3. Popular press/personal example: Read the newspaper, Business Week, Inc. or think through your own experiences and find a story that relates to the week's readings.
This week’s readings shifted my thinking from the relationship between the manager and the employee to the relationship between the company and the consumer. Chapter 1 of Designing Organizations and Designing Organizations that are Built to Change made me think about my own commitment to pleasing consumers with Customer Relationship Management (CRM).
Built-to-Change is an important term that I will never forget. To me, the term represents more than changing your hiring practices. It means incorporating and acquiring better skills to better suit your consumers. As my website’s (LacrossePlayground.com) traffic reaches, on average, a steady 20,000 hits a day, I consistently receive feedback from the audience in multiple forms daily. Whether it’s a tweet, an email, a comment, or etc, I make it my goal to respond to every single piece of feedback. I don’t do it to make myself feel better, obviously. I do it to engage with the audience. I make each person feel like they have a voice. I connect with them. In return, new followers turn into committed followers.
Galbraith’s Organization Shapers puts the consumer first and urges the company to adjust to what the customer wants. The Internet section relates to me because I’ve done three expensive site redesigns to make it more functional for the consumer. As the face of the company, I made sure it had integrated a unique foundation to make the consumer experience smooth. Recently, I decided to shut down the functional ecommerce store on the site because it wasn’t up to par with the competition. It lacked clarity. It was confusing and downright ugly. I received complaints from consumers so I did what a good organizational shaper would do - I listened.
Designing Organizations that are Built to Change not only opened my eyes to connecting with the audience, but also made me take a hard look at how I manage my business. In order to be competitive, companies not only have to be open to suggestions, but also open to change. Change in this age equates to being more social byway of CRM. Relationships between the consumer and the company are imperative. Consumers have a plethora of options to choose from, so a company must establish and build a relationship in order to gain a consistent customer, much like a Mom and Pop store. Buyers want to feel wanted and heard. How do you grow with the consumer? You evolve. You adjust to the environment and adapt, i.e. three site redesigns.
I’ve learned that companies must be focused and driven to deliver their products or services to their consumers in the most efficient manner possible. Subsequently, the company will find it easier to manage its departments and keep their consumers pleased. And it all starts with a functional structure.
Nice post, Thomas. Your example shows that organizations should be open systems and, in order to thrive, they need continued exchange with the environment (Morgan, 1998). Now that you have closed your store, are you planning on improving the design and reopening? Or is ecommerce no longer part of your long-term strategy?
ReplyDeleteHi Thomas – Thanks for sharing your thoughts about managing customer relationships; your perspective as a business owner is really insightful.
ReplyDeleteAs I was reading through your post, I was reminded of what Galbraith said about information – that it’s essential to instituting organizational changes (2002, p. 84). It sounds like this is a principal that you understand very well, as you listen and respond so thoughtfully to your customer’s feedback.
I was wondering, though; with so much traffic to your site, is it difficult to manage all of the information you receive from customers? Does it ever get overwhelming?
Courtney, as a matter of fact the store is reopening very soon. It took a very long time to find an ecommerce shop we enjoyed. We decided to go with one called Shopify. I would recommend it to anyone. It is great for an iframe platform and integrates really well into your site.
ReplyDeleteMarissa, it is extremely overwhelming at times haha! However, it is worth it. I put myself in their shoes and I would definitely want an interaction. The viewers take the time to comment, email, tweet, etc, so why shouldn't I do the same right?
Thomas,
DeleteShopify is a good company to work with. I have had colleagues in other companies work with them. I hope it goes well for you.
DT
Thomas,
DeleteI wanted to come back and comment on your post. You've hit upon a great example of the requirement for companies to be flexible enough and willing to change. There is nothing more important, in my opinion, than to be able to change to meet your customers needs. Companies that deal with the general public directly with their products and services have to make the idea of flexibility and "reconfigurability," as Galbraith talked about in Chapter 6 of our reading this week, a requirement of the organizational structure. If a company is not nimble enough to make changes rapidly to their products or services, and the management teams responsible for the delivery and service of same, based on dynamic customer expectations or the rapidly-changing competitive environment, they will fail. They will fail to deliver quality, desired products to the marketplace and a profitable bottom line to the shareholders.