It all begun in 1998 with “the cluetrain manifesto“, a document fundamentally stating that business is not a process, but rather a relationship between human beings. Then technology catcched up.

A whole set of technologies permitting site-user relationship was developed and subsequently applied, most of them open source. CMSs, blogging platforms, forums, wikis and social media platforms now allow webmasters to easily update their sites and have such sites to “TALK” with their users, thus allowing enterprises to communicate and gather direct feedback from their customers.

Birth of Web 2.0 brought to a complete redefinition of the Web PR theory, making new tools for building brand fidelity available.

How much so?

Lets have a look at the Italian Web market, the one I’m operating in.

Use of the Internet increases in Italy, but very slowly. Not only there still are wide areas without any ADSL coverage, almost indispensable for a decent use of the medium, but all sorts of obstacles are put by carriers and politics to a real diffusion of it. No surprise in a country where the party on power also detains the large majority in media. Internet and the control of it are considered crucial. No out of control competition is acceptable under any conditions.

What does that means?

If we consider that people that actually makes a real, active , continuos use of the Web in this country are less than 10,000, we end up to be always the same ones, and to talk mainly to eachother. Nothing else but a loop.

Most of us are operating as Web and communications consultants, and we tend to see things mainly from our own point of view. We sell technologies and technology solutions to enterprises. And the focus is mostly on technologies themselves, not on their best use.

We can supply Internet, Intranetand social media devices. But once a company has set up its perfectly marketed Web presence, once it has become number one on search engine SERPS and can’t avoid being found by a user’s search for its keywords, what’s next?

The company’s portal has all the required tools to deal with its public, but who is going to runt the site? Who is going to tell what to the site users?

Distribution, even in a country like Italy, where small enterprises are the majority switches more and more trough supermarkets and marts, owned by large international groups like France’s Auchan or Germany’s Lidl, that bought most Italian chains. Unless forced to do otherwise, these groups have no interest in distributing goods that they do not produce or buy trough their own brands, so why bother? My experiences in shopping there show me several things:

1. Clerks are almost unavailable, impolite, ignorant ad not helpful at all.
2. The goods are to be found only if you know what you are looking for, and even so it is not easy to find out what you really need between the different brands and makes,
3. Customer assistance is not given by the reseller, but nobly by the producer, usually trough external call centers, were staff’s knowledge of products is definitely not satisfactory< ./p>

As a result, even if you bow your matter, the risk of throwing away your money is very high.

What Customer Satisfaction?

Users having Internet access will necessarily be better informed, as they can check producer and price comparison seats like Kelkoo, but hey still will be in trouble using the goods they bought if not enough info is available from the user’s manual or online.

And users that don’t have internet access or that don’t know how to reach it? They will be forced to stick to brands they know and trust as a habit, or to rely on info they receive from traditional, non interactive advertising. Not very 2.0, uh?

Focus on The Cluetrain Manifesto: People

If you were raised in the fifties like I did, you’ll remember cities filled with small shops like the grocer at the corner nearby. The owner was usually a friendly guy that would suggest what to buy, give you credit if you was a usual customer and even bring the goods to your home. And he would take responsibility for all problems,

Grocers tend to disappear, just like the quality of the products. and who’s responsible for quality?

Company managers think they only are responsible for companies growth, but what growth can there be if you don’t satisfy your customers?

GYCWHW

What’s that? The acronym stands for “Give Your Consumer What He Wants“. Which means that a producer should produce and sell goods that people will be happy to buy:

1. Because they need them.
2. Because they fell them a fair deal.
3. Because they trust the producer.

And that is it. TRUST is the word.

Building Brand Fidelity

Sociological studies of consumption show us that there are pioneers that will act as opinion leaders, convincing other users to try and use your product. In our case these are without doubt Internet power users, sharing, commenting, spreading their enthusiasm as unpaid evangelists. Then the word will go progressively to other users, and finally move offline, to the ones that don’t have internet access. So Web 2.0 tools can be used to establish brand reputation and even better, a strong brand fidelity.

But to do so, it takes conversations. Companies must first learn once again to listen, rather than to talk first, and to reply to their customer questions.

So, rather that relying only to their CRM, here is one proposition:

WHAT ABOUT REINTRODUCING THAT GOOD OLD CUSTOMER CARE UNIT AS A KEY CUSTOMER RELATION TOOL?s

Alex Badalic