Shut Up- You’re Helping the Customer!

What Bob could have done differently:

If a company doesn’t “get it”, it doens’t mean they can’t and never will. The job of the social media types like Bob is to help the company “get it” in a way that will work, vs. a way that scares them.

1) Collect the customer feedback on the campaign or whatever is being talked about, and present it and say, “wow, this is great, people are talking about us”

2) Say, “there could be a big benefit to us if we participated” in this conversation.

3) Here is my proposal, I could jump into this stream, collect feedback, and answer questions. I would not mention any employees, or share any confidential information, just serve the customers.

4)Why don’t we have a customer service manager sponsor this project, and follow along, so the company learns more.

5) I suggest a weekly review from (an executive) to make sure the conversation is adding value.

6) I volunteer to organize this, and lead our conversation.

There are many legal and brand issues companies have, and individuals talking directly to the public is scary for them.

What people like Bob need to remind (and show) them is that the conversation led by individuals about them is happening already, whether or not they participate.

@Rufus: You may be correct that Bob has no tribe. But the company does; the tribe are the customers. Bob is one of many corporate voices, but one who understands the old saying, “The customer is right,” and chooses to listen to them and be their so-called online leader.

@Jay: Keep in mind that Bob was originally given permission to engage with customers on an online forum. Maybe you’re right and Bob should cease contact. He’d need to write a goodbye message on the forum, right? Maybe something like, “Hi guys, I’ve enjoyed talking to you but effective immediately, corporate management no longer wants me to talk to you. Have a good day.”

That will end it. But is that something Bob’s manager wants Bob to say? If Bob doesn’t say it, the customers will keep asking questions on that online forum, there will be no response, and the phone calls will start pouring in referencing Bob.

Sounds like poor “Bob” was a “unicorn in a balloon factory.” (Yes, I have been reading Seth Godin and I’m hip dip in triiibes).

That said, it sounds to me like a great opportunity for the competition. “The Widget Weasals may not care about their customers, but Fizzbin Inc. does.”

I hope “Bob” gets a new job soon!

Sounds like poor “Bob” was a “unicorn in a balloon factory.” (Yes, I have been reading Seth Godin and I’m hip dip in triiibes).

That said, it sounds to me like a great opportunity for the competition. “The Widget Weasals may not care about their customers, but Fizzbin Inc. does.”

I hope “Bob” gets a new job soon!

I agree with everyone who commented that Bob was in error continuing the conversation online after being told to stop. Let’s talk trust here. Bob got permission to begin engaging the online community. But the company got scared, and his boss said “stop your end of the conversation.” My guess here is Bob’s boss took whatever heat at this point, as he should have, since he gave the original permission. But Bob didn’t stop. The company shouldn’t be demonized just because it won’t get on board with social media. And why should we trust Bob, just because he claims he wasn’t giving away company secrets? This tale ceased being about social media when Bob took it upon himself to ignore the directive from his boss. At that point, to me, it’s about job performance. Just because it involves “social media” doesn’t make it different. Would Bob have started running off full color flyers on his home computer and mailed them to the company’s list of customers, all in the name of helping them? Sure, that would be cost-prohibitive, and Bob would probably not want to spend the money. Just because Bob now has, as we all have, a form of cheaper “broadcasting” capabilities, doesn’t change the fact that he ignored what his boss told him to do.

I feel for Bob. I am presently in a situation similar to his, only I haven’t gone all-out representing my employer without his consent, not because I fear something similar to Bob’s situation may happen, but because I already know that my ideas and my work are underappreciated as it is.

I work at a small interactive agency that desperately needs to be active in social media and would benefit from it immensely. My boss was grasping at straws trying to find leads and have more of a presence online, so naturally I asked him what he was doing as far as social media.

He literally laughed at me and said, “My clients are older than you.” I kid you not. He’s in the mindset that SM is just for young twenty-somethings with Facebook accounts.

So instead of trying to convince him otherwise and wasting my breath, I’m keeping my mouth shut and leaving soon. I’m not going to sit around and watch my employer lose business because he’s not getting with the times. I have people who want my consultation and have decided to go out on my own, and if I end up stealing some of my current employer’s clients down the road, well, it’s his loss.

Rather than taking the natural steps that you’d expect an interactive agency to DO (evolve into using more social media), my old-school-minded boss rewound the clock a couple decades and hired a telemarketer. Somebody needs to tell him that 1985 called and wants its job back.

I feel for Bob. I am presently in a situation similar to his, only I haven’t gone all-out representing my employer without his consent, not because I fear something similar to Bob’s situation may happen, but because I already know that my ideas and my work are underappreciated as it is.

I work at a small interactive agency that desperately needs to be active in social media and would benefit from it immensely. My boss was grasping at straws trying to find leads and have more of a presence online, so naturally I asked him what he was doing as far as social media.

He literally laughed at me and said, “My clients are older than you.” I kid you not. He’s in the mindset that SM is just for young twenty-somethings with Facebook accounts.

So instead of trying to convince him otherwise and wasting my breath, I’m keeping my mouth shut and leaving soon. I’m not going to sit around and watch my employer lose business because he’s not getting with the times. I have people who want my consultation and have decided to go out on my own, and if I end up stealing some of my current employer’s clients down the road, well, it’s his loss.

Rather than taking the natural steps that you’d expect an interactive agency to DO (evolve into using more social media), my old-school-minded boss rewound the clock a couple decades and hired a telemarketer. Somebody needs to tell him that 1985 called and wants its job back.

@Vicki: I’m surprised it took this long for someone to mention that Bob’s manager did not go to bat for him against a manager of another division. He could still address Bob with any dissatisfaction, but the other manager is sticking his nose in and undermining anything Bob’s manager was allowing in the first place. We really don’t know the other manager’s motives, but by screaming “SLIPPERY SLOPE” and going over the head of Bob’s manager as well, I have to question this manager and whether he may have it out for Bob in the first place.

It looks like all of the management’s action have been to cater to this outside manager. So it sound like Bob doesn’t have the people above him, that (1.) “get it”, and (2.) have the backbone to do anything about it even if they did.

There is a saying somewhat akin to “begging for forgiveness is easier than asking for permission”, and it certainly seems applicable to Bob’s plight.

Reading stories of innovators you will often find insubordination as well as failures until success comes along. Innovation and rules make for strange bedfellows. Actually they don’t always hang out at the same bar, so it’s unlikely that they’ll find themselves in the same bed. But what’s happened here is that Bob has found something that has inspired him, and he developed a passion in his job that wasn’t there before. And maybe this passion is just what Bob needed to realize that maybe this ain’t the place for him, and he would be better off working somewhere else. And because of his own doing he can include the social media experience on his resume.

Bob and this company look like they will part ways. Bob might be able to put together a good argument for what he’s doing, but if no one on the chain of command gets it, then Bob will be working somewhere else soon. But the whole situation could have gone another way where someone saw what Bob was doing, studied it, applied it with their group, built upon it, and come up with a whole new system for their business that was universally loved throughout the organization.

It could have panned out this way. But no one would ever know, unless Bob started doing what Bob was doing.

I’d rather be fired for being a “maverick” in a true sense and not as a politicized soundbite, than sitting in my cubicle clutching my red Swingline for dear life, waiting for the day the company decides I’m no longer useful.

Good luck, Bob.

I agree with Larzini and a few others completely. Unfortunately some Business owners or Corporate types of the biggest well known companies. s
Still have a mind set of complete Corporate Secrecy, keep everyone in the dark, the customers, the vendors, the investors and yes even the employees.

I say stay on course Bob…
Your gut instinct will guide you as what to do.

Was lucky enough to work for a Fortune 500 Company that let me triangle…Pulled in Vendors, Customers and Upper Echelons prompting them communicaticate honestly between each sector…Until it was no longer three sectors but one group working towards better quality, on time product deliveries, employee job satisfaction, customer satisfaction and input, vendor suggesting new ideas, products etc. Result? Company had 98% on time delivery-94% customer satisfaction and best of all Company saved $850,000.00 in raw material costs. (Dow Corning, GE. E.I. DuPont and Kodak being our biggest suppliers.

Planners, Engineers, Vendors, CEO types, Main Customers, Purchasing Mgr all in the loop at once? Unheard of! =)

If you dream it…
It can be done!

I agree with Larzini and a few others completely. Unfortunately some Business owners or Corporate types of the biggest well known companies. s
Still have a mind set of complete Corporate Secrecy, keep everyone in the dark, the customers, the vendors, the investors and yes even the employees.

I say stay on course Bob…
Your gut instinct will guide you as what to do.

Was lucky enough to work for a Fortune 500 Company that let me triangle…Pulled in Vendors, Customers and Upper Echelons prompting them communicaticate honestly between each sector…Until it was no longer three sectors but one group working towards better quality, on time product deliveries, employee job satisfaction, customer satisfaction and input, vendor suggesting new ideas, products etc. Result? Company had 98% on time delivery-94% customer satisfaction and best of all Company saved $850,000.00 in raw material costs. (Dow Corning, GE. E.I. DuPont and Kodak being our biggest suppliers.

Planners, Engineers, Vendors, CEO types, Main Customers, Purchasing Mgr all in the loop at once? Unheard of! =)

If you dream it…
It can be done!

I have a mixed feeling about this.

On one hand it is correct that Bob tried helping the company.
However he did the wrong thing by continuing to interact (in the name of the company).

Bob should have stopped when they told him so. After all if all the competitors start ‘interacting online;, then Bob can say see I was right.

Poor Bob! He’s in a tough situation as a social media advocate working at a place where the culture does not share his views.

I would recommend he put out feelers and expand his personal network. People should always be growing their networks because no few jobs offer lifetime guarantees.

In the meantime,if I were Bob, I’d focus on building internal relationships within the organization and begin to develop some alliances. Management feels that conversing with the customer online is dangerous. He may never be able to change this, but understanding why they feel this way would be a good place to start.

John P. Kreiss
MorganSullivan, Inc.
Business Solutions in Real Estate and Construction

Poor Bob! He’s in a tough situation as a social media advocate working at a place where the culture does not share his views.

I would recommend he put out feelers and expand his personal network. People should always be growing their networks because no few jobs offer lifetime guarantees.

In the meantime,if I were Bob, I’d focus on building internal relationships within the organization and begin to develop some alliances. Management feels that conversing with the customer online is dangerous. He may never be able to change this, but understanding why they feel this way would be a good place to start.

John P. Kreiss
MorganSullivan, Inc.
Business Solutions in Real Estate and Construction

Wow, I kinda feel sorry for Bob’s company. They’re going to lose out unless they pull themselves into the 21st century. I hope Bob is looking for a job in social media. If not, I feel sorry for him too.

Phil

Late to the party here, but a few thoughts:

One, Bob admits that he went against a directive to cease this activity. Really, all of the “ZOMG, social media & engagement are where it’s at” doesn’t matter one whit in this case. He is an employee, he was told to stop. As a manager, it would make me VERY unhappy if an employee went and did something that I specifically directed him not to do. It’s not his decision to make.

Two, Fortune 500′s aren’t little companies. They are massive. Lots and lots of silos. This sort of thing–miscommunication between divisions–happens all the time. If Bob has a problem with the different silos, he needs to work within the established framework and address that, not make corporate decisions on his own. The comparison to the military is actually apt, at a big company you need people to, well, behave. If Bob gets to talk to customers, why can’t I across 20K employees is a nightmare for some companies. It’s the company’s decision to make, not Bob’s.

Three, “[...] that sells a product, an expensive product, the kind of thing that makes an Mercedes look like a value meal.” If there’s really that kind of money tied up in sales, then trust me, there is a very specific audience. This isn’t Coke or Pepsi, and there is a great deal at stake if something is mishandled by Bob.

Interesting case, but if a company isn’t ready (or for whatever reason doesn’t want to) engage in social media, it’s not, not, not up to an individual employee to make that decision.

Jen

Late to the party here, but a few thoughts:

One, Bob admits that he went against a directive to cease this activity. Really, all of the “ZOMG, social media & engagement are where it’s at” doesn’t matter one whit in this case. He is an employee, he was told to stop. As a manager, it would make me VERY unhappy if an employee went and did something that I specifically directed him not to do. It’s not his decision to make.

Two, Fortune 500′s aren’t little companies. They are massive. Lots and lots of silos. This sort of thing–miscommunication between divisions–happens all the time. If Bob has a problem with the different silos, he needs to work within the established framework and address that, not make corporate decisions on his own. The comparison to the military is actually apt, at a big company you need people to, well, behave. If Bob gets to talk to customers, why can’t I across 20K employees is a nightmare for some companies. It’s the company’s decision to make, not Bob’s.

Three, “[...] that sells a product, an expensive product, the kind of thing that makes an Mercedes look like a value meal.” If there’s really that kind of money tied up in sales, then trust me, there is a very specific audience. This isn’t Coke or Pepsi, and there is a great deal at stake if something is mishandled by Bob.

Interesting case, but if a company isn’t ready (or for whatever reason doesn’t want to) engage in social media, it’s not, not, not up to an individual employee to make that decision.

Jen

I had this very same experience 10 years ago, although I didn’t post officially in the space (unofficially yes) and they went NUTS trying to find out who.

I even took Cluetrain Manifesto and gave it to the CEO – got into serious trouble for that. They really didn’t have a clue…and were management consultants, people you’d expect to want to have ‘conversations’ and are probably all over social media now…but upto 5 years ago when I got out all online contacts – even responses to emails and posts of grad sites had to be vetoed. They even got stuff legally pulled off The Register.

So yeah companies like this will continue to be opaque and not get a ‘clue’ and listen to their own employees, let alone their customers…and yeah I eventually got the PIP. Nasty. I recommend leaving if you can – in this current economic climate like then it was hard and I stayed.

Wished I hadn’t. Wasted year of my life…best go work for people who understand that social media and online interaction is probably what will save some companies from a fate worse that Woolworths – already it seems like with PC Magazine trad paper ad spend is going and online marketing is becoming the thing…

I know how Bob feels. That’s why I always interact with the public under a pseudonym. Often times people ask me who the heck I am in real life. Then I have to explain that the people who pay me have rules. And you know what the first rule about Fight Club is, right?