Jeremy Epstein in his blog NeverStopMarketing talks a lot about being remarkable at every customer touchpoint (http://jer979.com/igniting-the-revolution/touchpointsmatter/#). As usual, he makes a lot of sense.
For many organizations, though, each customer touchpoint sits in an organizationally siloed unit. Presale and post-sale activities, innovation and product development, billing, and customer service often don’t work together. So not just being remarkable, but being consistently remarkable is a challenge.
One company that is tackling the internal aspect (as well as the external) is Cisco. As one Cisco executive told me, providing a better customer experience is a key focus, and doing that requires connecting the right points internally. In addition to its process oriented organization, Cisco is addressing the internal connections from at least 3 perspectives:
· Connecting people
· Integrating governance
· Building the culture
People connections happen over a multitude of networks. An internal directory similar to Facebook lets employees find the right expert quickly, whether they have a question about their own work or are dealing with a customer. The directory also promotes a lot of socializing among employees, and people like to work among friends. C-Vision, an internal YouTube type site, creates a lot of vibrant collaboration. Blogs abound, allowing people to identify others’ expertise and passions. Cisco also actively helps employees identify and use tools, providing everything from an internal website that discusses the many ways of interacting to instructions on how to blog.
Just the word Governance often brings to mind bureaucracy and barriers. Good governance, however, enables and brings groups together. The changes that Cisco has been making to its governance helps managers get past silo empire building. The Board and Tech Council are truly cross-functional, and as one manager told me, “we make decisions now at the right point in the hierarchy chain.” That point is generally at the director or senior director level, a step above the line manager, but people who still have the day-to-day pulse of the business.
Governance and tools to connect people work only when the culture actively supports a social organization. The technical foundation of Cisco’s business helps, but Cisco was not born into today’s socially networked world. So continuing to keep the culture fresh and evolving is a conscious and critical endeavor. From brown bag lunches to mining and sharing best practices, managers work to build a high functioning, engaged, open organization. The use of social networks starts at the top. Video conferencing, wikis and podcasts are common management tools. And executives encourage people to blog and contribute to forums. As one manager pointed out, “just lurking on a forum can be equally productive and important to being on the phone.”
As a company, Cisco benefits from social media since many collaboration technologies drive sales of their products. So the fact that Cisco uses social networks internally makes sense.
But when I talk with Cisco managers, I come away feeling that they truly embrace social networking – it’s not just a driver of revenue, it’s the way the company operates. Their enthusiasm and openness and constant internal innovation is exciting.
Check out some of these other studies and sites about Cisco:
Nancy--spot on analysis and thank you for the shout out. I love the specifics you have provided here.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Jeremy. I love what social media stands for in terms of openness and transparency and the opportunity for every employee to be remarkable. Decoding how companies actually "make it happen" might help create more change more quickly.
ReplyDelete