Our Blog – Strategic Alliances
Social Media at Your Service
Posted Monday, October 12, 2009 at 02:50 PM by Norma Watenpaugh
One area in which social media is gaining traction is support services.When you combine partners in an interactive forum they become a self-help community.When you add customers to the mix, your partners become very competitive in demonstrating their expertise to the customer base.The result is very organic but very effective way of providing support services.
Lithium, a social networking CRM company, has carved out a niche among vendors supporting large developer communities. Lithium in particular has documented the ROI of community support and service. By leveraging the on-line expertise of the community, costs are offloaded from the enterprise support system and responses are typically much faster than traditional call centers. One respondent noted that a 5 minute service call costs $100. Since most customer inquiries can be answered in just a few minutes, support costs are dramatically reduced and customer satisfaction is dramatically increased through the rapid response of a community-based support model.
A few organizations advocated integrating Twitter into service and support operations.One organization reporting that they have a 5-minute response goal from the time a complaint is tweeted to when someone from the company responds with an offer of assistance.
Comcast has become a model case of how customer complaints can be proactively addressed through Twitter. Comcast Corporation is the largest cable television company and the second-largest Internet service provider. Its broadband Internet service reaches about 13 million subscribers.Comcast has been notorious for poor customer service, spawning anti-fan websites, and it won the dubious honor of being voted Worst Company in America by on-line subscribers of The Consumerist magazine. In mid 2008, Comcast began to use Twitter to monitor subscriber sentiment and to respond to customer complaints within minutes.Too soon to tell if they have rehabilitated their poor reputation overall, but it is clear that those individuals who receive a proactive and unsolicited offer of assistance were impressed. Comcast has received business press attention including the following article in BusinessWeek for their innovation.
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Tags: Social Media, self service communities
Social Media and Partnering
Posted Thursday, September 3, 2009 at 11:17 PM by Norma Watenpaugh
Social media hype is everywhere. We are deluged with it on-line. We see it on TV. Our kids are absorbed by Facebook. The State department even requests that Twitter delays maintenance to ensure continuity in the information flow from civil unrest in Iran. Even as we are coming to grips with Social...
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Tags: social media, partnering
The Power of Green Alliances
Posted Wednesday, May 20, 2009 at 02:32 PM by Norma Watenpaugh
Attended an ASAP Green breakfast this morning and it was certainly eye opening even if the coffee arrived late.
Hal LaFlash, Dir Emerging Clean Technology Policyfrom PG&E -that's Pacific Gas and Electric for the non-Californians - spoke on the many alliances that PG&E has been...
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Tags: power, green, alliances
The ROI of Loyalty (Part II)
Posted Monday, May 11, 2009 at 11:17 PM by Norma Watenpaugh
Part I discussed how demographic segmentation allowedtargeting programs, benefits, and attention to engender greater loyalty and business through their developers. Part II addresseshow segmentation by 'Loyalty' itself helps to identify andto address specific concerns of developers. While...
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Tags: roi, loyalty
The ROI of Loyalty (Part I)
Posted Tuesday, April 28, 2009 at 11:17 PM by Norma Watenpaugh
I was approached by a client some weeks ago to present at conference some work we did on Developer Loyalty. Now there are a lot satisfaction type surveys out there, but my client presented a very specific challenge. She was new in the role as the Director of the Developer Community and...
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Tags: roi, loyalty
Strategic Alliance Bookshelf
Posted Monday, January 5, 2009 at 03:09 PM by Norma Watenpaugh
Have you read a book in the past year that made an impact on you and how you manage alliances and partnerships? Could even be one you've written!! Here are some that I read this past year which I found had relevance to the field of alliance management. NOT listed in any order other than how they...
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Tags: alliances, reading, list
Alliances in the News
Posted Sunday, December 7, 2008 at 08:32 PM by Norma Watenpaugh
Plans for Strategic Alliances on the Rise
Nearly one-third of consumer products companies plan to forge new strategic alliances in the upcoming 12 months (30 percent), up 8 points from the second quarter of 2008 according to Pricewaterhouse Coopers
NEW YORK, Dec 4, 2008» View Full Post and Leave Feedback
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Strategic Alliances - More now than ever
Posted Monday, October 13, 2008 at 11:17 PM by Norma Watenpaugh
Strategic alliances are often viewed as a strategy for growth and perhaps not always a strategy for economically challenging times. But many of the reasons that make strategic alliances a good idea in good times make them an even better strategy for uncertain times. What are these reasons to partner...
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Tags: strategic alliances, importance
Driving Growth through Win-Win Alliances
Posted Sunday, June 1, 2008 at 11:17 PM by Norma Watenpaugh
What do you think of, when you think win-win? Most business people will interpret that as "I win and my partner wins". Unfortunately quite a number will behave differently: "win-win means I win twice!" This, as you can imagine, does not produce sustainable partnerships. Smart business people will...
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Tags: partnering, growth
Coopetition - Sleeping with the Enemy
Posted Friday, April 25, 2008 at 11:17 PM by Norma Watenpaugh
The April meeting of the Silicon Valley/Norcal Chapter of the Association of Strategic Alliance Professionals featured a panel discussion on Coopetition. It turns out to be as hard to pronounce as it is to do. The panel often...
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Tags: alliances, cooperation, competition
Collaborative Innovation: Leveraging Partnerships
Posted Friday, March 28, 2008 at 11:17 PM by Norma Watenpaugh
"Collaborative Innovation: Leveraging Strategic Partnerships for the Global Playing Field" Sunday, March 30, 2008BlogTalkRadio: www.BlogTalkRadio.com/CoachforInnovation... » View Full Post and Leave Feedback Tags: partnering, innovation Posted Wednesday, February 20, 2008 at 11:17 PM by Norma Watenpaugh A successful alliance program begins at the top with the support of the CEO. Like many other things, the CEO influences company culture, models the behavior, and sets the priorities in collaborative relationships. CEO support and that of the CXO staff fosters the environment where alliances can... » View Full Post and Leave Feedback Tags: partnering, success, alliances, secretsStrategic Alliance Secret #4 Success Begins at the Top
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