The Story of The Conversation Company

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‘The Conversation Company’
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This March, we organized the „official‟ launch of the
Dutch version of „The Conversation Company‟ in
Belgium and The Netherlands. Thank you all for the
warm reactions and great feedback, I really enjoyed
the ride. To give everybody the opportunity to
understand my new book‟s key messages, I‟ve written
a series of 6 blog posts summarizing the core of my
new book and I‟ve assembled them in this paper while
warming up for the UK book launch in London on May
22nd.

Steven van Belleghem, May 2012

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The Conversation Company:
The world is full of paradoxes
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In your company there is a huge amount of unused
conversation potential

Every company is trying to change. Every marketing manager I am convinced that all companies have a huge amount of unused
wants to adapt his or her strategy to the modern consumer. The conversation potential. We are doing great things, but are not fully
problem, however, is that most are doing this from a tactical point integrating them. We organize cool campaigns, but fail to be real consumer
of view. Seven out of ten companies that have adjusted their centric in all our actions.
marketing strategy to reflect the expectations of the new
consumer regard these changes from a purely tactical We have a challenge for you. Try and look at your own company, purely
perspective.4 They have what we call a „checklist mentality‟. from the perspective of unused conversation potential. If you look carefully,
They heard that you need a Facebook page - so they create a you will find potential that is not being used in almost every corner of your
Facebook page. Check, done that! Twitter is becoming organisation. But by thinking and acting differently, you can put that
increasingly popular? Check, done that! Mobile apps are cool? potential to very good use. What is at stake is the creation of new and
Okay, I suppose we‟d better do that as well… This is all very more impactful conversations about who you are, what you do and what
good, and possibly well intended, but its purpose is tactical rather you sell.
than strategic. For example, a company of this kind will set up a
new Twitter account for each of its events. But they don‟t always
do the necessary follow-up. In other words, they are making The most important conversation starter with consumers is their
repeat investments in followers who are consequently left to their experience of your company. The impression made by your products and
own devices after the event. Investments may be made services is the most important reason for talking about you and your
occasionally to win new fans for the company‟s Facebook page. organisation. In addition, customers can ask questions about your
However, new content of interest is only posted on this page company via both online and offline channels. If you respond cleverly,
during campaigns. And the rest of the time? Little or nothing at all. these questions can lead to successful conversations. Companies can also
Not really the best way to create satisfied fans, is it? These encourage consumers to talk about them through the careful composition
actions fail, because they are not framed by the context of a of their content.
specific vision. They are just opportunistic, tactical pin pricks.

High-impact content leads to conversion and
new customers
The basis of these three conversation starters (customer These are the most important of these paradoxes:
experience, conversations and content) is to be found in the
interaction between different people (staff, customers, opinion
• Almost every company thinks that word-of-mouth advertising is
makers, etc.). Taken together, these aspects frequently exhibit a
important, but they make no effort to manage it. There is a
great deal of unused conversation potential. The paradox of
(mistaken) perception that companies can do little to influence
business: we all love positive conversations, but we make
consumer conversations.
decisions that block them.
• The companies communicate impersonally, while their customers
are demanding a more human approach.
When I talk to managers about the importance of conversations in
• The customer wants just one thing: to be treated in a manner that
supporting their business growth, most of them agree with me. If
makes him happy. Companies seem more concerned with
we discuss the unused conversation potential, they get a clear
processes, structures and budgets.
view on the huge opportunities for their companies.
However, most managers take decisions that block the • One of the global trends in the business world is a growing
conversation potential instead of boosting it. requirement for good service. Many companies see customer
Thanks to my first book, „The Conversation Manager‟, I have had service as a budget post on which savings can and should be made.
the luxury of getting the chance to brainstorm with over 100 • Customers want to help companies, want to be their friends. The
companies about the impact of contemporary consumers on their companies do not think that „just‟ a few hundred fans are worth
businesses. The conclusion is that most companies are riddled investing in.
with the strangest paradoxes. And each and every one of these • Companies spend a small fortune on advertising in which they
paradoxes results in the further underuse of conversation essentially make promises. The modern consumer wants proof, not
potential. promises; action, not just communication.
• Consumers talk to each other and often have interesting and
relevant things to say. Companies make little effort to track down
these comments and even less effort to take account of them.
• Consumers now have relatively sophisticated technology at their
disposal. Many companies are still working with outdated
technology. Indeed, Peter Hinssen has described „a job‟ as „the
eight hours a day when you work with ageing technology.‟35
• Staff are often proud of their companies and would like to talk about
them, but are forbidden to do so by their employers.

But the biggest paradox of all is this: we keep on saying on The Conversation Company breaks
a daily basis that satisfied customers and satisfied staff are
important, but our actions do little or nothing to reflect these the paradox
words.
Your task will not be easy. The path leading to the optimization of
This is the fundamental cause of unused conversation your conversation potential is strewn with paradoxes. These are
potential. During a presentation to 100 European marketers, obstacles that you must learn to avoid. This first blog about „The
I asked two simple questions: Conversation Company‟ makes clear that today‟s consumer wants
more from companies than just a creative Facebook page or an
1 Who thinks satisfied customers are important?‟ occasional response to a tweet. Today‟s consumer wants a
100 hands shot up into the air, accompanied by 100 baffled company that is open and receptive to his opinion, a company that
looks that anyone could ask such a stupidly obvious puts the customer first.
question.
In other words, a Conversation Company is not a company full of
2 Who dares say that they do absolutely everything Twittering employees. Our story is not just a social media story. The
possible to make their customers satisfied?‟ Conversation Company really puts the customer in a central
Just three hands remained in the air…. position. By eliminating the paradoxes we have mentioned, you will
maximize your conversation potential. This will lead to a constant
stream of positive conversations about your organization. These
Enough said. conversations will lay the foundations for your future growth.

In fact, „The Conversation Company‟ is a metaphor for the most
consumer centric organization you can imagine, using the power of
the people as a positive lever and thankfully accepting social media
as an ideal business partner. Tomorrow you will read about the heart
of the Conversation Company: company culture.

Please let me know what you think. Have you seen the same
paradoxes in your company or among your clients? Did I miss any
paradoxes?

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Corporate Culture is the Heart of The
Conversation Company
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I described the context most businesses are in: a lot of conversation potential left, but
somehow companies take the wrong decisions in finding a way to optimize the
conversation potential. In today‟s post, we dive into the core of the Conversation
Company: a Corporate Culture where the client has a central position. A culture that is
characterized by an open, authentic and positive spirit.

Company Culture is the Conversation Guide of
your company
The most commonly used definition of company culture is as follows:

“Company culture is a series of shared values and convictions
which help individuals to understand the functioning of the
company. A clear company culture makes it easy for the
employees to know precisely what the company expects of them.
Culture gives people an insight into the type of behaviour that is
desired within the company.”

Research has confirmed that a company culture often forms the basis for
the successful implementation of a strategy. A strong company culture
also has a positive impact on the performance and productivity of its
employees. The culture is a kind of „mental programming‟ for an
organization, which distinguishes it from its competitors.

Your culture is the personality of your organization and the foundation on
which your Conversation Company is built. Your staff and your customers
make this culture tangible to others. This involves a method of reasoning
that works from the inside to the outside. A traditional company is first and
foremost interested in making its shareholders happy. Making customers
happy only comes second, with the staff being a poor third. A
Conversation Company turns this logic upside down. If the staff are
happy, they will be pleased to make the customers happy; if the customers
are happy, profits will rise, so the shareholders will also be happy. The
CEO of Southwest Airlines puts it like this:

“We take good care of our staff. Our staff take good care of our
customers. And our customers take good care of our
shareholders.”

Your Company Culture is the conversation guide for employees and
clients. It makes clear to employees how to behave and how to
communicate with clients. For clients it becomes clear what to expect.

There is still some work to do for companies
in bringing culture to life
The many workshops that we have conducted with companies suggested to us that the factors which prompt organisations to start
with Conversation Management have little to do with company size or sector. The companies which are furthest along the
conversation road have either had a social media crisis in recent years (Dell, Comcast) or have a very strong company culture
(Zappos, Southwest Airlines). Research carried out for my new book has confirmed these general impressions. 82% of the companies
that already focus strongly on customer-oriented thinking have clear and consistently applied company values, in comparison with
54% of the companies that are at the start of their change process. 77% of the advanced companies think that culture is as important
as strategy, against just 31% in the starter companies. The same research shows that only 63% of American and British companies
have clearly defined corporate values. Just 56% make efforts to actively manage these values. 45% want to amend their values
because of the increasing importance of social media.

Culture must lead to identification with
your company
Every company needs appropriate values. There is no point trying to Our research has also shown that the ability of your
introduce the values of Zappos into Ford, or vice versa. Your values have employees to identify with your company values is the key to
a great impact on the conversations about your company. If staff interact a good company culture. The art when defining your values is
with people on the basis of these values, your company will speak with a therefore to ensure that people are able to recognise
single voice, even though it has a thousand different mouths. This themselves in them. If staff are able to relate to the values of
uniform approach means that your customers will get a clear and the company, a powerful mental and emotional bond will be
consistent experience, every time they come into contact with your created. This bond leads in turn to positive conversations. If
organisation. This leads to conversations that are appropriate for your your people feel good, they will converse enthusiastically
company. Moreover, it ensures that the conversations are about your company.
„believable‟, and therefore impactful. If your company does not have
clear values, each member of staff will be talking to your customers as an
individual, not as the representative of a coherent whole. In this
instance, the conversations will fly off in many different directions, and
will not have the impact that the Conversation Company seeks.

Many companies have similar values. The four most frequently cited
values are: result-oriented, customer-oriented, good service and integrity.
There is nothing wrong with these values, but they are hardly likely to
excite your customers – at least, not expressed in this manner. If you
read the ten values of Zappos, you immediately get a „feel‟ of what the
company is like and what it stands for. Values must help you to
differentiate your company.

To such an extent, that after a while the outside world begins to describe
your company in terms of your chosen values. Here at InSites
Consulting, it gives us great pleasure if one of our customers tells us that
he/she thinks that we are a passionate company. Passion is one of our
core values. And if our customers are able to feel this passion and tell us
that they have experienced it, this is a nice compliment – and it shows
that we are still on the right track.

There are three values in particular that can help to ensure a strong All three of these values are part of a strong culture. But it is
identification with your culture, and so lead to positive conversations: not our intention that you copy them literally! It‟s best to use
them as a source of inspiration when thinking about your own
• Open: Nike describes this perfectly: „transparency is a strength, „appropriate‟ set of values. Search for values that match your
not a threat.‟ The Conversation Company succeeds in image and needs. Above all, search for values that you know
communicating openly with its employees and customers. An you can truly live up to. These values will determine the
open attitude leads to the development of trust. Clear and open direction of everything that your company does: the
communication always encourages trust between people, and recruitment of staff, the development of new products, the
trust is the basis of impactful conversations. „Open‟ can be creation of new advertising campaigns, etc.
interpreted in many different ways. You can be open to negative
criticism. You can be open to collaboration with customers for the A company culture where the client has a central
development of new products. You can be open to the creation of position, supported with values like openness, authenticity
space for staff and customers who want to help your company. and happiness is the heart of The Conversation Company.
Our research showed that the companies which are furthest
advanced in terms of customer-oriented thinking are also the most
open to the idea of giving trust to their employees.

• Authentic: Being genuine and coming across to the public as
genuine are crucial factors in ensuring the credibility of
conversations. In his book „How cool brands stay hot‟ my InSites
Consulting partner Joeri Van den Bergh argues that authenticity is
one of the aspects that the brands of today must have, if they want
to convince the new generation of consumers (Generation Y).
Being honest with your staff, honest with your customers and
honest towards society are the key elements in acquiring this
authenticity. Recent surveys have shown that marketers regard
authenticity as the most important trend in the years ahead.

• Happiness: This factor is also mentioned in „How cool brands
stay hot‟. Our own research has shown that the modern
consumer likes positive emotions. Being positive and making
people feel good is an important conversation starter.

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The power of people as a positive booster
on your path to growth
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A strong client oriented company culture is the heart of the People – both inside and outside the company – are the most important
Conversation Company. The culture is the conversation guide source of conversations. When faced with this situation, a classic
for employees and clients. In today‟s post, I focus on the company behaves reactively and with suspicion; in contrast, a
power of the people and how companies can leverage this Conversation Company is proactive and positive.
unique asset.
Internal and external conversations are complementary. Your employees
make your culture tangible. Everything that they say and do reflects what
Internal and external communication your company stands for. Customers converse about their experience of
your company and your products. Both types of conversation influence
form a perfect duo public opinion and, consequently, your company results. For this reason,
companies are becoming more and more aware of the power of the
Under the old management model, all power was vested in the conversing customer. However, the role played by employees is still
company. This meant that all communication was guided by the seriously undervalued.
wishes of the commercial department. This communication was
also one directional: from inside to outside. In my book The
Conversation Manager I described how this traditional style of
communication is a finite process. To be effective, modern
advertising must be the start of a good conversation, and the
advertisers need to take part in that conversation. Dialogue
thinking must triumph over the broadcast model.

The Conversation Company applies the concept of the total
company. In other words, a Conversation Company knows how to
deal sensitively with the inverted hierarchy and is able to deal
respectfully with „people power‟ both inside and outside the
company. Their management model is designed to facilitate the
conversations of both employees and customers, with the aim of
generating as many positive and impactful conversations about
the company as possible.

Four types of companies

By combining these two sources of conversations (internal and
external), we can arrive at four different types of company:

• Boring companies: These are the companies that nobody
talks about; largely because there is little or nothing to say. If

Conversations from internal stakeholders
you position your company in this quadrant, you are in serious
trouble! In reality, this type of company does not exist in normal
circumstances. It is all a question of what you make of it
Proud Conversation
yourself. Every company has a story. The trick is to (want to) company company
do something with it. Someone in the public service sector
recently said to me that his sector belongs in this quadrant
„almost by definition‟. This is not true. I my opinion, there are
no boring companies. Every company has a story to tell.

• Proud companies: In these companies, the employees form
the most important source of conversations. Companies in a
niche sector are often to be found in this quadrant. Advertising
agencies are a good example. The staff are proud of their
work. They make attractive-looking case videos of what they
do. They then share them on the internet (and elsewhere) as a
kind of reference. The managers/owners of advertising
Boring Adored
agencies are often influential figures who lead the company company
conversations about their companies.

• Adored companies: The customers love these companies.
The companies themselves don‟t say very much; they don‟t
need to – the customers provide all the communication that is
necessary. The most famous example in this quadrant is
Apple. Apart from their CEO, very few Apple employees are
visible for the outside world. It sometimes has the appearance
of a closed company, but it has one of the highest conversation
Conversations from external stakeholders
totals in the entire business world. The fans are so convinced
by the products, that they promote the company non-stop.

• Conversational companies: These companies display the
ideal combination between internal and external conversations.
Companies such as Zappos and Southwest Airlines can be
found in this quadrant.

Combination of the two sources offers great A lot of companies are trying to catch the consumer conversations, but only a few
companies are thinking about the role of their biggest ambassadors: their own
advantages staff? A lot of companies are still afraid to let their employees talk about their job
on the internet. I feel this is a missed opportunity.
Scoring well on both sources of conversations offers a number of
important advantages. Customers mainly talk about their Of course, it is important that your conversation guide (culture) is clear to them
experiences with your products and services. Your staff talk and that you facilitate their conversations. The Conversation Company facilitates
mainly about the culture and important events in your company. the conversations of its employees at three levels:
This combination ensures a good content mix. This increases the
likelihood that potential new customers will easily find information • Trust: The employees are sometimes uncertain about what their
about you on Google, since the search engine has recently employers will allow them to do. In these circumstances, they will usually
adjusted its algorithm in favour of social conversations. This prefer to do nothing, rather than make a mistake. This is a waste of their
means, for example, that Twitter messages now come higher in good intentions and their conversation potential. By providing strong
the order of search results. Moreover, information which is values, clear guidelines and, above all, relevant training, the Conversation
accessed in this way has a very high credibility rating. In other Company offers sufficient comfort to its staff, so that they can approach
words, it can be a huge help in finding you new customers. their online conversations with confidence.

During conversations, your staff and your customers will often • Content: How to talk, what to talk about, how to respond to criticism, etc.:
come into contact with each other, which narrows the gap the Conversation Company instructs its employees in all these matters, and
between the internal and the external world. This makes your many more besides. In this way, it is possible to create a conversation
company much more „human‟ to your customers. Your comfort zone, in which the employees feel relaxed and confident to talk with
anonymous organisation suddenly acquires a face (or a voice, at others about their work.
least). This makes the company easier to approach. It also
strengthens the emotional bond between your employees and
• Tools: The Conversation Company provides the right software and
your customers. In this way, the outside world will gradually gain
hardware, so that its employees can participate easily and fluently in
more trust and confidence in you. This gives your own
conversations. For example, the Dutch Rabobank is prepared to provide
conversations even greater impact.
staff with whatever hardware tools are necessary to do the job. 100 If
someone can show that they need an iPad to communicate effectively with
And the most important advantage? A McKinsey study has shown their customers, Rabobank will issue them with an iPad.
conclusively that companies whose internal and external worlds
are closely linked grow fastest of all.
I am wondering how you look at facilitating employees as brand ambassadors.
What can companies do to use this fantastic asset in an open, authentic and
positive way?

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Social Media as a perfect partner for the
Conversation Company
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The core philosophy of the Conversation Company is based on three Building a strong relationship with the customer is equally
layers: a customer centric company culture, people who make the culture important.
tangible and act like ambassadors for your brand and finally social media
as the perfect partner to boost the great stories to another dimension.
In the previous parts I discussed the important role played by your
employees in helping to make your culture tangible. In this post I
will be showing how social media are the ideal way to spread your
Social media are a means, not a target culture and stories about your company on a wide scale. In
addition, social media are also the ideal place to conduct
For the Conversation Company social media are a means, not an structural collaboration with your customers. The Conversation
end. Social media are the ideal partner for the Conversation Company seeks to exploit these possibilities and to integrate
Company. The advantages are obvious: speed, a wide potential social media in all aspects of its organization.
reach, a human method of communicating, no hierarchy, full
transparency, the creation of communities, etc. It is the only
In recent years, social media have built up a huge number of
channel where feedback from the outside world is transparent and
users, with an enormous potential reach. In July 2011 there were
so direct. Social media force companies to be more
1.2 billion social media users worldwide. 96% of people have
honest, quicker and clearer in their communication. This trend has
heard of Facebook and 62% are users. 80% know of Twitter and
allowed companies to develop in the direction of genuine
16% are users. In addition, more and more people are using
customer orientation.
social network sites to link themselves to particular brands. More
than half (600 million people!) follow at least one brand via social
The checklist mentality which some companies use when dealing media. In Europe 51% of social media users are linked to a brand;
with social media is not the right way to maximize your the figure for the United States is 57% and in India it boils down to
conversation potential. Considering Facebook pages and Twitter a massive 70%. Media, fashion, food and retailing are the most
accounts as some kind of magic will only lead to disappointment. popular sectors to follow. People expect information about
The reality is that, apart from a few exceptions (such as Charlie products, promotions, invitations to events, etc. They want to give
Sheen), nobody is likely to have a million fans on the first day. For feedback and are keen to collaborate on the development of new
the vast majority of companies, it takes time and effort to build a ideas. These are all opportunities that companies need to exploit.
community of fans and followers. Besides, wide reach on social
media is only one of the important criteria.

The two social media dimensions of
The Conversation Company

Dimension 1: Building up reach

Via social media, it is possible to study everything your company In addition to the direct effects of a wide social reach, there are
does through a magnifying glass. Companies which have many also a number of indirect effects. When the Belgian entrepreneur
fans on Facebook and Twitter have the luxury of being able to Wouter Torfs posted a tweet in which he asked for people
spread their stories, content and campaigns on a massive scale. interested in working in his local chain of shoe-shops, many
Social media allow the reach of every action you take to be pundits thought that he was wasting his time. „The target group he
multiplied both directly and indirectly. The built-up reach of your is searching for might not be on Twitter,‟ said the critics.
own social media channels is the ideal way to communicate However, the tweet brought Torfs a number of interesting indirect
directly with your fans and followers. Coca-Cola makes excellent benefits. The next day there was a full page article about his tweet
use of these opportunities. Their „Happiness Machine‟ films are in one of Belgium‟s best-read daily newspapers. And thanks to all
spread exclusively via their social channels. In this advertising this free publicity, just a few days later all the vacancies were
gimmick, the traditional drinks machine is transformed into a box filled.
full of surprises. Every time someone orders a can of Coke, they
get an extra surprise. This can vary from a second can of Coke to Although a wide reach is important, social media also offer
a giant pizza or even fifty free bottles of their favourite drink. The interesting short reach possibilities. Helping individual customers
actual machine is only physically „available‟ to a handful of can mean a serious added value for both the person concerned
people, but Coca-Cola film the machine and distribute the video to and for your company. The numerous web care teams in
their 26 million Facebook fans worldwide. companies such as ING, Delta Airlines, Comcast, Dell, Gatorade,
etc. show the value that leading companies attach to this
enhanced form of customer service. No single conversation is left
unanswered. And by helping individual consumers, you are
maximizing your conversation potential.

Dimension 2: Building structural collaboration with the market

For the very first time, companies now have the opportunity to
build a structural relationship with a large group of people.
Customers want to be involved with your company. The
Conversation Company tries to create a „we‟ feeling between
itself and its consumers. The structural involvement of
customers in your management processes is a part of this
approach. And social media offer a framework which is ideally
suited for this purpose. Dunkin Donuts regularly asks the help of
its fans to come up with new product concepts and the fans do
indeed regularly submit fresh ideas for new donuts. Sometimes
this collaboration goes beyond basic product development. Last
summer the brand asked for help in compiling a list of summer
songs that fitted well with the tastes of their ice smoothies.
Before Dunkin Donuts takes action, it always consults its fans
and asks for their opinion.

Notwithstanding the fact that structural relationships are the
objective, loose individual contacts can also create added
value. If a customer accidentally comes across interesting
content from your company, this may immediately result in the
sale of a product. Long- term structural relationships often start
with this kind of chance internet encounter. And the more of
these encounters you can transform into lasting
partnerships, the greater the impact of social media on your
company will become. In this manner, the quantitative contacts
of the first dimension (reach) will be transformed into qualitative
contacts via the second dimension (collaboration).

Every company dreams of having a large number of qualitative
contacts. This is something that the Conversation Company also
wishes to achieve, but without losing sight of the value of
individual, one-off contacts. This is the unique aspect of social
media: wide or narrow reach, structural collaboration or once-off
contact – they all have their value. Every type of conversation is
valuable both for the customer (who is helped) and the company
(which benefits from positive conversations).

And now? Implementation!

In this and the 3 previous parts, you have learned about the
philosophy of the Conversation Company. The basis is a strong
company culture. This culture is the conversation guide for your
staff and your customers. Your people make your culture tangible.
At the same time, the Conversation Company also seeks to
develop structural collaboration with consumers. Some
consumers will even be involved in the management of the
company. Via social media, the bond between company and
customer is strengthened at all levels. Social media can also
magnify aspects of your culture and the experiences of both
customers and staff alike. This creates a positive drive. The
Conversation Company maximizes this conversation potential.

The next sections will discuss the following two subjects:

1. How should you continue to successfully manage our very
own Conversation Company?
2. How should you fully integrate conversation thinking into your
company?

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The Conversation Company: Managing the 4 Cs
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I will discuss the 4 Cs that you can use to manage your Conversation Company. These pillars work
perfectly in a culture as described a few weeks ago. It will allow you to fully use the power of the
people and the opportunities social media have to offer:

• Customer Experience: people love to talk about your service and your products. It is
the key driver of consumer conversations.

• Conversation: this is the story of my previous book, The Conversation Manager. The
goal is to converse and not to communicate. Listen, ask questions, facilitate the
conversations and take part in them actively.

• Content: give people things to talk about, but do it in an authentic, positive and relevant
way.

• Collaboration: involve customers in everything your company does. Let them be part of
your boardroom and involve them in your decision-making processes.

Why these four components?

These four new disciplines have not been chosen without Managing the conversations themselves is the second pillar. This
careful consideration. A survey of 400 marketers has shown involves observing, facilitating and participating in conversations. Your
that companies grow more quickly than their sector rivals participation in conversations in social media will make your company
when they use these four components in unison. The largest seem less distant, more human. By asking and answering questions, the
portion of underused conversation potential is also to be interaction between the company and the market will increase.
found in association with these same four components. By
managing them actively, you can optimise that potential. In In addition to the reactive answering of questions, the Conversation
their different ways, each of the four components can help Company also adopts an active strategy with regard to content. This
us to eliminate the paradoxes that we discussed in a strategy is the third pillar. Your content proves that you are an expert in
previous post. These four pillars will help to build a your field. Your company moves away from campaign-based thinking and
conversation lever for both your employees and your towards the planning of impactful, conversation-generating content. The
customers. And this will all take place in keeping with your final pillar is the pillar of structural collaboration between your company
company culture and company values. and the market. The customer wants to help you and you will be happy to
accept this help. The Conversation Company builds various communities
The first pillar, customer experience, is the most important of customers, which help to determine the future of the organisation.
conversation starter. If your employees and your customers
feel well treated, they will talk to each other about this fact.
By managing customer experience, you are investing in
word-of-mouth. You are developing a focus for staff and
consumer satisfaction. In this way, service will no longer be
seen as a cost, but as an investment in conversations.

Customer experience Conversation
The basis of positive conversations about your company is very simple: The Conversation Company manages online conversations in three stages:
offer strong products and a decent customer service. These two drive observing, facilitating and participating. They start simply by listening to
conversations. If you do them well: conversations will boost the consumer conversations, adding a few relevant comments where necessary. At
business, if your performing just a little below the same time, the company prepares its content in such a way that it can easily
expectations, conversations will decrease the business. It is the be shared with other interested parties. Clever companies combine these online
foundation of a Conversation Company. conversations with their offline activities. The Heineken Champions League stunt
makes clear that the effect of small offline events can be magnified many times
by social media. Heineken facilitated this process by providing the right content in
Next to that, there is the challenge to integrate online and offline
the right form. Some time ago Kraft had the idea of integrating customer tweets
customer experience. There are still far too few companies that
into its offline advertisements. People quickly caught on to this idea and were
supplement their traditional offline customer service channels with the
super-keen to get their quotes in the adverts. As a result, more than 1.5 million
new online possibilities offered by social media. At the end of 2010 just
tweets were sent to Kraft in the course of the campaign.
6.5% of companies offered online services to their customers. The
Conversation Company believes in a total philosophy towards customer
experience. The role of social media within this philosophy is to react in
real time to people‟s problems and complaints. Companies like KLM
and Best Buy (with Twelpforce) demonstrate perfectly how this pillar fits
in to the overall picture. Other companies, such as Dell, build mission
control centres. These centres are manned 24/7 by staff who answer
the online questions put by customers and prospects. Not one single
conversation is left without a response; everyone is helped.

Content
Companies should no longer be concerned with the planning of once-off
advertising campaigns, but with the global planning and management of
their content. Your company must learn to think like the publisher of a
newspaper. The paper with the most interesting content is the paper that
is read the most. Good content is the ideal way to increase your reach.

Collaboration
The Conversation Company collaborates structurally with its customers. This
increases the average level of consumer commitment. It is possible to be
fairly creative within this pillar. 4Food, a successful hamburger outlet in
Manhattan, draws up a new menu every day with the help of its own
customers. Using a series of tablets left on the tables, the diners can put
together their own recipe for the „perfect‟ hamburger. Every new concept put
on display for the other customers and the best-selling burgers are promoted
via Twitter and Facebook. For each burger sold, the recipe-maker receives
25 cents. In a similar vein, Proctor and Gamble has developed Vocalpoint, a
community in which 350,000 mothers help to develop new product ideas for
P&G. These mothers are also the first users of the new products during the
development phase, so that they can provide feedback with regard to
possible problems/weaknesses before the product is finally launched on the
market.

………………………………………….………..……………..……………………………………………..……..
Become a Conversation Company by
executing 10 strategic projects
………………………………………….………..……………..……………………………………………..……..

The journey of becoming a Conversation Company is a journey that begins
today, but never ends. As mentioned in the first post about the new book: the
Conversation Company is a metaphor for the most consumer centric company
possible, leveraging the power of people in a positive way and grasping all the
opportunities new media has to offer.

To get there, it requires change. To stay there, it requires passion and
dedication. I hope you enjoyed the summary of the new book. As said, I‟m open
for all feedback, suggestions, opinions. And if these 6 articles aren‟t enough
inspiration, there is one more thing to do: order ‘The Conversation Company’.

Three phases every company has to go through

As part of the preparations for this book, we interviewed 25 senior managers. 1. The build-up of knowledge: during this first step, the internal
knowledge and conviction necessary to apply Conversation
Our purpose was to discuss their views about change projects. We talked to
Management are built up in a structural manner. You follow a conscious
people in organizations that are already well on their way to becoming a true training trajectory, making sure that you involve your legal and HR
Conversation Company, as well as to people in organizations that have hardly teams, as well as any other important internal partners. This creates the
started. In addition, we asked another 400 managers to complete a necessary internal consensus of support. Finally, you need to introduce
quantitative questionnaire about the integration of the conversation philosophy the necessary hardware and software. These are the bases for a
successful evolution.
into their company. The results of these studies prove that every company
goes through similar processes in their attempt to build greater customer-
2. Pilot projects: during this phase the first test projects are implemented.
orientation and conversational thinking into their operations. The roadmap These projects offer important opportunities to learn, but are also a way
consists of three separate steps: to demonstrate the added value which can be created by the new
methods. This means that as well as accelerating your learning
curve, they must also have a positive effect on your marketing and
financial results. At the beginning of this phase, it is important to appoint
a central person (= the Conversation Manager) who is responsible for
developing conversational thinking in your organization. This is also the
phase in which you must start actively listening to conversations.

3. Integration and the lever effect: in this final phase your organization
must embrace the concept of the Conversation Company fully. The 4 Cs
must be applied consistently and the gap between your company and
the market must be closed. When this happens, a lever effect will be
created. Everything that you do will be magnified in a positive manner
and your unused conversation potential will disappear.

Most companies have hardly started
Our research has revealed that the largest
proportion (38%) of companies in Europe and the
United States are still in the first phase or have not
yet started with their change process. 184 14% of <500 500+ B2C B2B
companies claim to have already implemented the
philosophy in full. The four sectors in which this is Doing nothing
most likely to be the case are with social
telecom, media, travel and foodstuffs. The
media 15% 8% 11% 12%
financial market and the health industry are
currently at the bottom of the class. As a general
rule, service industries are also further along the First small
change pathway than production industries.
Similarly, the largest global companies have made
steps 30% 23% 27% 25%
less progress than regional companies with fewer
than 500 employees. Setting up/
running pilot
projects
23% 25% 26% 22%
The shining examples of Conversation
Management include
Google, Zappos, Cisco, Dell, Intel, Starbucks and Integrating
Best Buy. Yet notwithstanding the great advances
that they have already made, all these companies
social media 20% 31% 22% 28%
admit that there is still work to be done – or
rather, that the work is never finished. The non- Social media
stop evolution of the market requires them to keep
their eye continually on the ball. But if the journey
are fully
integrated
12% 13% 14% 12%
to becoming a Conversation Company is a long
one, it at least holds the fascination of being a true
journey of discovery. There are no certainties: you
are never quite sure what is going to happen and
you never know in advance whether your plans
will work. Everyone is exploring together and
learning together. Surely this is something that you
also want to be a part of?

Can it be the same for every company?

Does this then mean that there will be no similarities? On the contrary, there
Are we not missing something with our three step plan? Is there not a risk
will be plenty of similarities! Just like every company is today organised in
that in future every company will be more or less the same? How will
companies be able to differentiate themselves if everyone follows the same accordance with the silo model, in the future companies will be organised
path? along conversational lines. Just like every company today arranges market
research to learn more about its customers, in the future this will be done
through direct customer communication. A number of elements of the new
Have you already asked yourself these questions while reading the posts so philosophy offer advantages to every company, so it is reasonable to expect
far? It is, perhaps, an understandable reaction. It is indeed difficult to imagine that these will be adopted by every company. But the content and the
that every company will seek to implement the same strategy. Even so, the implementation will continue to be different in almost every case.
research carried out by InSites Consulting showed clearly that the companies
who most closely reflect the Conversation Company philosophy have all
The last part of my book describes in detail the projects which every company
taken a remarkably similar route.
needs to undertake in order to complete its transformation into a Conversation
Company. Completing such a process usually takes between 24 and 48
Does this mean that there are no longer any differences between companies? months. The exact speed (like so many other things) is largely dependent
Of course not! Even if companies follow identical trajectories, there will upon the culture of your company. One of the most crucial steps is the
always be differences between them. Why? First and foremost because the selection of the right pilot projects. These projects must have sufficient impact
three steps to change are carried out within the framework of the company to create both support and movement within the company with minimum
culture – and every company culture is different. To give a simple delay. No company can afford to wait 48 months for impact! Both in the short
example, this means that every company will draw up its own training term and the medium term, it is important that the change process develops
programme specific to its own needs. What suits Intel might not suit Unilever momentum – and then keeps it. Be aware of the fact that this type of process
– and vice versa. Secondly, the pilot projects are also very different. Once will always create tension and frustrations between the leaders and the
again, these pilot projects are chosen on the basis of their relevance to followers in your company. For some, things will be much too slow; for others,
specific company needs. For Intel this meant the development of a blog much too fast. You can help to reduce these tensions and frustrations to a
strategy, for ING (as we shall read shortly) it meant the creation of a web care minimum by working through the process in a step-by-step manner. Your
plan. Dependent on these two variables – company culture and existing leaders will be mentally in stage 3 while your followers are still in stage 1!
strategy – the final outcome will continue to vary from company to company. Draw up a clear plan in advance and make sure that everyone keeps to it. In
this way, everyone will have the same expectations.

………………………………………….………..……………..……………………………………………..……..

This is it!
………………………………………….………..……………..……………………………………………..……..

Now the real work can begin: the building of your own Conversation Company. I wish you all the success in the world. The purpose of the book is
to offer you a new business philosophy and to suggest the tools that will be necessary to implement that philosophy. I hope that I have succeeded
in that task and I look forward to seeing the first results of your efforts. I really like any kind of feedback and conversations.

Please feel free to let me know what you think of the book and where you do not agree with it. I would also love to hear about your practical
experiences.

Suggestions, feedback…SHOOT!

steven@insites-consulting.com

@steven_insites

The Story of The Conversation Company

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