Look to your Bad Habits to Foster Your Goals

When helping many enterprises wrap their arms around a social strategy, I always try to get them to circle back to their business drivers or goals for embarking on a social roadmap.   If these aren’t in place it will be virtually impossible to arrive at results never mind deploy the correct social technology to succeed!

A blog post on Workshifting.com regarding “7 Habits That Derail Your Goals” by David Baeza really pushed me rethink goal setting process.   The definition of a goal by the Oxford Dictionary is “the object of a person's ambition or effort; an aim or desired result”.   This is critical in developing a social roadmap.  

My epiphany was: Goals are set to Rectify Bad Habits.   Goal setting, by nature, should be prefaced by a gut wrenching exercise to determine why this is a goal to start.  What aren’t you doing or what are you doing which is preventing the ideal nature of business nirvana?   We all have heard to death that “Goals need to be measureable.” Sure, okay… but does that make them achievable?   Think about a personal goal which continues to show up on the list in January year after year.  Some of the top personal goals every year are to lose weight, stop smoking, spend more time with family, exercise more…  you get the picture.   

Let’s look at this.   On your goal list is:  I want to lose 30 pounds this year.  Okay, that is:

1.     Attainable (given you have 30lbs to lose) with proper management and is less than a pound a week. 
2.     It can be measured by a scale
3.    It can be broken up into smaller goals that can be used as incentives along the way.  I want to lose 10 pounds by March 31^st.

What most people don’t do is look at really why they need to lose 30 pounds.  They may realize they don’t eat healthy or exercise or have an addiction to ice cream.  However, these are still symptoms rather than the root of the problem that is causing the issue.   You aren’t going to suddenly decide fruit is tastier and a craving rather than ice cream.  

Moving this into the professional realm.   Do you want to have better customer retention?  Okay great.  Your social strategy goal is to impact customer retention and increase your percentage by 10% over two years and drive incremental existing customer sales up by also 10%.   Lofty goals, my friend.  Lets put the goal analysis magnifying glass on it.

1.      Attainable: Yes, companies can improve customer retention by 10%
2.      It can be measured.  Sure I have 1000 customers how many of these are still customers in two years.
3.      It can be broken into smaller subsets

Here is the question…  Why are you having a problem with retention in the first place?  Better communication and listening to your customers on a 24/7/365 basis is certainly a step in the right direction just like joining a gym.   However, simply having a place to listen or work out is not going to get you to the goal.  For many, this is hitting bottom.  They have looked in the mirror and decided what is looking back at them isn’t the person or company they want to be in life.   If you are a company leader, is the organization really the best it can be?  Are you finally ready to implement changes that need to happen in order to make your customers more loyal or buy more from you?   Are you cultural ready?  

You may not realize the core of the problem.  Your customers probably understand it.  Social Technology can be a great mirror.  Painful for some.   Addicting to others.   So when you look in your corporate mirror are you seeing the Biggest Loser when they walk into get on the scale for the first time or at the finale?   Zappos.com, Ford Motor Company, American Express and others are addicted to looking in their social mirrors at themselves.  It is not a bad thing for you and others to like what you see.  

Success is not chance.  It is hard work with a bit of luck around the edges.   Social success is not easy or free.   Companies that are seeing success have dedicated the appropriate resources from a human resource, financial and cultural standpoint.   

Social Selection

Earlier this week, I attended a Gaspedal event in NYC on Word of Mouth Marketing (WOMMA) called "SuperGenius". I was looking forward to going.  Not only did they have a bang up list of speakers and facilitators, it is always great to network and perchance to under cover a new potential customer or two.   Ironically, I had started my prep for this about six months ago when I read one of the speaker's books, "I Love You More Than My Dog", by Jeanne Bliss.   I had pulled it out over the weekend to re-read some of the case studies ... especially those about Zappos.com as their CEO Tony Hsieh was also keynoting.  

This conference was suppose to be able how to get the word out about your company using "Word of Mouth" and specifically, social networking.   However, one of the key underlying themes was about hiring the right people and promoting the right culture.  Happy employees create a happy culture which will not go unnoticed by your customers.   Good service -> no EXEMPLARY SERVICE gets noticed.   Humans not technology solve other humans problems and heart break ... your employees hold your brand, your customer relationship, and can be the center of a solid WOM program. Social Networking applications and technology help facilitate human interaction.  Be careful as you hire... Be more careful to make sure your decisions impact in a positive way your employees. 

Case in Point:    While running errands on Saturday, I popped into a local pet food store, The Feed Barn that has several locations to pick up some cat food and Frontline.   While there, I over heard two employees that have been there quite awhile considering retail turnover about the owner installing web cams.   Given the economy, I thought they may be experiencing a theft problem.   I commented.   I was shocked to find out the webcams were being installed around their time clock because while one employee was helping out the last customer perhaps 15-18 minutes after closing, Another one was punching them all out ...  The owner thought this was because at 6:16 he had to pay them all another 15 minutes.    So ...   he has now not only lost the trust of his employees .. they have spread the word (although prompted by me) ...  I have told others and used it as an example of what not to do!  I also suggested the irony of the book by Jeanne "I Love You More than my Dog" and that they should buy it for him. One of the Five Principals discussed is "Decide to Believe". This starts with all your networks.  Customers, Employees, Suppliers... However, your employees are always at the core. 

Select people with your values.   Choose people passionate about success.   Happy employees radiate a glow and it shows with customers.   Be human.

Zappos actually will pay people to resign if it isn't the right fit for new employees.   No harm no foul... just don't pollute our culture with anything less than your complete joy in doing your job.   What companies (large or small) do you feel do a great job at this?