Here is part two of Tim's series on staying Connected 4 REAL. You can find part one here.
How does something that piques your interest on a web site get answered by the company behind that site? The sad truth is that most answers from business are too late, too hard to find, or are never answered. Even worse, most businesses don't even know what revenues bounced away to a competitor.
There are the three basic principles that are driving consumer and business connected sites like Facebook and Linked-in. These sites serve as a beginning, but they don't help in the transactional arena - where vendors and consumers actually do business. They also do nothing to help a business define its ongoing marketing or the processes behind how they interact and do business.
The three founding principles of Connecting 4 Real are mandatory for any truly connected enterprise - and they are the substance of what customers and a growing market of buyers are built on.
To explore these further - here is principle #1:Connections Are a Two Way Street !
Connections are a two way street, with lots of intersections, a few hair-pin curves.
In developing The Connected Market Space, we came up with a philosophy (and technology system) called CRM3 to address the multi-faceted demand of both customers and businesses.
You wouldn't keep a friend very long that just talked and talked, and never listened to what you had to say - would you?Yet for years, CRM or Customer Relationship Management has been all about what the "firm" knows about their customers - and what they can sell them and tell them. This all started in 1999, largely due to the work of Thomas Sieble.
It was a good idea when the Net was relatively new. Customers didn't have as many demands or access to many connections. So the need for instant service, answers or easy access to discoverable knowledge was nothing like it is today.
Today, everything from health care and patient records to buying a home or taking out a mortgage; is more about what the customer knows, not about what the enterprise knows or wants to sell or tell any more.
To become a truly Connected Enterprise TM it is more about what the customer tells the enterprise they want, through their actions on everything from web sites to emails. We first solved this problem by creating our 1to1REAL platform based on the CRM3 ® research and the reality of the market.
Connected Relationship Management, Messaging and Measurement creates a two way street of integrated interaction between vendors and consumers. It accounts for the intersections and surprises when interactions provide new information.
We always felt that the days of the "one way street", the one dimensional Customer Relationship Management tools would fade quickly in favor of a multi-tiered model where customers drove and were intimately involved in the relationship - from providing information about the sale to the services they expect.
This was a major departure for the original concept of contact management, designed to help keep track of information about customers. CRM or Customer Relationship Management was designed to keep track of transactions and customers needs and demands, so that a sales force could tell and sell. Both CRM and contact management solutions were designed to help the business - but left the customer hanging.
Today, consumers, buyers and patients are all expected to drive the process to get the services and products they are searching for - the products they will eventually buy.
To be Connected 4 Real - a company must have a platform that truly integrates their enterprise with their internal operations and the demands of their customer market. That leads to the second basic principle: Business Integration.
Integrating the software and tools of your core business is critical, as is the third and final basic principle of being Connected 4 Real - which is how your business operates using unique processes to maximize its opportunity and profits in the market place.
I've written more details about these three principles to help businesses understand how to get Connected 4 Real. The longer version of this article can be accessed for free by members of any Connected Market Space community - RealEstock.com, CMAEON.com or EHealth Connected.com.
To request more information, please enter your information below and we will provide you access to our Connected Market Space members area.
Hopefully this gives you some ideas on how to get Connected 4 Real.
And as Always- Stay Connected! Tim