A Lesson in Customer Engagement from Shawshank Prison

© 1994 Castle Rock Entertainment

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.

About Us

Welcome to our site!

Impact Interactions helps you succeed in using social media to build stronger business value through interactions with your customers, prospects, and members. We’ve helped many leading organizations like Cisco, SAP, NetApp, AARP, Intel, The American Chemical Society, and others realize measurable results using online communities and social media tools like Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn. Contact us to learn how our experience can help you succeed!

What’s Happening

Impact Interactions to exhibit and present “B2B Social Media Strategies That Work” at the Internet World 2010 London

Members of the Impact Interactions team will be hosting a conference exhibit at the Internet World 2010 show in London from April 27 to 29. We’ll have our latest whitepapers and social media briefs on using social media and online communities to drive business results. Additionally, our president Mike Rowland will deliver several presentations during the event showcasing Impact Interactions’ experience with global B2B social media projects. The client team from SAP’s partner channel in EMEA working on the Best Performance Challenge will join Mike to demonstrate how social media can enhance partner enablement, lead generation, and sales in a highly competitive industry.

We look forward to seeing you there. You can find us at exhibit area 7067, next to the Social Media Theater. Please stop by and meet our team.

New Blog Post by Matthew Lees on the Online Community Unconference event in NYC February 10th

Our team did not attend this ForumOne event in NY due to the large storm which worked its way north and east. Given the 3 and 1/2 hour drive from Maryland to NYC, we want to avoid getting stuck on the way home Wednesday on the NJ Turnpike! However, friend of Impact Interactions and Guest Blogger Matthew Lees did! He has graciously added his findings and thoughts on the event on our blog.

Impact Interactions Attends PluggedIn Event in NY

Our president had the pleasure of attending the most recent PluggedIn event for emerging social media technology companies at Yeshiva University in NYC January 12th. While most of the companies were focused upon mobile aps and Twitter aps, we did see a few companies working to make social media work more efficiently. A new blog post will be written shortly on our experience.

Impact Interactions in the News

Our president, Mike Rowland was featured on Business.com’s Smart Business Results Blog.