A Lesson in Customer Engagement from Shawshank Prison

By Matthew Lees

One night while I was researching and writing a recent report on best practices in crowdsourcing, “The Shawshank Redemption” happened to be on TV. So I watched a bit of it for the umpteenth time. One scene jumped out as particularly relevant to what I was working on. I couldn’t find a way to weave it into the report, but it’s been on my mind ever since.

About halfway through the movie, the protagonist Andy Dufresne (played by Tim Robbins) ends up managing the library at Shawshank State Prison. In search of newer materials for his fellow convicts to read, he writes letters, interestingly enough at the warden’s suggestion, to the Maine State Senate. One letter a week. Every week. For years.

Eventually — actually, six years later! — he wears them down. Tired of his never-ending solicitations, the Senate sends him a check for $200. (The film takes place in 1947, so $200 was a tidy sum.) The library district also sends him boxes of books and magazines, along with a note saying they now consider the matter closed, so please, stop writing!

Success!

Surely our protagonist is pleased with the outcome. Well, he is…but he realizes that his persistence has paid off. So, with a twinkle in his eye, he says to a friend “From now on, I send two letters a week instead of one.”

I love that line.

Nothing succeeds like success, and the Main Senate and library district made Dufresne successful in his letter-writing campaign. (I’m admittedly focusing on this nice little moment in the movie, ignoring the harsh reality and horrid conditions under which Dufresne lives, although he does meet with success again later in the film.)

What did the Maine Senate do to deserve the increased volume of letters from the Shawshank librarian?

They listened and they took action.

Isn’t that what your customers (and business partners and employees) are looking for from you?

Crowdsourcing programs aren’t the solution to every problem, but they can be a great way to help you listen to your customers, and help them tee up their most important ideas, wishes, and requirements, so you can take action. For such programs to work, you need to engage people who not only have good ideas, but also the perseverance and determination to make things happen. If you’re running a crowdsourcing program (or managing an online community) your biggest wish should be to find and involve as many people as you can who have these characteristics in common with Andy Dufresne.

Like Dufresne, when people see how their actions generate positive results, they tend to repeat those actions. We hope your customers don’t need to be as determined as he was — your crowdsourcing efforts should see results in time frames closer to six weeks or six months than six years — but showing them how their input is making things better for your business, and, in turn, for them, too, should lead to both increased participation and a more effective and profitable business.

At least…I hope.

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