Today's society is immersed in the "Age of the Consumer", in the rise of the Social Consumer who lives day to day digital trends, sees, gives opinions and has enormous credibility.
Today, more than 65% of consumers in the world are "social", a number that increases significantly if we focus on those under 30 years of age, where the percentage reaches 90% and up to 95%.
This is someone who trusts brands differently, has a great influence on others, a lot of buying power and the ability to damage your company without asking permission, just with a simple comment on social networks.
If you have a mobile device connected to the Internet, if you use a social network, if you have sent text messages or shared a photo from your mobile, if you have bought or stopped buying something after seeing someone else's comments and complained about a product on an "unofficial" website, you are also a Social Consumer.
Companies, whatever their market, must be prepared with a strategy to attract customers, being very clear about digital trends and the necessary aspects to have a good relationship with these social consumers:
1. You will have more different types of customers than ever before.
The moment you open yourself to listening to them, you will realize that there is a huge diversity of customers who each want to be treated as individuals.
2. Direct and actionable inputs must be collected.
Do I have the ability to collect your information, process it and then use it as a sales tool.
3. At the same time, it is about keeping costs under control, but increasing sophistication in the relationship with customers.
Hiring and using software that allows me to be smarter in communicating with customers while being more cost effective.
4. Know how to make use of DATA: the aim is to deliver the best possible product or service.
You must generate a personalized experience, be able to reach the right person, at the right time and with the right message. We must use data to know not only what I am going to sell and at what time I am going to make contact to generate a relationship with the customer.
5. The brand must be protected at the same time as it is promoted.
By exposing the brand to the social consumer, it is also exposed to criticism or "mistreatment", so you must have the ability to monitor it.
6. The aim is to develop an agile and flexible business, capable of handling complexity, diversity and granularity.
When I start giving the customer a fast and personalized service, a pleasant experience, I start pushing the rest of the company to review its business model.
"It used to be that a customer was a person who gave a company their money in exchange for a product or service; today a customer is anyone with whom the organization exchanges some value."
Excerpt from the Webinar How to prepare your customer strategy for the upcoming digital transformation 2.0, given by Professor Juan Carlos Barahona, Academic Director of the Digital Transformation program.
