Influx

The Kevin Smith debacle on Southwest gives us a glimpse into a new future of customer relationship management. In the past, companies would have had procedures to cope and manage the treatment of VIPs.

Obviously, whatever processes Southwest had in place clearly failed, but given their positioning, it’s possible they did not have such a thing. It’s also likely that if another VIP had the same experience, the impact might not have been as strong.

Kevin Smith’s social media savvy and 1.6 million Twitter followers made him a dangerous person to mess with.

While much has been stated about social media strategy and policy and how to deal with crisis, I haven’t seen a single example and suggestion for how do to deal with a situation like Kevin Smith’s.

Apparently, it’s not in the social media expert’s playbook.

Could this signal a new era in customer relationship management as the S.I.P. (Socially Influential Person) becomes just as important as the V.I.P.?

This leads to whole load of challenges.

How would companies identify S.I.P.s?

How would you know if S.I.P.s are your customers?

How would measure the influence of S.I.P.s?

How would you try to keep S.I.P.s happy?

Would you worry about the balance of power?

Expect to see lots of presentations on Slideshare about this topic in coming months.

Posted by Ed Cotton