For Netflix Listening is the New Black

In my opinion Netflix was made for lazy nights and rainy days- and last night was one of those epic Netflix binges you only dream off. I blame it on the recommendations feature - "because you watched (fill in the blank), you should now watch this (fill in the blank)". Damn you, Netflix! How do you know me so well!

So many options, so little time

Netflix began it's subscription based service in 1999  and began offering online streaming in 2008. Today, Netflix has over 50 million subscribers worldwide. And if they aren't already successful enough,  Netflix also has one of the strongest presences on social media out there. But it wasn't always that way for Netflix...

When you read Groundswell: Winning in a World Transformed by Social Technologies by Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff if you learn one thing and one thing only it should be that your brand isn't what you say it is, it's what your customers say it is. Customer communicate with one another in the groundswell and that is where they decide what your brand stands for.

 In 2011, Netflix announced (first by email, then on the company blog) that not only would they be raising prices but also that they would be splitting it's DVD by mail service and online streaming into two separate companies- online streaming would remain as Netflix and the DVD by mail service would be called Qwikster. Netflix customers revolted.

Netflix made a fatal mistake. They didn't listen to the groundswell. Nor did they pay much attention to the fact that the twitter handle @qwikster was already taken, but thats a story for another day. Li and Bernoff say that "listening to the groundswell will relentlessly reveal your stupidity". Well in Netflix's case, not listening revealed their stupidity as well. After losing approximately 800,000 customers and watching their stock plummet, Netflix decided to start listening.

Since the short lived Qwikster debacle, Netflix has tapped into the groundswell.  Li and Bernoff believe that "listening is perhaps the most essential neglected skill in the business...in the era of the groundswell, listening is easy. Not listening, on the other hand, is criminal".

So how should you start listening to the groundswell when you haven't before? Our fearless leaders, Li and Bernoff say you should start with a listening plan:

Check the Social Technographics Profile of Your Customers 
After the Qwikster debacle, Netflix realized that is really didn't know what it's customers wanted. They needed to stop, reassess and listen to the customers already in the groundswell. Today, Netflix US on twitter @netflix has just under one million followers and over nine million likes on Facebook. Netflix tapped directly into the groundswell to find out what is customer's where saying and what they could do to improve.

Start small, think big
Netflix started simple by monitoring social media and letting customers know what new content was available to stream. Since then Netflix has made it's digital platforms their communication method of choice, even choosing to use platforms like Facebook to announce quarterly earnings and achievements

                                 

Make sure your listening vendor has dedicated an experience team to your effort
With a company as technical as Netflix, there are bound to be glitches that pop up every now and then. Take christmas-eve outage of 2012. But where Netflix exceeds is in it's communication with it's customers. Netflix is known for it's outstanding online customer service because they listen to their customers.

Netflix empowers it's employees to act quickly to solve their customer's problems. Knowing that there audience is largely online, Twitter is a popular platform for customers to post issues and get responses quickly.

Choose a senior person to interpret the information and integrate it with other sources
Understanding that in the era of the groundswells recommendations are most likely to come from online sources, Netflix made the jump to online integration with Facebook. The Facebook integration allows users to share their viewing habits and get social recommendations from their Facebook friends.


I think it's safe to say, Netflix learned from their Qwikster mistake and learned to leverage social media to connect with their users.  Netflix learned that there is nothing more powerful than the groundswell, but in order to harness the true power of the groundswell they needed to stop and listen. And now as a participant in the groundswell, I ask, Netflix can you please make this a reality?!?

Our algorithm is taking a stab at a pairing menu. #NetflixSnacks http://t.co/Ak0MFYunXh
— Netflix US (@netflix) October 11, 2014