I realize I have not been around much here on the blog these past few months. I have missed it, but more than that, I have missed the conversations I have with you, my readers! My plan for 2010 is to blog at least weekly, possibly more often if I keep the blog posts relatively short (like a Posterous-type post). Thank you all for hanging in there with me – I really appreciate your loyalty to Customers Rock! over these past 3 years (yes, I just celebrated this blog’s 3-year blogiversary in December!). More to come… much more.

I have been spending more time lately on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn as I continue to build a Customers Rock! presence on those sites. I also created a Customers Rock! Facebook Fan Page and have been testing out a new Customers Rock Twitter account where, daily, I am sharing POSITIVE customer service stories and experiences I find on Twitter. Please feel free to come and chat with me at any of the above places where you also hang out!

I have also started a new radio program, Customers Rock! Radio. This came from my appearances on nationally-syndicated The Big Biz Show, where the hosts suggested I spin-off my own radio show focused on customer service, marketing, and social media to create rockin’ customer experiences. I have had some fabulous guests including Jeanne Bliss, Michael Brito, Don Peppers, Amber Naslund, and Tony Welch. You can listen online at wsRadio.com or download the mp3 files to your computer or iPod. Please check it out and let me know what you think! (I am also actively looking for sponsors for the show. Give me a shout for more info or if you have clients who might be interested.)

Again, thank you for everything, my faithful readers. For your holiday reading pleasure between now and the New Year, here are some great links to posts that I think you will enjoy. Some are newer posts, some are older, but they are all worthwhile reads.

Holiday Reading

MediaPhyter features a guest blogger, David Hauser of Grasshopper who shares five ideas for how to build loyal customers.  I wholeheartedly agree with you, David. I especially like #3, Create a Culture of Responsibility. Taking care of customers goes far beyond customer service!

One of my favorite customer service bloggers, Meikah Delid, wrote about the new report showing how much poor customer service affects global business. How many billions are lost per year due to bad service, and why do customers leave? Read this post and find out.

Steve Woodruff, fellow speaker and consultant, writes about a great customer service experience he had at Chick-fil-A. Even the simplest acts can make a huge impact.

Terry Starbucker’s post on 15 Basic Steps to Mind-Blowing Customer Service is fun to read – and it hails from his recent experience in a Parisian produce shop. Merci beaucoup, monsieur Terry!

Enjoy, and Happy New Year to all of you!

Popularity: 5% [?]

At AMA’s MPlanet conference today, I had the opportunity to be part of a special Blogger Q&A session with Mary Dillon, Executive VP and Global Chief Marketing Officer for McDonald’s. She talked about a strong focus on employees, reaching out to moms, and social media.

Connecting with Employees

Mary started the session by sharing about the strong social networks that have been built by and around McDonald’s employees, or crews. “We have over 1.6 million employees around the world, and we try to inspire the crew to feel great, deliver on the brand promise, as well as reduce turnover.” There are several internal social networks which not only engage crews but also give them the opportunity to become more educated (with some even getting credit for it!). Some of these crew communities include MeTime in Australia and New Zealand, OurLounge in the UK, Latin America’s McLand (hope you speak Portuguese!), Singapore’s Ketchup!, and USA/Canada’s StationM. On this last one, Canadian Amanda Wilson was recently voted, by fellow employees, to be the resident blogger and moderator for this community.  Per Mary, these internal-only communities really help crews with engaging, bonding, and living the brand.

“Each employee could be the one experience someone has with our brand. This is a great way tap in and get people on the same page, share experiences.”

Customers Rock! take: I agree with Mary about the impact each employee interaction has with the brand. This could be a returning customer, or it could be someone new to us. Either way, each brand interaction adds up to an overall brand experience, and in this economy, it is important to make sure those experiences leave a positive impression.

Connecting with Customers

Back in 2005, McDonald’s started a Moms advisory panel – Moms’ Quality Correspondents. Per Mary, McDonalds wanted to learn more about this group of customers and be more closely connected to what they are feeling, needs, brand perceptions, and how they would like to evolve it. It is a live (ie. not online) group with participants from multiple countries, including athletes such as Bonnie Blair, a mom in Latin America who is a chef, another mom in the USA who is a PTA president. The McDonald’s team meets with them once per quarter to find out how to improve. There are now panels country by country.  When asked whether this would move online, Mary responded that enjoy the face to face experience with these moms, and the amount of online activity varies country to country. In the US, it is primarily online.  One of the moms also had her own community where she shared her McDonald’s experiences. Recently, she took a trip to a McDonald’s supplier (they send these moms on field trips!) and blogged about it. Usually, these ladies authentically share what is surprising to them!

When asked about how they recruit the moms, Mary shared a few criteria (one was NOT that they eat at McDonald’s). They tend to look for a woman who is a community leader, an influencer, and someone who will bring in strong perspectives (and share them out, too).

Customers Rock! take: Spending time listening to your customers is a critical part of forming a great customer experience. How do customers perceive your brand? What do they tell their friends (and others)? At a minimum, give customers a place to provide you feedback (online, if your customers are online a lot). If you can meet live with customers to hear this feedback, all the better.

Social Media

McDonald’s sees social media as a great opportunity to gather consumer information on attitude and perceptions about the brand. Per Mary, “This is a big opportunity for us; we haven’t tapped into it much yet, but we will!” She also stated that they are willing to look beyond merely the cost of doing social media marketing, as they recognize that this is a different kind of conversation. I couldn’t have said that better myself!

Customers Rock! take: McDonald’s will be a company to watch in these upcoming months. They have a great focus on taking care of employees and getting them engaged with the brand. This will continue to bring them benefits as they move towards engaging their customers online through their website, through communities, and through the social web. Based on the interactions I could see at the Moms’ Quality Correspondents site, there are a lot of consumers that want to more closely engage with McDonald’s and their offerings (how can I be one of your moms?). Now is the time to cement relationships with brand loyalists, turn them into brand ambassadors, and really harness the powerful social networks that many consumers already have in place.

Thank you so much, Mary, for sharing your time with us. You rock!

Popularity: 97% [?]

In the spirit of Customers Rock!, I want to take a moment and say THANK YOU to all of you who have contributed in some way over the past 2 years. I am very excited to be celebrating this milestone with all of you!  This past year has been an exciting one for me and for the blog.  Let’s take a quick look at what has been going on before we start the party!

Customers Rock! Blog Year in Review

- To date, I have written 270 blog posts (including this one) with 1565 comments – woo hoo!

- I moved my blog to my own domain, CustomersRock.net (with the help of Joel – thanks!)

- I did quite a bit of speaking, both locally as well as at great events such at BlogWorld and Marketing Profs Digital Mixer. I got a chance to meet (and video) quite a few wonderful bloggers as well, so thank you to all!

- Jay Ehret and I started the Re-Experiencing Starbucks project to chronicle the change agenda from Howard Schultz to see how it impacted the customer experience. (Note – while those postings have slowed down, at least on my end, expect to see a nice year-end wrap on this soon.)

- I once again participated in the infamous Bathroom Blogfest to discuss how the customer experience extends even into forgotten places!

- I had four marvelous guest bloggers this year: Brian Solis, Esteban Kolsky, Colin Shaw, and Eric Brown. Thank you all for the time you gave my readers.

- I started teaching the UC San Diego class Marketing via New Media; this has been really fun! I also started a blog to chronicle my journey there Teaching Social Media. The blogs of the students are there, too.

- I joined Brickfish as their Director of Social Media. Brickfish helps major brands connect with their customers via the social web and turbo-charges word of mouth from brand evangelists. Plus, you can watch it all live on their Viral Map (this is an example from a current campaign with Microsoft “I’m a PC”). Very cool!

The Biggest News

The biggest news of all is YOU, my Customers Rock! readers.  I have enjoyed talking with you over the past two years, and I am looking forward to many more conversations in the years to come!  I really want to thank each and every one of you, but I only really know who you are when you leave me a comment.

So – I created a list of my commenters, in chronological order, from the first day of my blog up until now. I have linked to your blog/website if you left me one. It was great fun to look back at all of those who have turned Customers Rock! into a two-way conversation and to see how many I am still active with two years later!

This list of commenters also makes for a great read for the upcoming holidays of some very worthy blogs (those in my feed reader are marked with an asterisk *)!  This is my gift to all of you this year.

Thank you again for your continued support. You all rock!

(Photo credit: antony84)

Commenters on Customers Rock! (and also a great blog reading list!!)

* Mack Collier (Thank you for being my first commenter, Mack!)

* Gavin Heaton (Thank you for being my first international commenter, Gavin!)

* Kevin Hillstrom

* C.B. Whittemore

Anne Simons

Marc Rapp

* Doug Karr

* Roberta Rosenberg

Sue Crocker

* Maria Palma

Tammy Vitale

* Lewis Green

* Meikah Delid

Steve Miller

Luis de Paiva

Rich G.

* KG

* Tim Jackson

KSAdams

* Jordan Behan

* Laurence-Helene

Bob Glaza

* Tom Vander Well

* Glenn Ross

* Ron Shevlin

* Douglas Hanna

* Maki

* Dale Wolf

* Mike Wagner

* Phil Gerbyshak

* Chris Brown

Robyn McMaster

* Drew McLellan

Troy Worman

Ugyen

Louiss Lim

Maryam in Marrakesh

Adnan

Chris Cree

Kermitfan

Marc Gregory

* Valeria Maltoni

* Steve Woodruff

* Sandy Renshaw

Jeff Brooks

* Lolly

* Roger von Oech

Paul McEnany

* Amy Jussel

Robbie Wright

Ryan Karpeles

* Doug Meacham

Ron E

* Robert Hruzek

* Joe Rawlinson

Threethan

* Jim Kukral

* Toby Bloomberg

Stacy Madison

* CK

Janet Green

Andrew

Bob

Natalie Ferguson

* Geoff Livingston

* Roger Anderson

Chris Clarke

* Christy Brewer

Delaney Kirk

James Taylor

Adam Kayce

David Koopmans

Laura

* Ann Handley

Jake McKee

Rachelle Lacroix

* Patrick Schaber

* Kevin Dugan

Martin Jelsema

* Paul Schwartz

Bill Bluel

Sylvia Martinez

Chad

* Katie Konrath

Nancy Heifferon

* Stephanie Weaver

Enrique Burgos

* David Armano

* Daksh

Anders Rask

Jeffrey Jackson

Uwe Hook

Jill Konrath

Daniel Sitter

Cord Silverstein

* Suzanne Obermire

Carolyn Manning

* Jay Ehret

* Mark Hurst

Mark E

* Terry Starbucker

* Rosa Say

NAJ

Crafty Bernie

Matt Havercamp

Dan Neely

Teri Isner

Ben Thompson

Jack Jia

* Anita Bruzzese

Maureen Valdes Marsh

Hajar

Anne Libby

* Connie Reece

The Knitting Bee

* Peter Kim

Andrew

Jonathan Treiber

Hank Brigman

Pat Fisher

Scott

* Dan Schwabel

Karin H.

Frank Phelan

* Doug Fleener

Darcy Moen

Brent Applegate

Sabine

Hari Vasilev

L.P.

Dan NessDarren Patrick

Joe Provenzano

German Parra

Jon Burg

* David Morse

Scott

* Bradon Caudle

Bill Gammell

Jeff Vincent

Richard Binhammer

Amber

Lissa Bergen-Boles

Brandon M

Wes

Mark

typestries

bsilvia

Jeronimo

Jeffrey Long

* Andy Nulman

* Kami Huyse

Rachel

David Reich

* Anna Farmery

Jeanne Dininni

Albert F A Matthews

Marc Karasu

Brit

* Olivier Blanchard

* Esteban Kolsky

Jen

* Chelle Parmele

Rebecca Caroe

Chris Wilson

Peter Fankhaenel

* Matt Dickman

* David Brazeal

Ahndunk

Boring Market

Justin

Marc

Gordon Whitehead

Julie

Erin Cavallo

Aaron Kahlow

Elaine Fogel

Dawn Hobbs

Micha

* Mike McDerment

* Tsufit

Kelvin Leung

* Todd Andrlik

Jack Shipley

Scott Howard

* Nancy Arter

Campbell Moore

Bhuwan

Jack

* Charlene Li

Ron Weber

* Josh Bernoff

Eric BrownJohn Gillett

Vicki Flaugher

Graham Hill

* BJ Cook

Ravi Kiran

Beth

Lee Jordan

* Sybil Stershic

Bonnie Larner

Leo Bottary

Curt

* Stephanie Gulley

Chuck

James Shields

Alison Terrell

GL Hoffman

Joseph Young

Paul

Kamal Kumar

Chris

Jimmy Hendricks

John Maver

* Pam Brown

Kathleen

John

Christine Morrison

Priyanka

Stephen Hampshire

Bernhard

Nathan Poling

ascanlar

Liz Walker

Kenny Lauer

Kristina Evey

Jody Reale

Paul Blunden

Elizabeth

* Colin Shaw

Chuck Van Court

Jeff Whitton

Matt Wilson

Mark Krupinski

David Tinney

naranjadude

Mark David

* Nicoletta Staccioli (one of my students!)

* Marji Chimes

Ryan Graves

Sarah Hughes

* Susan Abbott

Faris

Graham Brown

Sandeep Arora

Chad Horenfeldt

Shahar Boyayan

Maria Elena Duron

Allan Young

Robert

Popularity: 93% [?]

Last year, I participated in a project to create a book authored by over 100 bloggers.  The book was designed to discuss why this is the age of conversation, and all proceeds (and I mean ALL) went to Variety, the children’s charity.  Over $10,000 was raised for this worthy cause!  You can still purchase the book through Amazon (see my sidebar – Book Recommendations – for the link).

This year, the project was expanded – greatly – to 237 authors from around the world!   The title of the new book is Age of Conversation 2: Why Don’t They Get It? The topic was chosen through a vote of the contributing authors.  Companies are only beginning to understand social media and its impact on business, hence the topic chosen by these smart bloggers (a veritable Who’s Who of marketing and social media).  There are also eight sub-topics underneath that main area.  My chapter is on the topic “Conversation to Action”.  It is entitled “Building Walls Against Competitors” and discusses how to take conversations between companies and customers and start to take action on them to build ongoing relationships, as well as barriers to exit.  I can’t discuss further details of my chapter here; you will have to get the book to see what it is all about.  And you can feel good doing that, as the proceeds from this year’s book again go to Variety Children’s Charity.

Here is the link to buy Age of Conversation 2: Why Don’t They Get It?. Get a copy for yourself, and get some extras for client gifts, a gift for your boss, or just because you want to support a good cause.

Update: It has already gotten press!  Here is the link to a Media Post article on the new book.

Here is the list of all the authors of AOC2.  Many thanks to all of them for contributing not only to this great book but to a great cause.

Adrian Ho, Aki Spicer, Alex Henault, Amy Jussel, Andrew Odom, Andy Nulman, Andy Sernovitz, Andy Whitlock, Angela Maiers, Ann Handley, Anna Farmery, Armando Alves, Arun Rajagopal, Asi Sharabi, Becky Carroll, Becky McCray, Bernie Scheffler, Bill Gammell, Bob LeDrew, Brad Shorr, Brandon Murphy, Branislav Peric, Brent Dixon, Brett Macfarlane, Brian Reich, C.C. Chapman, Cam Beck, Casper Willer, Cathleen Rittereiser, Cathryn Hrudicka, Cedric Giorgi, Charles Sipe, Chris Kieff, Chris Cree, Chris Wilson, Christina Kerley (CK), C.B. Whittemore, Chris Brown, Connie Bensen, Connie Reece, Corentin Monot, Craig Wilson, Daniel Honigman, Dan Schawbel, Dan Sitter, Daria Radota Rasmussen, Darren Herman, Dave Davison, David Armano, David Berkowitz, David Koopmans, David Meerman Scott, David Petherick, David Reich, David Weinfeld, David Zinger, Deanna Gernert, Deborah Brown, Dennis Price, Derrick Kwa, Dino Demopoulos, Doug Haslam, Doug Meacham, Doug Mitchell, Douglas Hanna, Douglas Karr, Drew McLellan, Duane Brown, Dustin Jacobsen, Dylan Viner, Ed Brenegar, Ed Cotton, Efrain Mendicuti, Ellen Weber, Eric Peterson, Eric Nehrlich, Ernie Mosteller, Faris Yakob, Fernanda Romano, Francis Anderson, Gareth Kay, Gary Cohen, Gaurav Mishra, Gavin Heaton, Geert Desager, George Jenkins, G. Kofi Annan, G.L. Hoffman, Gianandrea Facchini, Gordon Whitehead, Greg Verdino, Gretel Going & Kathryn Fleming, Hillel Cooperman, Hugh Weber, J. Erik Potter,  James G. Lindberg, James Gordon-Macintosh, Jamey Shiels, Jasmin Tragas, Jason Oke, Jay Ehret, Jeanne Dininni, Jeff De Cagna, Jeff Gwynne & Todd Cabral, Jeff Noble, Jeff Wallace, Jennifer Warwick, Jenny Meade, Jeremy Fuksa, Jeremy Heilpern, Jeroen Verkroost, Jessica Hagy, Joanna Young, Joe Pulizzi, John Herrington, John Moore, John Rosen, John Todor, Jon Burg, Jon Swanson, Jonathan Trenn, Jordan Behan, Julie Fleischer, Justin Foster, Karl Turley, Kate Trgovac, Katie Chatfield, Katie Konrath, Kenny Lauer, Keri Willenborg, Kevin Jessop, Kristin Gorski, Lewis Green, Lois Kelly, Lori Magno, Louise Manning, Luc Debaisieux, Mario Vellandi, Mark Blair, Mark Earls, Mark Goren, Mark Hancock, Mark Lewis, Mark McGuinness, Matt Dickman, Matt J. McDonald, Matt Moore, Michael Karnjanaprakorn, Michelle Lamar, Mike Arauz, Mike McAllen, Mike Sansone, Mitch Joel, Neil Perkin, Nettie Hartsock, Nick Rice, Oleksandr Skorokhod, Ozgur Alaz, Paul Chaney, Paul Hebert, Paul Isakson, Paul McEnany, Paul Tedesco, Paul Williams, Pet Campbell, Pete Deutschman, Peter Corbett, Phil Gerbyshak, Phil Lewis, Phil Soden, Piet Wulleman, Rachel Steiner, Sreeraj Menon, Reginald Adkins, Richard Huntington, Rishi Desai, Robert Hruzek, Roberta Rosenberg, Robyn McMaster, Roger von Oech, Rohit Bhargava, Ron Shevlin, Ryan Barrett, Ryan Karpeles, Ryan Rasmussen, Sam Huleatt, Sandy Renshaw, Scott Goodson, Scott Monty, Scott Townsend, Scott White, Sean Howard, Sean Scott, Seni Thomas, Seth Gaffney, Shama Hyder, Sheila Scarborough, Sheryl Steadman, Simon Payn, Sonia Simone, Spike Jones, Stanley Johnson, Stephen Collins, Stephen Landau, Stephen Smith, Steve Bannister, Steve Hardy, Steve Portigal, Steve Roesler, Steven Verbruggen, Steve Woodruff, Sue Edworthy, Susan Bird, Susan Gunelius, Susan Heywood, Tammy Lenski, Terrell Meek, Thomas Clifford, Thomas Knoll, Tim Brunelle, Tim Connor, Tim Jackson, Tim Mannveille, Tim Tyler, Timothy Johnson, Tinu Abayomi-Paul, Toby Bloomberg, Todd Andrlik, Troy Rutter, Troy Worman, Uwe Hook, Valeria Maltoni, Vandana Ahuja, Vanessa DiMauro, Veronique Rabuteau, Wayne Buckhanan, William Azaroff, Yves Van Landeghem

Popularity: 31% [?]

 By Tim Carroll

(Note: Tim Carroll, our guest blogger today, is my son and joined me in Las Vegas for BlogWorld to get a taste of what blogging is all about.  We got tickets to see Blue Man Group courtesy of PubCon for Blogger’s Night Out.  I asked him to blog about his experience; my experience will be published soon.)

While in Las Vegas with BlogWorld, I got to see the Blue Man Group. The Blue Man Group was cool. There was nothing that I didn’t like about it. I liked the interesting music and the weird instruments that they used. I liked how the show was funny and involved the audience. I liked one part when they were playing the drums and poured paint on them so that when they hit the drums, the paint splattered all over. I also liked another part when they were throwing marshmallows into one blue man’s mouth and he ended up with about 30 in his mouth at one time. I would for sure recommend it to other teens.

(Photo credit: Blue Man Group)

Popularity: 17% [?]

Today’s post has my first video with my new, fun video camera the Flip Minoin addition to some news to share and a question for my smart readers (that’s you!).  Speaking of Flip, welcome to new readers who have come over from Jim Kukral’s blog (he does a show called The Daily Flip), where he did a podcast interview with me called Do You Have Happy Customers?  If you like what you read here at Customers Rock!, please subscribe to my blog.  Thanks!  Now, on with today’s post.

 

Customer Engagement at FreshBooks

A while back, I wrote about how FreshBooks was engaging customers by taking a roadtrip to a conference in an RV. Along the way, they stopped and had breakfast, lunch, and dinner with their customers.  Very cool.  I was thrilled to be invited to one of their customer dinners when they made a recent stop here in San Diego, CA.  Saul sent me an email and asked if I could join them (I am a FreshBooks customer, too!).  We had a wonderful meal at Buca di Beppo, which serves Italian food family-style on big platters for sharing.  A perfect venue for customers to come together, break bread, and get to know each other.  We swapped stories about our business, about the San Diego economy, and about our new friends at FreshBooks.

The dinner attendees were kind enough to let me take a very short video with my cool new tiny camera (it is smaller than my Blackberry!) around the table, just so you, my readers, could get a feel for this group.  One customer, a friend of mine, was a little shy with the first pass, but he was willing to show his face moments later (see photo above). 

It was a very fun dinner, and I left with both an appreciation for what FreshBooks is doing to engage customers as well as some new friends.

Leave me a comment and let me know what you think about the video!  The Flip Minois really easy to use, and I think the resolution is pretty good (I promise, my videography skills will improve…).

News: Cool Customer Engagement Event

If you live on the East Coast, or want to head out there in November, you should check out the upcoming Customer Engagement and Loyalty Summit in Miami.  It is taking place November 17-19 and is focused on taking you beyond creating customer loyalty programs to helping you build customer strategies.  Sessions include looking at customer experience in a low-cost environment (Alaska Airlines), learning how Word of Mouth and WOW service go together (Zappos.com), and a panel on quantifying the benefits of customer loyalty to your CFO (lead by Best Buy).  It looks to be a great event.  Readers of my blog can get a 2 for 1 discount if they mention this code: IUS_CR_001.  If you go, let me know what you think of the event.  It sounds great!

Question: Blogging and Customer Service

My good friend Mack Collier asked a great question on Twitter the other day, and I told him I would re-post it here (as so many of you are focused on customer service). Mack is looking for examples of companies that are using their blog for customer service.  I can think of companies that try to share best practices about using their product in their blog, such as ConstantContact, and also companies that answer frequently asked questions via their blog, such as Sony Playstation’s blog.  If your company is doing this, or if you have seen a good example, please send me email to becky at petraconsultinggroup dot com or leave a comment here at Customers Rock!  I will share all the responses I get and link to you, too!  Thanks for your help!

(Photo credits: B. Carroll, piksel)

Popularity: 54% [?]

In one month, the 2008 BlogWorld conference will be taking place in Las Vegas, NV, and I was chosen to moderate a panel this year!  In case you aren’t familiar with it, BlogWorld is billed as the world’s largest blogging conference and tradeshow.  The way I look at it, it is a great place to come and learn about social media, as many of the sessions go beyond blogging into video, social networking, Twitter, and podcasting.

As for my panel, the title is Creating Customer Loyalty with Social Media.  Here is the abstract:

One of the keys to rockin’ customer retention and loyalty is customer engagement. This session shares some of the best practices in combining social media with customer retention programs, an area relatively unexplored by many companies and social media discussions. Social media provides the ideal channel from which to learn about and interact with customers, both commercial and consumer. It is also a great mechanism for deepening customer relationships and empowering customers to become a company’s best advocates. These two areas are especially important to businesses that want to break-through the noise and grow in spite of difficult economic times. Through the use of blogs, video, social networks, and wikis, executing customer retention programs can be cool again!

My Fabulous Panelists

I am so excited to have some great people on my panel.  I have two outstanding bloggers, Toby Bloomberg and Brian Solis, who will be sharing their perspectives on how companies are using social media to better serve their customers and build relationships.  I also have two brilliant minds from the corporate world, Tony Hsieh of Zappos.com (based in Las Vegas) and Frank Eliason of Comcast.  Both of them are leading their companies with new ways of using social media to get closer to their customers, including use of Twitter.  Expect to see a lively conversation taking place!

Learn About Social Media

Come and meet us in Las Vegas for BlogWorld.  You can use the link in my right sidebar or at the end of my post to save 20% off the price of registration with a special discount code BCYV1PLL (be sure to type this exactly; it is case sensitive) for the first 50 of my readers who sign up before September 1. (And yes, that is an affiliate link – my first foray into this area!)  If you are planning to come, or if you are already signed up, leave me a comment.  Maybe we can do a Customers Rock! meet-up!

Sign up now for BlogWorldExpo 2008

Popularity: 25% [?]

It seems to me that when the US Army Corps of Engineers is blogging, blogs have hit the mainstream.  There was an interesting article in The Military Engineer, May-June 2008, about Lt. Gen. Robert Van Antwerp, USA, Chief of Engineers and Commanding General, US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), and his new blog Corps-e-spondence.  In the blog, Gen. Van Antwerp covers a variety of topics such as flooding in the Midwest, the current state of New Orleans, the water crisis, as well as hiring, leadership, and even baseball (see the picture of him throwing out the first pitch at the Cardinal’s game)!

Gen. Van Antwerp was quoted on why he is blogging in the article, as well as in this video on the Army’s media site:

“This is the way of the future.  We should be out there, too – clearly and openly communicating with the American public every chance we get.”

Is it effective?

The blog seems to be a great way to communicate more about what the Army Corps of Engineers does, as there may be many people that don’t really know what types of projects they take on.  It also gives readers a view into the Gen. Van Antwerp’s leadership tenets and style.  The blog is updated every few weeks, and it is already getting a variety of comments.  It could be improved with more interaction from Gen. Van Antwerp back to his commenters to really create a conversation, rather then just a communication tool.

The Army is blogging – what about you?

Does a blog fit into your organization’s goals for interacting with customers?  Could you use it to better listen to what customers have to tell you?  Perhaps your company could use a blog to create a discussion around certain topics of interest to your customers.    Setting goals before starting a blog is key to making this social media tool successful.

Popularity: 23% [?]

 Those two topics go together, as Starbucks is a company that works to empower its employees (which they call “partners”) in order to improve the customer experience.  Their recent “We’ll Make Your Beverage Right” focus is a good example of this strategy.  More on Starbucks below, as well as in a post coming soon.

I am busy getting ready for a customer service workshop tomorrow, entitled “The Importance of 5-Star Service in a  Tough Economy”.  If you have a minute to send me your definition of 5-Star Service, I would love to include it!  You can send me email (becky at petraconsultinggroup dot com) or just leave a comment in this post.  I posted the question on Twitter as well as LinkedIn and have received nearly 20 responses from around the world.  I will summarize in a future post.

In the meantime, here are a few additional items to help start off your week. 

Re-Experiencing Starbucks Podcast

Jay Ehret and I spent some time together recently (about 24 minutes, actually) on a podcast, where we discussed the latest happenings at Starbucks as part of our Re-Experiencing Starbucks Project.  We are watching Starbucks from a customer’s perspective to see what kind of difference the changes are making (or not) to the customer experience. 

Here are some of the topics from the show:

1. Improving the U.S. business with training, tools and new products.
2. Re-igniting the emotional attachment with customers through the experience.
3. Re-aligning and streamlining organizational structure for the benefit of the experience.
4. International expansion.

You can find the podcast itself at Jay’s blog. Don’t forget to tell Jay that I sent ‘ya!

Blog Book Tour

I am honored to be one of the reviewers of Sybil Stershic’s new book, Taking Care of the People Who Matter Most, which is about taking care of employees so they take care of your customers.  Sybil’s publisher, WME Books, is hosting a Blog Book Tour; here are the scheduled stops:

• June 3rd – Lisa Rosendahl at HR Thoughts
• June 4th – Chris Bailey at Bailey Work/Play:The Alchemy of Soulful Work 
• June 5th – Toby Bloomberg at Diva Marketing
• June 6th – Becky Carroll at Customers Rock!

And next week:

• June 9th – Paul Hebert at Incentive Intelligence
• June 10th – Phil Gerbyshak, Slacker Manager.

I will be giving a review of the book as well as conducting an interview with Sybil.  Let me know if you have any questions for me to include!

(Side note: I have other book reviews coming up soon; this may turn out to be book week!  Reviews are pending for Michael Port, Darren Rowse, Tsufit, and Lewis Green… stay tuned, as they all have great books in different areas which include blogging, PR, sales, and employee/customer focus.)

Popularity: 19% [?]

 Last spring, the first Age of Conversation (AOC) book was put together by a very smart group of bloggers, lead by Drew McLellan and Gavin Heaton.  Over 100 bloggers each contributed 400 words on one topic: conversation.  The result was a book highlighting the thinking of a lot of smart people in marketing, PR, and advertising from around the world.  I was fortunate enough to be included in the book.  All book proceeds went to Variety Children’s Charity.

Today, Chris Wilson is hosting an AOC Bum Rush to try and move the book up the charts at Amazon and raise as much money as possible for Variety.

So, if you have been waiting to buy your copy, or if you would like to give it as a thoughtful gift for customers or clients, today is your day to buy it and get the most impact from your money.

Use this link to buy the book at Amazon, then spread the word!  Follow Chris on Twitter or at his blog to watch it move up the charts and benefit Variety.

Enjoy!

Popularity: 11% [?]