The other day an analyst asked me about the different ways companies use Scout Labs-why they start using it, and all the ways they end up using it. It got me thinking about the evolution I see when companies decide to use a service to help them tune in to customers across the Internet. In fact, it reminds me Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs. In 1943, Abraham Maslow developed his Hierarchy of Needs, a theory to explain human behavior. Maslow suggested that psychological needs are hierarchical, and you can’t move up the pyramid until the underlying psychological needs are met. Many have since challenged his strict hierarchy, pointing out several exceptions to the rule. But as a pop-culture metaphor, it helps describe the various ways companies use Scout Labs.

Here is Scout Labs’ version of the Hierarchy of Needs:

1. Find and fight fires (or CYA)

Many organizations get interested in consumer-generated media ( CGM for short) because they want to find fires – exploding laptops, rants from prominent bloggers, a rumor leak, a copyright violation – and fight them as quickly as possible. This is an absolutely essential use of a service like Scout Labs, and the reason why whatever service you select needs to

• Be real-time (so you can find those fires as they happen).
• Find the fires for you, prioritizing what’s important / worth paying attention to right now.
• Have email alerts built in.
• Help you quickly act mobilize your response.

In this day of highly vocal customers who areconnected to each other real-time and whose seething blog posts about you can show up within the first few results on Google, companies worry about the sheer volume of CGM and their lack of visibility into it. There are huge dollars at stake. Finding and fighting fires is a fundamental reason to Scout the Internet, and one that your organization has to feel comfortable with. This means you need to have confidence not only in the tool you use, but in your team’s judgment and ability to take action in time of threat.

2. Seek out product and marketing feedback

Once an organization gets good at finding and fighting fires, we see them start to listen even more closely to what customers are saying. Rather than only monitoring a few, huge problems and trying to solve them, companies start listening every day for insight they can use to improve products and marketing. What do customers like? What don’t they like? Why don’t they like it? What do people wish we would do differently? Scout Labs makes it easy to answer these questions. When a company evolves to the point where it really listens to customers in this way, we typically see corporate communications /PR, brand managers, product managers, and marketing folks all using Scout Labs together to helpbuild better products, inspired by the voice of the people.

3. Build relationships with customers

Only after a company is a good listener can it jump in and start building relationships with customers. I think of it like a game of jump rope. The customer conversation has its rhythm, pattern and players, and you don’t want to barge right in before getting the lay of the land – you’ll just get all tangled up. (Scout Labs lore: at one point we toyed with the idea of naming the company Double Dutch!) Watch for a while. Learn who the key influencers are. Get a feel for the language, the concerns, the issues. And when you’re ready, jump in. Be part of the conversation. Answer questions, ask questions, inform the best you can.

And if you have a service like Scout Labs that helps you facilitate this engagement – communicate with each other about it. Keep a record of it so that you have organizational memory around it. Track the impact of these customer connections. At that point your organization will be able to build relationships with customers on a mass scale. It’s not easy to evolve to this place. You have to really understand your customers and their communities before you can be welcomed in. AND you have to trust your employees to have these conversations and build these relationships. But if you can get there, the rewards are great.

4. Be a customer-centric organization

The apex for an individual, according to Maslow, is self-actualization –making the most of your abilities and striving to be the best you can be. For an organization that wants to listen to customers, the pinnacle is being a truly customer-centric organization. For a company at this stage of evolution, customers are partners. Listening to customers and engaging with them to build better products and sell more is a strategic priority and part of a company’s culture. Everyone – from the CEO to customer service reps – is tuned in to what customers are talking about, coming up with new, customer-inspired ideas, jumping into conversations to build relationships, and truly innovating.

Being a customer-centric organization is more than a nice-sounding aspiration. We believe it’s a strategic competitive advantage. Whoever listens better, innovates faster, and builds personal relationships with customers wins.