Putting the Best People on Customers

I called them experts, in many ways they are. Every organization has several in its ranks. You recognize them because they cannot help but talk about work in a way that makes it interesting.

They are passionate about what they do, and it shows. I have been impressed by the ability that some people have to explain complex things simply and with a human voice. These are the best that corporate America offers -- technical people, people who could be consultants (and may be consulted seldom).

What would happen if we put these people in front of customers? Today at Fast Company Expert blogs I wonder if experts were customer champions.

I suspect that we are so behind the customer conversation curve that we might have to start with a heavy dose of reaction first. There's no faking catching up to what people want and need. The cry for authenticity and transparency is but one of the symptoms that this is not being done as much as we think it is.

You know how it works for promotion -- testimonials are a much stronger form of publicity than company fluff. Today people rely more heavily than ever on other people for referrals and stories about brands. I say that putting your best foot forward also means putting your best people on those who matter most: customers. Do you have examples of companies that already do it?

[Image of Jazz Club Dune, Rome, Italy. Project by Gianandrea Facchini ]

Comments

[Dan Neely]

Hi Valeria,

My company, Networked Insights, is working with an fine art site, artfulhome.com, that is helping connect art buyers with artists through their community. The artists are The Guild’s “experts” -- the people that create the products the company sells with their own hands. It’s created relationships and conversations that would otherwise not have occurred and brought new and LOYAL customers to the Guild and to those artists.

[Valeria Maltoni]

Dan:

That is always very powerful as in the end unless the "filter" adds actual value, the less intermediaries between knowledge and expertise and publics, the better. We don't need to protect experts from people -- they do a fabulous job at thinking on their feet themselves. I am quite happy to get the real content owner in front of customers as I do with the media.

Thank you for presenting a concrete example. How is it going with your launch?

[Carolyn Ann]

Hmm. Depends on the expert. As a manager, I hired people who were more presentable than the acknowledged expert! (My boss was "quite keen" on the whole "spin the story" thing. He always span the story to reflect how he saved the company, the world, etc.) Personally, I've come across too many people who claim to be experts to have much (any?) trust on their word!

I do have to observe that many experts couldn't translate their topic to plain language if their lives depended upon doing so! Part of the mystique of experts, in some fields, is their mastery of the "local" lingua franca. These experts rely upon others being knowledgeable about the subject; they often despise the job of teaching others the same mastery. In other words, the ones who can translate aren't necessarily experts - but they can play one on TV.

Of course, this raises the question "what is an expert?"

I've heard two viewpoints: the expert is the one who knows more and more and about less and less until they know absolutely everything about nothing! (Cynical, but whatever), and the other is that the expert is an expert because he's made more mistakes than anyone else - they just remember the lessons those mistakes taught them. (A little less cynical, but not by much!) To me, an expert is someone who knows their subject. Communicating it? Well, a different skill is needed for that!

Carolyn Ann

[Valeria Maltoni]

There is another kind of expert, one who does not call herself "an expert" -- others would. One who does not pretend to know it all -- yet spends a lot of time working on learning and figuring things out, trying them on, so to speak.

I have worked and work with such experts. People who have been in the industry and their field for a long time -- and are not disenchanted. People who can focus on the problem and a solution instead of watching themselves being clever. This is the kind of person I'm talking about.

True scientists come to mind -- I have worked with biologists, entomologists, and chemists who were on discovery, learning and teaching all the time. As well, many specialists who save lives have had that signature in my experience.

It's usually the others who ruin the term (and idea). Those, as you say, whose mission in life is to be superior to everyone else. You find them out easily -- they have no passion for the work, no desire to share, no ambition to giving to human kind.

There are experts who win Nobel Prizes *because* they wanted to solve a problem for human kind. Those are also good at communicating.

[Carolyn Ann]

I quite agree! :-)

The real experts are usually (not always, but often enough that it can be reasonably assumed) not willing to tell you they're an "expert". Because one of the things a real expert knows is that no one person can know "it all".

You've got me thinking here... :-)

The nobel laureates can be good communicators; they do tend to be, I've noticed. It's probably because they paid attention, and learned the skills needed for communication. It's one of the skills that helps them become recognized as "expert" by those not "initiated" in the arcana of whatever subject it is. I could argue that those who don't know how to communicate, are maybe not quite the expert they think they are, but that would be both wrong, and presumptious. Communicating is a skill that needs to be taught; it's not something everyone automatically knows how to do!

It's like teaching - there's a lot more to it than standing in front of a class and speaking. There's an assumption that people who know their subject can teach it - which is not the case at all! Anyone who's taught will know that, but others simply assume it's a variation of a business meeting (where they get to do all the speaking!). You have to be taught how to be a teacher; in other words: you have to be shown how to communicate!

Interesting topic, Valeria! :-) I've worked with so many so-called "experts" (usually self-called, to boot!) that I guess I became a bit cynical about the term. A demonstration of the restorative power of conversation! :-)

Carolyn Ann

[Dan Neely]

valeria

The launch is going very well, thanks for asking. As I mentioned before we already launched the Guild and have some other pretty cool companies we’ll be launching soon. I’ll definitely keep you updated!