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Focus on Customer Service in 2010 (Finally?)

January 19, 2010 By 7 Comments

focusThis may be it. This may be the year that it finally happens. 2010 may just be the year that companies start to focus on their customers and serving them well.

Now, I am cautiously optimistic about this focus on customer service, but let me tell you why I feel this way.

- Brands are using a focus on customers as a competitive differentiator in their advertisements. Frank Eliason mentions the new commercial for the Chase Sapphire credit card service. It features the ability to talk “directly to a live person when I call” rather than being routed around an automated call queue. The new Domino’s Pizza commercials talk about how they have been listening to their customers and have improved their pizza as a direct result. Phil, who Tweets for them from Domino’s HQ, talks about how they have been serious about customer feedback and been researching this for 2 years. Kudos to these two companies and the many others who are making it public that they care about their customers and what they think of their brands.

- I am hearing more and more that “Customer Service is the New Marketing” from smart folks in the social media space (including in the above post from Frank Eliason). This isn’t a new concept; in fact, I spoke at a conference of the same name 2 years ago this February (where I first met Tony Hsieh from Zappos). Every customer touch is another brand impression of the company. Each contact with customer service, whether by phone, email, Twitter, or self-service is a brand impression. Each customer service representative says more about the brand by how they treat a customer during an interaction than any marketing campaign.

- Customers are having ongoing conversations with brands and with each other about products and services. Companies are realizing how influential these conversations are now that they are starting to listen to them via social media monitoring. And it is a good thing they are doing so. As I tweeted out earlier this week,

“Customer service is more critical than ever. The combo of social media and mobile devices = the perfect storm for an angry customer.”


Think about this scenario. A customer is standing in line at a retail store. The line is very long, and the checker seems to be taking forever. The customer feels like complaining to the closest person who will listen, and it is at his fingertips: Twitter/Facebook/posterous via his mobile phone. It is imperative that brands and companies constantly listen, and more of them than ever seem to be doing so. Those who are not will fall behind in 2010.

In my opinion, all the signs are pointing in the right direction for a focus on great customer service, and with it a rockin’ customer experience in 2010. Those companies that “get it” will rebound from this recession faster than those that don’t. Those companies that “get it” will have loyal customers who shout about how great that company is to anyone who will listen. Those who don’t may just hear a lot of shouting as their customers complain very publicly and then walk away.

What do you think? Is 2010 the year for a focus on the customer?

(Image credit: michaeldb)

Filed Under: Customer experience, Customer service, Marketing Blogs Tagged With: , , , , ,

Where does social media fit in?

May 1, 2009 By 8 Comments

social-media-bandwagonThis blog’s main focus is on customers and how businesses can grow organically by building their success on their customer base.  I have written posts on customer experience, customer service, and customer-focused marketing (no, not all marketing is customer-focused!). Since I have been teaching my class at UC San Diego, “Marketing via New Media”, I have been spending a lot more time speaking about where social media fits in to all of this.

Social media is the big buzz right now. Everyone wants to get their business on Twitter or Facebook without really thinking about why. Usually, it is because their manager or client read an article in the Wall Street Journal about who is using Twitter/Facebook/fill-in-the-blank and how cool it is. And indeed, there are a lot of great reasons to use social media to market a business. I believe one of the most powerful reasons to market with social media is to build and strengthen customer relationships.

Part of the Customer Experience

How customers perceive your company online is part of their experience with your organization. Whether your customers are consumers or businesses, many of them are spending time on social media regularly in order to keep up with friends, make connections, or learn new information. According to a recent study by Cone Research in September 2008, Americans using social media also want to engage with their favorite organizations and brands in that space (emphasis is mine):

  • 93% believe a company should have a social media presence
  • 85% believe a company should interact via social media
  • 56% feel they have a stronger connection with and are better served by companies where they can interact via social media

The study goes on to state this:

“…Americans are eager to deepen their brand relationships through social media.”

Customers definitely view their experience with a brand/organization via social media as an integral part of their relationship with that brand.

Connecting with Your Advocates

While many organizations are currently using social media as a way to increase awareness and do online PR, the sweet spot is in connecting with your customers and empowering them to interact with you. Per the book Groundswell (which I use as my class textbook), companies can use social media to listen to customers, talk with (not AT) customers, energize customers (especially evangelists), support customers, and embrace customers (co-create with them). These uses can all be applied to improving customer relationships.

Anyone who has heard me speak about using social media for marketing knows that I first encourage organizations to listen to what is being said about them online. Unless you first listen to the discussion, you will look a little silly jumping in to the conversation with your own agenda. It’s similar to going to a party and interjecting yourself into groups which are already talking amongst themselves. Your words will be out of context, and you may be seen as rude! However, if you listen first, you will be able to add value to the discussion by being relevant, and you will probably be a lot more interesting.

Once some listening has taken place, the stage is set for planned interaction. You can do this by having your own “party”, and inviting your customers to come and join you OR you can find out where your customers are already “partying” and go meet them there. In other words, you can invite your customers to come to your site or social media property and interact with you, or you can go and engage with them wherever they are already interacting around your brand. Either way can work, depending on your business and your customer relationships.

Companies that have well-established relationships with their customers will discover that social media is a great tool which complements their existing interactions. Companies that have only been using one-way communication with customers will have a little work to do to get them to engage, not just once in a social media campaign, but on an ongoing basis. They should find their customers are eager and ready as long as the conversation is relevant to their needs!

Social Media and Customer Loyalty

Over the past 6 months, I have had the opportunity to talk face-to-face with a number of well-respected people in business about social media marketing. I asked them each the same question:

“How do you think social media can help with customer loyalty?”

I captured their responses with my Flip video camera, and I will be featuring different videos over the next few weeks here on Customers Rock! Please let me know what you think about social media and customer loyalty, as well as about the videos in the comments below, on my Facebook page, or via my Twitter page.

Here is one of the videos, which I have previously posted on Customers Rock!, to get you started.

Frank Eliason, Comcast (@comcastcares on Twitter)

(Opening image credit: Matt Hamm on flickr)

Filed Under: Customer experience, Marketing Blogs, social media Tagged With: , , , ,

Using Social Media for Customer Loyalty, Part 1

September 21, 2008 By 9 Comments

This post is Part 1 in a series on using social media to build strong customer relationships.  Parts 1 and 2 discuss some of the top reasons to use social media for customer retention.  Part 3 discusses how to get started.

If you have customers that are actively using social media, there is a potential to use that communication channel to deepen customer relationships.  Social media tools are especially effective at building two-way conversations with customers, either consumers or businesses.  There is certainly a lot of talk about marketing with social media!

I teach a class at UC San Diego called Marketing via New Media, and we just kicked off a new quarter this week.  We discussed the top reasons that businesses should consider using social media; I have summarized two of them for you here. 

  • Social media marketing strengthens customer relationships.  Customers don’t want a relationship with a company or organization.  They have relationships with the people that work for that company or organization.  Social media tools such as blogs and Twitterallow customers to get to know the people inside the company.  They get to see real people with real personalities.  Tara de Nicolas from the Washington Humane Society shared with me that the most popular part of their website is the link to their Flickr photo stream!  Their clients and donors love to see the faces behind the operations, and they seek them out when given a chance to attend a face-to-face event with them (such as a fundraising dinner).  Friendships are formed online and brought into the offline arena!  Customers that have positive interactions with the people in the company feel a stronger sense of trust with that organization, a key factor in building customer loyalty.

 

  • Social media marketing is great at keeping customers informed and involved.  While traditional media is also good at keeping customers informed, social media excels at getting customers involved.  Nearly one year ago, we had devastating wildfires here in San Diego.  One of my students this quarter works for the San Diego Zoo, and she shared that zoo members and other San Diegans greatly appreciated the zoo blog updates on how the fire had impacted the park.  It allowed them a “look inside” to see how animals had been affected, and people’s passion for the animals drove additional public involvement to support the zoo’s efforts in caring for the wildlife.  Customers that are more involved and engaged tend to have longer and stronger relationships with organizations.

There are many other reasons as well, which will be covered in this series.  My panel this weekend at BlogWorld Expo addressed the above reasons and some issues, including customer retention programs, customer service, and changes in customer expectations.  There was great information on how to do it, as well as some areas to consider, from my expert panelists Tony Hsieh from Zappos.com, Frank Eliason from Comcast, Brian Solisfrom FutureWorks, and Toby Bloomberg from Diva Marketing.  Part 2 of this series (to be posted later this week) will review the implications we discussed with respect to customer service expectations resulting from tools such as Twitter.  Be sure to come back to hear their answers, as well as answers to the questions you, my readers, asked before the conference!

Filed Under: Customer experience, Customer loyalty, social media Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,

Social Media and BlogWorld: Here We Come!

August 21, 2008 By 10 Comments

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

Filed Under: Blogging, Community, Uncategorized Tagged With: , , , , , , , , ,