it\u2019s about showing them that listening translates into action within the organization to create better products and services and also foster valuable brand experiences and ultimately relationships with customers. It\u2019s also about empowering employees to improve those experiences and relationships in the front line and to recognize and reward their ability to contribute to a new era of customer engagement and collaboration. They have to care, not just because they\u2019re human, but because it\u2019s part of the corporate culture\u2026and a recognized contribution at that.<\/p>\n Innovation and collaboration is an outside-in and an inside-out process. It is living. The activity we tap into in networks inhabited by connected customers forces a groundswell that inspires top-down transformation from the bottom-up.<\/p>\n It\u2019s time to take new media to the next critical phase, the need to understand the needs of the market and deliver against them. The adaptive business will plug into the human seismograph<\/a> to listen, innovate, and co-create. To do so, engagement, customer recognition and empowerment and investment in empathy become the pillars for an external mission. Creating a culture of change for employees, customers, and partners and equally investing in movement of adaption, innovation, and co-creation become the pillars for internal transformation. This is just the beginning of how we create a more customer-centric organization and how new media plays a role in engagement and learning to foster change and relevance.<\/p>\n The future of business isn\u2019t created, it\u2019s co-created.<\/p>\n Brian Solis<\/p>\n Connect with Brian Solis<\/a> on Twitter<\/a>, LinkedIn<\/a>, Facebook<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Customer-centricity or getting closer to customers is often the focus of many executive meetings I attend these days. The question always arises, \u201chow can we use new media to get closer to customers?\u201d The answer is not, develop a social media strategy to start engaging with customers. The answer is, change. Any organization that focuses … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[137,964],"tags":[133,394,33,67,896,30,246],"class_list":["post-3044","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-all-posts","category-briansolis","tag-brian-solis","tag-business","tag-change","tag-culture","tag-social-business","tag-social-media","tag-transformation"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3044","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3044"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3044\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3047,"href":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3044\/revisions\/3047"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3044"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3044"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3044"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}