Is the Digitizatioin of Society a Good or Bad Thing?

As consumers shift their offline lives to an online world, the concept of "digitization" has many meanings, depending on your perspective. From a big picture, we are interacting with friends, family and co-workers more electronically than face-to-face. Communication is via e-mail, text messages, Facebook and other online means that in many cases are not only more convenient, but give you the ability to reach out and touch several people at the same time with your message.

Check out the following video and see just some of the examples of how business is changing. After you watch it, keep scrolling for some thoughts/observations.

So, it appears that the digitization of business (maybe even our society as a whole) is inevitable, but is that a good or bad thing? What does this mean for your personal relationships? While I'm happily married (13 years, thank you!), I had a conversation with one of my single friends who said that dating now is a completely different experience than it was a few years ago. The temptation is to "Google" for information on your date, check out their Facebook profile, snoop around their LinkedIn information, etc... Think about it, you could show up for that traditionally "awkward" first date knowing more about the person sitting across from you than some couples married 15 or 20 years ago knew about each other before saying their "I DOs". Is this a good thing?

From a business perspective, even the smallest mistake or customer service slip can spread across the 'net in an instant. That means someone on your team having a "bad day" can do more damage now than ever - but most businesses don't even have a strategy to monitor (and address) when something like this happens.

What do you think? Is this digital shift a good or bad thing for society? Not that we can keep it from happening (that would be like trying to keep the sun from coming up in the morning), but if we KNOW what's going on, we can develop strategies to address the changes the challenges facing us today.

Looking forward to your thoughts...
~Eric

99 vs. 1 = 99% - Would You Take Those Odds?

Ok, so when you were in school I'm suspecting that if you got 99 out of 100 questions right on an exam you'd be pretty happy (at least I know that would have been the case with me). Heck, I probably would have been satisfied with something even less than missing only one question. Now don't get me wrong, it's not like I was a terrible student, but in most cases if you get in the 90th percentile you're doing pretty darn good so even missing eight or ten questions would still have got me an "A".

Now, let's take this same equation and move it into the business world. Let's say that out of every 100 customers you serve 99 of them that think you're the best thing since sliced bread and will continue to do business with you. May be wishful thinking, but work with me here... You were on time, guarantee your work, delivered exactly what you promised (or maybe even went above and beyond) or whatever the reason... 99% of the time your customers LOVE you. That's a good thing, right? Sure it is...

Well hold on there mister. Let's talk about the ONE lonely sole that felt you did them wrong. Let's talk about the 1%. To them, you may have come off as rude, didn't meet their expectations, were too expensive, one of your employees treated them unfairly, etc... Whatever the case may be, you get the picture here. But the important thing to note is that this person (whether they are justified or not) thinks you suck and they are going to tell the world to right the wrong that has been done unto them.

Let me introduce you to Customer Ratings. These are the little "stars" that people can give you in things like Google, Yahoo Local and review sites like Yelp, Epinions, ConsumerSearch, RateMDs, and others. Now you and I both know that you've got a 99% "perfect" record that would get you an "A" in school, but do these customers always go out and tell the rest of the world they enjoy doing business with you? Maybe, but maybe not. In most cases, unless you ask or you do something really stupendous, they will be content and just keep doing business with you. But, they likely will not take the time (or energy) to seek out a way to submit their feedback on a review site and tell the rest of the world.

Now, back to your (former) customer that felt you were out to get him. Think this guy will go out and tell the world about how evil you are to your fellow man? You bet he will. In this instance with all things being equal, if your business is up against another business in the same industry and you have a negative review that will tip the scales in the favor of your competition! But wait, you have a 99% success rate. Doesn't that count for something? Don't I have an "A"???

With online customer reviews now playing more of an important role in a consumers' decision making process, the opinions of our peers mean more than any form of advertising you can do as a business owner. In fact, in the Socialnomics video (below), one of the key statistics that stands out to me is the fact that 78% of people trust the opinions and views of others, while only 14% trust advertising. This means that you could promote your 99% success rate in an advertisement telling the world how wonderful you are, but you'd only have 14% (if you're lucky) of the readers believe you. Yet in comparison, that ONE customer who felt you were out to get him will be believed by over three-quarters of those that read his comment. Now, all of a sudden that 1% yields quite a bit of power of your potential customer base...

So, what are YOU doing to help with your online reputation and customer ratings? Anything? Did you realize this was even going on? Even if you're not worried about combating negative ratings at this point, did you know that customer reviews can help to enhance your local search rankings? The search engines know this 14/78 statistic and those businesses with reviews are of more importance to consumers, and therefore to the search engines.

If you're wondering how to make this all happen, drop me a note and let's chat. WSI just brought a great service provider into our network called CustomerLobby that can help not only get you the positive reviews your business deserves, but help with your local search results too.

Chat soon...
Eric

P.S. Be sure to keep an eye on Free Webinar Wednesdays as we'll be featuring the CEO of CustomerLobby in an upcoming show and you can learn more about this great new service. If you're not part of the FWW family, hop over to the site and register or join us on Facebook to get the scoop on what's coming up. Don't forget, we have all of our webinars archived on the FWW site, so if you can't join us live you can always watch the session later. The webinars are every Wednesday at 1 pm Eastern and of course, free...