This document discusses the importance of listening to customers on social media for building a successful business. It outlines Dell's journey over 5 years of experimenting with social listening and engagement across platforms like Twitter, Facebook, and their own communities. The key lessons are that listening is fundamental to understanding customer needs and improving the business. Dell created a Listening Command Center to scale their social media listening across languages and departments to resolve issues and share best practices. Embedding social listening across functions allows companies to improve products, marketing, sales and service by utilizing customer feedback.
Building a Social Business: It all Starts with Listening
1. Building a Social Business: It all Starts with Listening Maribel Sierra, Director of Social Media Listening June 21st, 2011 Twitter: @MaribelSatDell
2. It is your choice to listen to your customers 2 Confidential
3. “ The social web amplifies our opportunity to listen and learn and invest ourselves in two-way dialogue, enabling us to become a better company with more to offer the people who depend on us.” Michael Dell 3 Confidential 6/20/2011
4. Five years of experiments and experience December 2006Ratings and reviews on Dell.com February 2006Michael Dell Asks Why don’t we reach out and help bloggers with tech support issues? October 2007Michael Dell quote in Business Week Jeff Jarvis story quote, “These conversations are going to occur whether you like it or not. Do you want to be part of that or not? My argument is you absolutely do. You can learn from them. You can improve your reaction time. And you can be a better company by listening and being involved in that conversation.” May 2008Dell Outlet achieves $0.5M in sales via TwitterCommunity team active on TwitterSmall Business blog launched June 2009Global Twitter revenues of $6.5 M April 2011 Dell named #1 most social brands in ranking of 100 top March 2010 Launch @DellCares; today 24/7 11 languages August 2006Blog outreach expands beyond tech support March 2008Accepted Solutions launched on Community Dell France begins Online Community Outreach February 2007IdeaStorm Launched A voting based site allowing customers and others to submit ideas for Dell. China Micro-Blogging January 2009Dell Organizes in to4 customer focused business units June 2009$2M+ Salesvia Twitter Dec 2010 launched Social Media Listening Command Center 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 July 2006Direct2Dell launchedToday Direct2Dell exists in English, Spanish, Norwegian, Japanese and Chinese. October 20101 Altimeter recognizes Dell with “Open Leadership Award for Innovation and Execution on Listening 2009Dell TechCenter June 2007Dell joins Twitter Dell launchesEmployeeStormInternal Blogs Launched for Employees. April 2008Inside IT launchedBlog focused on business customers, and Cloud Computing. January 2008Dell aligns organization for success Spring 2009Some Members of Community and Conversations deployed within each of the new Dell Business units December 2009Huffington Post Blog Dell Social Media and Community University launched/5,000 teammembers trained byend of year(Aug.) August 2006Blog outreach expands beyond tech Support January 2007StudioDell launched Dell’s video and podcast site, with helpful tips and tricks. Eventually expanding this into the YouTube channel making sharing easier. February 2008Twitter expanded 4 June 2010 Dell launches B2B pagesFacebook November 2007DellShares launched The first investor relations blog by a public company. June 2008Channel blog launched Confidential
5. Find the area that will help build your business case on the power of listening and engagement 5 Confidential 6/20/2011
7. @DellCares Across the Web Generates Positive Connections The Customer: Model Supplies Sales, Followers: 60,000+ Issue/Resolution: The customer tweeted in regards to an LCD issue w/her PC on 4/18 to her friends. @DellCares identified the customer was in need of assistance and responded on 4/19, The issue was resolved on 4/29. MSD tweets her a thank you on 5/25, which she responds to immediately. … Dell Listens, Engages and Resolves issue… … delighting the Customer whose following retweets to 150k+ users Customer voices frustration… Model Supplies raves Michael Dell jumps in… @ModelSupplies Thanks for contacting @dellcares and for positive feedback too. Thrilled to hear you are a happy Dell customer! 6:14 PM May 25th via web You're very welcome! @MichaelDell Thank you for the fantastic service - and for the reminder of things still to do! x0x 7:43 PM May 25th via web Confidential 7
8. 8 Confidential Dell wins the Bee Awards-Listening Program and Command Center (5/11) "The Bees Awards received entries from 33 countries. The quality of work this year was extremely impressive which made the judging quite interesting for our 20 world experts. The list of nominees and winners announced represents work that is exceptional and is considered as the World's Best in Social Media Marketing" Bee Awards http://www.beesawards.com/bees/2011winners 6/20/2011
43. ROI. Business Value. Measurable in many forms = Intersection of customer value + benefit to business at various points Not 1 number …
44. Simple Takeaways Starts with listening…. …build a case and deploy across all levels Empower/train your employees… …yet provide a mechanism for escalation and control It is a journey… … you need to keep innovating Confidential 25
August 2006Blog Outreach Expands Beyond Tech SupportEngagement with anyone who commented about the company. Business model and other issues considered.August 2006Blog Outreach Expands Beyond Tech SupportEngagement with anyone who commented about the company. Business model and other issues considered.June 2007Dell joins TwitterWhy don’t we reach out and help bloggers with tech support issues?February 2008Twitter ExpandedStart experimenting with Twitter for business– another venue to help customers, but also thanking Dell customers. Outreach leads to some Twitters asking for help on purchases.May 2008Dell Outlet Achieves $0.5M in Sales via TwitterCommunity team active on TwitterJune 2009 $2M+ Sales via TwitterDell outlet on Twitter surpasses $2 million in sales with another $1 million dollars in sales at dell.com 2009Dell TechCenterA Collaborative Community for Datacenter pros grows by 400%December 2009Huffington Post BlogDell’s VP of Social Media and Community, Manish Mehta, begins blogging at Huffington PostJune 2009Global Twitter Revenues of $6.5 M Community across the social web =3.5 million direct customer connections
Start small, area in crisis, execs trustFor Dell it was Customer Tech Support back in Dec 2009Listening Broad listening for systemic Dell topics Specific listening to Dell-managed properties Customers in distressEngagement Outreach to offer help Thank promoters Nurture relationships with advocates and influencersResolution Delight first-time social users Save customers with unresolved issues Turn demoters to promotersPROACTIVESOS is tweeting Proactive Solutions from @DellCares & @DellProSupportTrue “Solutions”, not a Dell spin on solutionsRange of topics covering all customer segments20 Solutions tweetsCurrent reach 1-2MM Twitter users per week
Now customers are finding and interacting with us when seeking solutions