In a recent blog post, Alan Majer described his positive customer service experience with HP, so when I came across this video clip of CMO Mike Mendenhall I was interested to learn about the strategies that HP was integrating into their everyday practices to improve, not only customer service, but their marketing efforts as well.

After watching the clip there are two quotes that stick out as having provided some great insight into HP’s future direction:

“Brands are not defined today by campaigns but by the consumer ecosystems we nurture to support them”

“When you look at your customer service, the digital strategy can play an incredible role and in fact what I think and what we have seen is that it can actually be much more effective….We know of communities that have existed on their own as a social community around HP are actually solving customer service issues for HP customers better than at times some of our own service department people. So you can have more accuracy within this community, bring efficiency into the process of the operation and actually be more effective….I do believe it is a digital strategy that should exist across the operations of a company and not just in marketing and communications.”

It is evident that HP not only promotes consumer feedback and the creation of social networks around its product lines but it actually listens to what consumers are saying, which in turn creates a win-win situation for the both consumers and the company. As outlined by Mendenhall, it creates an entire process that becomes more efficient and effective –by using the information gleaned from these social communities to help correct consumer problems the first time they occur. This results happy HP users and a customer service department that isn’t laden with call-backs and complaints about the same problem. The positive customer experience that follows translates into positive word-of-mouth and ultimately creates a stronger brand. As HP has learned, it doesn’t necessarily matter what HP’s marketing campaign says about their brand, it matters what a trusted and influential source (friends, neighbours, digital communities) has to say about the brand. It is the old marketing rule dressed up in digital clothing; listen to your customers, apply the information they provide, create a satisfied consumer base. This may seem simple or straightforward but more often than not companies fail to see the value provided. Some companies aren’t aware that social networks about their brand even exist let alone use the information to improve their service and even worse some companies create social networks around their brand as if to say “we’re doing something digital” and then ignore any consumer-generated ideas. Companies like this invariably believe that they better understand their brand than does the customer. In other instances, customer suggestions make it inside the company boardroom but they either get lost in translation or because they don’t fit with the current strategy they are cast aside.

Hats off to HP for making the effort to actually listen to their customers, perhaps other companies can take a (digital) page from HP’s playbook, or else risk alienating clients and eroding brand value. In an era when existing and potential clients can connect with one another in ways never seen before, ignoring these influential, digital communities is a risky business practice for firms seeking to remain at the forefront of their industry.