Changing the 10/80/10 rule in online communication
- 19 Comment
Have you heard of the 10/80/10 rule for stakeholders? It basically means that at any given time:
- 10 percent of people will be unhappy, dislike or not engaged with your brand
- 80 percent of people will have neutral feelings towards your brand, but are satisfied
- 10 percent of people are extremely happy with your brand and feel a strong connection
Traditional marketing taught us (or at least me) that we need to focus the majority of our attention on the 80 percent. Part of the reason is that there’s a margin of 7-10 percent of people who will just never be happy with you. The time and energy spent to move them into the neutral or happy categories is wasted and neglects your other audiences.
This rule needs to be modified because of the emergence of online dialogue and social media (assuming you’re participating in this space).
How?
The majority of time should be spent with the happy 10 percent and a plan created for how to interact publicly with the unhappy 10 percent.
The life cycle of your brand and customer interaction takes place in a few, specific ways:
(This concept was inspired by Moveo, an integrated branding firm.)
If we look at the life cycle of a brand (moving clockwise in the image) and where social media integrates, it primarily affects: Awareness, Consideration, Preference and Recommend.
Since we’re talking about stakeholders who are already aware, this really impacts the remaining three.
And here is where it gets fun.
If you have 100,000 stakeholders online and 10,000 are happy, are they saying so? They become your credible third-party endorsement for the world to see (and it’s great if that 80 percent notices). They become your “Recommend” champions. Find them, engage them. Share what you find and make sure that includes the 80 percent!
That group of 10,000 unhappy may or may not say so online. I said at the beginning of the post that 7-10 percent of people will just never be happy, that doesn’t mean an unhappy comment online falls into this category. You may have fallen out of good graces with someone, but it doesn’t mean they can’t be won back. Much of the time someone who expresses unhappiness publicly wants to be listened to and have the issue corrected. If you can do that, you’ve most likely won them back.
This is a public opportunity that didn’t exist before social media. You can actually interact with them and walk through the brand life cycle (most likely getting them to “Consider” you again).
Preparing to interact with the negative 10 percent online has the potential to move them into the happy 10 percent and thus impact the 80 percent from both sides. It may mean getting them “aware” of the brand again or perhaps they were thinking about you and a “recommendation” now moves them to “prefer.” Possibilities!
I’m interested to hear your thoughts. Do you agree? Disagree? This is a starting point for the idea and will only improve with your feedback.
19 Comments on this post
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Jim said:
One of the most interesting things is that now you can win back the negative 10 percent before they take others down with them.
I have seen some excellent examples of winning back the disgruntled in online forums. Often, it was little more then a company representative offering an open, understanding voice offering to help.
One comment can change the direction of an online discussion. An honest, helpful response before the discussion develops can bring it back before it’s too late.
September 2nd, 2009 at 8:05 am -
Jamie Burke said:
Hi Sarah,
Good post. As you point out I always focus on empowering the Positive 10% to advocate and take the invite a complaint offers (you wouldn’t normally be allowed into their space otherwise) from the negative 10% to visibly try and problem solve. Note: You must be able to offer a solution.
Customer services in social media can actually turn into marketing if done right. This means the neutral chunk gets eaten into which is actually a key dash board measure for most of our activities.
The neutral folk are so because they simply aren’t responding to your marketing and don’t really care so you are right to assume it is the path of most resistance. But harness the passion of those that do care, both Positive and Negative (to bother writing a complaint means whilst annoyed you clearly do care) and from our experience you always see positive share grow.
Twitter.com/jamie247
September 2nd, 2009 at 8:28 am -
Katy said:
Sarah,
Great post, and I love the graphics!
I think this topic is really intriguing. The start-up company I work for has some rabid fans — they come every day, multiple times a day, posting blogs, uploading videos, reading articles and more. We also have some moderate fans. They come once a week to see what’s new, check their inbox, etc.
I think we could do a better job of engaging those members and asking them to spread the word to their friends and family. We’re currently re-evaluating our system, to make it as sharing-friendly as possible, but it’s a work in progress.
I appreciate the insight!
September 2nd, 2009 at 8:40 am -
Victoria Kamm said:
Really interesting post Sarah. I was taught to make my strengths stronger and hire people who could make up for my weaknesses. As I began the post I thought “I’d just focus on the 10% who already love me”. As I continued through and read the comments I started to change my mind. There has to be a strategy to move some of the 80% over to the “love me” column.
Thanks for providing a different perspective!
September 2nd, 2009 at 8:52 am -
PRsarahevans said:
Thank you for the thoughtful comments.
September 2nd, 2009 at 9:08 am -
Shane Kinkennon said:
This is very creative thinking — practical and common sense. I particularly think the super-engagement of the 10% of happy people is critical. It works the same in the non-profit sector, for instance. When staffers engage, deputize and share ownership with high-level “supervolunteers,” the reward that flow are tenfold (members, engagement, fundraising, or whatever the desired metric is).
Good thinking as always. Thanks.
September 2nd, 2009 at 9:30 am -
Kelly Manjula Koza said:
Insightful thinking and comments, Sarah, and I agree. Have seen the satisfaction level of formerly disgruntled customers/community members rise to the point where they become some of the best advocates for your business or organization once you’ve invested in them.
Thanks – manjulaSeptember 2nd, 2009 at 6:42 pm -
Buy PSP Go said:
Very good post, the use of diagrams helps me understand these more advanced PR concepts you’re explaining
It’s probably better to focus on the inbetween group, however if the 10% are very powerful people (not in control of company wise) then they could influence others.September 3rd, 2009 at 7:25 am -
Office Space Los Angeles said:
Brand much important for people, but surprise people happy in such huge volume get satisfied, quite interesting analysis you have done regarding online communication.
September 5th, 2009 at 7:44 am -
nc10 - john said:
This is true and a good point, but i think looking in any more depth would be counter productive. How much time do we spend on discussion and analysis when we could be doing something productive?
Just being flippant, but it’s easy to spend time discussing the theory and not doing the do . . .
September 8th, 2009 at 4:20 pm -
Dataflurry said:
This is where old fashioned quality service, quality products and proactive customer service instead of reactive customer service comes in to play. Also, obviously quality branding is a big part of success and good company images.
September 23rd, 2009 at 11:35 am -
used tires said:
I think like with anything, those who are able to adapt the best to the current market environment, and not necessarily stick to raw numbers will succeed the best. But that is just my take on it….
Till then,
Jean
October 6th, 2009 at 8:14 am -
Hair Salons said:
Very interesting topic. I think everyone never satisfied with anyone brand or it’s very complicated to get 100% satisfaction. But we should try to our level best.
October 7th, 2009 at 1:32 am -
PSP Go said:
Shoudn’t you be working on improving the percentage of customers who are fans of your brand?
October 9th, 2009 at 4:11 pm -
Antalya evden eve nakliyat said:
When staffers engage, deputize and share ownership with high-level “supervolunteers,” the reward that flow are tenfold (members, engagement, fundraising, or whatever the desired metric is).
December 28th, 2009 at 11:29 am -
Generic online said:
I think brand much important for people, but surprise people happy in such huge volume get satisfied, quite interesting analysis you have done regarding online communication.
January 15th, 2010 at 3:21 pm -
resimler said:
Very useful information. Thank you
February 12th, 2010 at 4:52 pm
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