Within this experiment there are other factors at play that have not yet been discussed. Namely the behaviour of the people involved in the experiement and in particular culture.
Within the experiement there are 3 main players whose culture can have an influence on the experiement.
Me and My Cultural Perceptions
I am English, i have lived in Finland for 8 years. I have studied here worked here for Finnish companies and I during this time i have had relationships with Finnish women.
Despite these experiences i am sure i still retain my English culture and still behave as such. However i do also have a unique view of Finnish culture and behaviour that Finns themselves (outside of academia) probably do not.
As an English person or at least as me. I question things, i am passionate, if i get it into my head i am right i do not back down even though the "rules" in place suggest otherwise. I am not passive i am proactive and am not afraid to question, learn and improve myself. I am certainly not afraid to try things that others would not.
In short i feel that these are not generally Finnish traits and i think that Finns and IF do not know how to deal with this as a Finn would not have done what i am doing. This is something new and i am not sure how the Finns will react inthis situation.
Social Media and the Social Community
Social media has helped globalise industries even though the companies themselves may be domestic. Finnish companies (with the exception of Nokia and the paper industry) generally have at least 80% of their business in Finland. People here ask why there has not been another Nokia "miracle". Is culture part of it? Is psyche part of it?
Finnish companies may be even unaware that with the invent of social media and even the internet they are not just visible to Finns alone they become global even though their sales do not necessarrily follow suit. As a marketing professional it is important to maintain their brand not only in their own country but abroad and to all people who may have an interest (customers and stakeholders alike). By doing what i have done i am clearly putting IF onto the global stage. As such in this blog and on IF's wall i am communicating deliberately in English so as to evoke a wider interest than just in Finland. Finland only has a 5 million population that i can target. The globe has 7 billion and growing.
In terms of the members of the social community who are participating in this endeavour their culture also pays a part. As we have had visitors from many countries it is difficult to apply cultural theory here.
However from the data i can see that for example on Twitter most of the followers are from outside of Finland. However if i look at the traffic to the blog 50% is coming from Finland and 50% from outside.
This says something about culture or at least the adoption of Twitter. Although Finns have visited the blog they have not subscribed or started to follow on Twitter. Instead they have chosen to remain anonymous and passive. Why? It could very well be that they totally disagree with what i am doing, a Finn would never do that ;-)
Others who are following on the blog are commenting and sharing on twitter, retweating and liking on Facebook. If this is indeed conducive with If's responses and expectations and hence behaviour this would say much about my increasing frustration with them as perceived from my English perspective.
Finns would not behave this way so they do not know how to respond effectively. They need to understand they are dealing with an Englishman who has different expectations from a Finn. I am their customer though and as such they should adapt to service my needs and expectations. Do they realise this?
Finns and Finland
As an English man i have much higher expectations for customer service than an average Finn.
Finland is not an hierarchical society and in my opinion this in itself means that Finns do not naturally accept a master and subordinate relationship. People here are always equal and that is the way Finns like it. In my opinion this has a detrimental affect on the level of customer service you receive here. The average Finn working in customer service considers the customer their equal, they do not naturally accept that they are there as a subservant in that relationship. I have experienced many examples of totally unacceptable customer service here, of course as perceived from my English perspective.
It seems often to me here that the simple customer service principle "the customer is always right, even when they are wrong" has not been widely adopted in Finland. I think this is clearly demonstrated by this experiment and IF's responses. I should say here though that is not always that case, i have had excellent customer service in Finland. I will just briefly mention Iitalla who have given me excellent customer service in the past when they themselves have made mistakes with orders and faulty products.
As an Englishman I am more likely than a Finn to interpret rules and apply them based upon the situation. This is often in combination to what we often refer to as common sense. This is especially valued when the rules in place do not apply to a situation, the situation has not been planned for or the whole thing is in flux. A metaphor for this could be that of a football referee (soccer for the Americans).
The football referee has a clear set of rules that apply to the game. The rules are written to give clear black and white guidance that the referee is there to apply. Applying these rules word for word and perfectly will not make you a good referee.
The referee is there also to control the game, violence, anger, the fans the players the coaches and at the top levels the media. If the referee fully applied the rules to every situation the game would very quickly get out of control. Top referees understnad this. They use common sense to apply rules where appropriate.
For example:
If we consider penalties. Many times i have heard, "if that was outside the box, it would have been a foul". That is true, but why was it not given, because the referee wants to control the game, avoid controversy. If he gave the penalty he would potentially affect the game, come in for criticism himself and lose control of the players and fans, especially if he was wrong. In this case the referee interprets when it is best to apply the rules and only does so when he is sure.
When the foul is outside the box it means less in terms of effecting the outcome of the game so he is more likely to give a foul even when he is not sure that it is. This is especially true for example when there have been a series of strong tackles that have not technically been a foul. In this case the referee often blows to give a foul so as to regain control of the game and to calm the players down before a serious injury or bad foul does occur. In this case the rules are applied liberally.
Other examples for the game are, players not getting booked early on in the game for a foul that would get them booked later in the game. Contact with goalkeepers, referees protect them to avoid controversy.
As such a great referee knows when to interpret the rules and apply them to the situation and when it is appropriate to do so. In this way rules are interpretted, bent and applied to situations as appropriate. In this way at some level rules become guidelines and common sense is applied.
In my opinion, Finnish culture does not readily adapt to what English people refer to as common sense. Finns like things nice and black and white they need a rule to apply to a situation to be able to resolve it. As such when a new situation occurs that their are no rules for or when the rules are not suitable finns will often continue to revert to the rule book instead of questioning it and using common sense to resolve the situation. This often causes problems for me personally in other walks of life when compromise and conflict resolution skills are required between parties. It is true that sometimes the rules get changed after the situation occurs so as to avoid the situation next time but for most part the situation acts as precident and the rules will be applied again in the future as in the first case.
Through the media of this blog, i have communicated with IF, i have tried to describe their opportunities and risks early on in the experiment to them. They did not listen. I recognised this Finnish trait described above and i tried to influence them. I obviously failed. If are afraid of setting precident rather than measuring the risks and benefits in this unique situation that they probably do not have any specific guidelines or rules for.
At this moment I have had getting on to 1000 visitors to the blog (and growing daily) as well as what i feel is a valid argument for challenging the claim. In response to If i have clearly outlined what i expect from them and how i wish them to respond so that they can have a framework to work with. Let's see what happens. Next
Conclusion
Characteristically of Finns, in the eye of criticism or conflict they shut down, become defensive stop listening and stick to their guns no matter what.
I am sure that this post in itself will prompt at first a negative reaction from IF and the Finns reading this. If will want to stick to their guns.
I am writing this though as i feel it is valid for the experiment and should be written even though it will probably have a detrimental affect on the outcome from the point of view of changing IF's mind about overturning the claim.
This is after all an investigation into the effectivenss of social media to empower individual customers against organisations and as such it would be foulish to ignore this content as a variable.
However Finns have one more interesting characteristic they seem to be very interested in what people think of them and Finland. I hope that this characteristic will counter act any hostility that may be felt and people of all nationalities will read this and think and maybe change their own behaviour.
Culture is a major factor that affects all business everywhere and in my opinion is often neglected or underestimated.
You can get live updates of the conversation on the Facebook thread by liking it. http://t.co/JlbiA65M Liking will also show support. Comments of course also appreciated. Follow the conversation live also on Twitter @IFinsurance.
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