The Jetsons and the real time social enterprise

Listening to terms such as ‘predictive analyses’, ‘plugging into the customer journey’, ‘personalized experiences’, and ‘real time enterprises’, marketing events got me to picture somewhat of a Sci-Fi’ish world.

A world in which consumers are instantly served with personalized products and services when- and where-ever they want. 

It reminded me of the ‘Jetsons on-demand style’ robots and machines, serving exactly what they were being asked to serve, within a split-second.

This isn’t that far fetched from what we might be able to do within the incoming twenty years. How hard can it be, to study the eating behavior of thousands of people and use that data, so we can predict what dishes are most likely going to be ordered tomorrow? (And instantly serve those dishes by using a drone) Piece of cake, right…? But a piece of ‘creepy’ as well maybe…

Breaking down silos

In their founding years, many brands change their organization. Especially when the demand for their first products or services grow. This was a traditional moment, where companies felt the need to add silos and (obviously) hire new people to help the brand become bigger, or to improve and innovate their existing products or services.

The ‘real-time enterprise’ is like an octupus

This is why new departments emerged. And as we all know, having multiple seperate departments such as Marketing, Design, IT and Customer Service, means you’ll have quiet a struggle to make rapid and effective decisions. Being able to communicate fast, cross-departmental and to respond to rapidly changing business environments nowadays, we have are looking at critical conditions for these growing businesses. 

A company that lacks rapid cross-departmental communications, won’t survive in this era of high speed information and communication technologies. This is why many separated departments have to be ‘melted together’, by the so-called ‘breaking down of silos’.

In today’s world, the two critical factors that come to mind, when thinking of trying to successfully melt these silos together, and what could solve these rising problems in today’s traditional business (and communications) structures, are speed and humanization.

Speed

Speed is probably one of the most important factors that’s changing the way we live and do business. Traditional business structures aren’t made to cope with the continuously growing speed at which we communicate and transfer data nowadays.

That’s why some visitors at these marketing summits, if I understood them correctly, want to break down these silos. So it fascilitates more speed in communications and ultimately in decision making processes. Melting them together, transforming into ‘hyper-flexible’, data- and (almost) on-demand-driven non-hierarchical organizations. I’d compare such an organisation to an octopus, who knows exactly what all his tentacles are doing, while being coordinated at the speed of light.

We’re all human

During marketing events, there are a lot of thoughts being spread about ‘customer centricity’ and having great internal and external communications. But what I believe is the most important lesson for marketers in today’s world, after interviewing several thought leaders and entrepreneurs, is that they stay  human. No matter how many data you have at your fingerpoints to predict behavior, or how many awesome tools you use to interact and advertise at the exact right moment to the ‘right’ person, you and your business have to be human.

Putting the consumer in the middle of the attention might not even be what your customer wants. That’s why Adobe and many other brands their products are worth it. You have to get to know consumers, interact, co-create, share knowledge, create a bond, be honest and have fun while doing it. 

See your consumers as friends, not as fishes waiting to be fed and change those policies when consumers ask for it. Work together with them to grow your business into a social one. Would you not react to a friend’s Whatsapp or text message within 24 hours? Wouldn’t you want to spare your friends from being confronted with all these irrelevant and intrusive online ads all the time? And instead tell or show them great stories? So why not be creative and challenge yourself, and use your scientific knowledge as a company, to generate entertaining, compelling and relevant content that adds value to your friend and that you know fits his interests and personality?

Think about what you’d recommend to friends, without it having to do anything with your business. Just like friends of mine recommend me buying an iPhone, while they aren’t working for Apple. And make sure you’re not seen as a robot, doing whatever you’re being asked for. Your brand is human, and humans disagree every now and then.

Power to the consumer

I still see many companies blaming their clients when their own products break down or when their services are bad. And I still struggle with a lot of companies myself, when communicating online, because they have no web care, or because their Twitter or Facebook managers don’t work close enough with other departments. Many companies out there still use Twitter and Facebook posts as what they see as free ads on what they think is comparable to the Yellow Pages. Those days are over.

Consumers are smart, fast and demanding. And the odds are, that they have a lot of potential reach once they’ve got their arrows pointed at you. They will not accept brands ignoring mentions anymore, or having to cope with endless discussions between them and a company because of the outdated traditional policies companies live by and confront them with. As actor Kurt Yaeger said during the Adobe Summit 2014: ‘The power now really does lie in the hands of the individual’.

It’s time for the real time social enterprise.

Are you working on it?