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Social Media Tells Customer Service Stories

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transparency in social mediaWay back in 1980 – long before the days of the internet – in a time when “social media” meant a party organized around watching a sporting event on television – executives at Braniff had a problem.  They needed to find a way to differentiate their airline from other airlines.  The question they asked was simple,

“What can we offer to our customers that they will perceive as having high value yet costs us virtually nothing to provide?”

The answer to that question is what we now know as the “frequent flier miles” program.  It was a GREAT idea so  – of course, other airlines quickly copied the concept.   While in Braniff’s case it was a great idea which came too late – other airlines instantly recognized the brilliance of offering repeat customers an intangible which cost virtually nothing yet was valued highly by those customers.

The success of the customer loyalty programs in general is well documented.   Since the cost to acquire a customer is commonly accepted to be from 4- 15 times more than the cost to retain a current customer – finding a way to retain current customers by simply providing discounted fares – on seats that normally would be empty- was nothing short of a marketing miracle. When one considers that a business traveler may spend over a half a million dollars on airline tickets during the course of his/her career – it’s easy to see why frequent flier programs are a staple in the airline industry.   The airline industry as a whole has struggled over the past decade as the dual horrors of market maturity met national security for the sector.   However, while airline executives blame fluctuating fuel costs and labor woes on their troubles- a quick trip around the blogosphere reveals quite a different picture.

With the exception of South West – the major airlines are struggling to provide basic customer service – and customer service woes make GREAT blog fodder.  Dave Carroll created a social media shit storm with his “United Breaks Guitars” music video.  The creation of that video wasn’t the result of a single “dropped the ball” in the customer service department at United Arilines – it was the result of consistent and blatant disrespect of the customer.  No amount of frequent flier miles could placate Dave Carroll. On the heels of that debacle – United’s social media woes continued to make news when Wang Jianshuo – a famous Chinese blogger – documented his horrific experience in flying United Airlines.

Now  however – the customer service horror stories are moving from the plane to the computer and the lack of customer attention is infecting the very lifeblood of a major airline’s frequent flier program.   Matt Cutts documents his own Bad Experience with U.S. Airways Dividend Miles and the post does not paint a pretty picture for US Airways.  The post is acting as a sounding board for others who feel free to share their bad experiences inside a US Airways flight as well.  For those of you don’t know – Matt Cutts is Google’s “front man” who blogs frequently about how to get your web site to get better visibility with the search engine giant.

Talk about a worst case scenario when it comes to social media in action – if there’s one blogger I would HATE to have “bitching” about my business – it would be the man who is the front man for Google’s search.

The PURPOSE of the frequent flier program was to create customer loyalty.  By implementing this game of “bait and switch” – US Airway’s frequent flier program is beginning to look like a shell game.  Matt Cutts is blowing the whistle.  It will be interesting to see (if) how US Airways responds.

If there’s one thing business owners MUST know about social media – it’s the unadulterated view of your business it provides.  You can sit in your office, close the blinds and tunr off the lights and tellyourself that your vision of your business is shared by your customer.. However, a quick trip via social media airlines will give you the “real” picture.  Whether or not it’s a picture you want to see is another story.

If there’s one lesson for businesses big and small to learn from social media – it’s that your customers are talking just as they’ve always done.  However, thanks to social media – you now have an “insider’s view” of what’s being said when the customer service stories are being told.

When social media isn’t enough…

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social media marketingLong long ago, Liz Strauss wrote the immortal words – “Your blog is not your business”.  Recently – I had a conversation with a client who learned that lesson – the HARD way.

“Amy” [not her real name] was referred to my business a couple of years ago.  The story behind how she came to me is very common – at least in my practice.  Years earlier, she had paid BIG money to a web developer to create a web site for her brand new business.  Because she didn’t know a lot about this strange world known as “the internet” she assumed that her web site would cause people to line up to hire her to do work for their business.  When that didn’t happen – she began doing some homework.

When she began doing her homework she learned that the search engines drive most of the traffic on the internet.  So, she typed in some words she thought people would use to find her business.   Her web site – the one she paid BIG buck (five figures) to have developed – didn’t show up.  So she tried some other words and her site STILL didn’t show up – ANYWHERE.  She contacted her web developer and asked what was up – and he told her to be patient.  Things like that take time, he said.  She she was patient – she waited a couple of YEARS and still nothing.

She began talking to other people and eventually had a conversation with one of my clients.  She contacted me and asked me to take a look at her site.  Long story short- even though her page LOOKED great through a browser – it had been cobbled together in such a manner that it was anything but search engine friendly.  Even though the site “looked” fine through a browser – that’s not how the search engines see a web site.  They look at the code – and in this case, it was a real mess.

She told me she loved the site and didn’t want to change the way it looked.  (I later learned the web developer is a friend of her husband’s and I suspect she didn’t want to have a show down with him.)  I assured her we could accomplish her objective in a much more cost effective manner by launching a self hosted WordPress blog to work in concert with her web site.

Her problem: she wanted her web site to be found in Google.  The solution: we launched a self hosted WordPress blog to act as “bait”.  She could link liberally to her “traditional” web site using the blog  and when potential clients found her blog – she could send them to her site to “close” the sale.

When you go fishing – it’s not realistic to expect fish to jump into your boat.  So, you take fishing poles, hooks and various bait to catch the fish.  We were going to set up her blog to act as bait.  Of course, because there is no such thing as “marketing magic”, Amy had to learn how to USE her WordPress blog correctly.  Amy is one of the inspirations for my 8 Week Power Blog Launch product.  Her questions – combined with the questions asked by other clients – are the basis for the “curriculum” in the course.

Page One in Google

Recently, Amy contacted me.  Her blog articles had achieved her objective.  Her content is now appearing on the first page of Google’s results for her desired keyword – a fairly competitive keyword by the way.  However, if you think that the phone call was filled with rejoicing – it wasn’t.

Amy was disheartened and discouraged.  Even though she had achieved her objective of her blog content being found on Google’s first page – her business still wasn’t thriving.  As a matter of fact, she didn’t have a single client – and she had recently had to get a job to make ends meet.  She was ready to throw in the towel.

So, the first question I asked Amy was to describe her business model to me.  She launched into an exhaustive commentary on her marketing efforts.

“Amy, you’ve just listed the various marketing tactics you’re using to promote your business.  What is your business model?  How do you expect to make money from your business?”

“Well, people read my blog posts, go to my web site and then hire me.   I’m getting lots of traffic – but no one is contacting me to hire me.”

What followed was a distillation of my book, Beyond the Niche: Essential Tools You Need to Create Marketing Messages that Deliver Results In a nutshell – Amy’s business is engaged in making what is known as a Major Sale.  However, most of the “marketing tactics” Amy had been engaging in are only effective in marking Minor Sales.  Most of the sales/marketing advice you find (online and offline)  is geared towards  Minor Sale products, which is why Neil Rackham spent a small fortune and 12 years of his life defining and documenting the difference between Major Sales and Minor Sales.

When I first read Spin Selling – where Rackham documents his findings – I immediately recognized that many popular “marketing tactics” are geared towards making Minor Sales.  I’d been working with businesses on their advertising as an advertising account executive for over a decade when I first read the book – and it was truly an “aha” moment for me.  The Major/Minor Sale definition explained why marketing tactics – from radio remote broadcasts to midnight madness sales-  would work so well for one client, yet fail miserably for another.

Amy had been blogging with the goal of being found in the search engines.  She focused on creating creative blog post titles instead of creating relationships.  She didn’t recognize that once people found her via the search engines, they then needed to form a relationship with her so they could TRUST her.  See,  TRUST is an integral part of making the Major Sale – and social media is a GREAT way to build your business with social media– by establishing a relationship with potential clients and customers.

This  is why I cringe when I see an article which touts “the importance of search engine optimizing your Facebook profile” – or when I read someone touting Twitter or Facebook as the “quick easy way” to build your business.  Twitter, Facebook, and blogging are all tactics and nothing more.  Tactics are great when you’re on a mission to accomplish a pre-defined goal as part of a marketing strategy.  Tactics are exhausting when deployed using the “spray and pray” method of marketing.

When you read that “blogging” is dead – you’re probably reading the rant of someone who didn’t understand the difference between tactics and strategy.  A blog is a GREAT communication tool which – when used correctly.

Social Media’s MVP: Feedback

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social media fansSocial media is new and we’re just now exploring all the things it CAN do.  We’re learning that while social media CAN do many things – it’s better at facilitating some business tasks better than others.

Despite the fact that in the beginning, it looked like social media was going to be a GREAT way to generate sales leads, we’re now discovering that’s not the case.  Even though  social media communication tools are chocked full of various ways to analyze the various interactions we have using – it turns out the biggest lesson may be that  those tools are only able to measure LINEAR movement through the sales process.   We’re learning yet again that the sales PROCESS is anything but linear.

While the results of the big “social media as lead generation tool” experiement may be disappointing – there is a HUGE bright spot on the horizon.

Social media is a WONDERFULLY effective tool for providing valuable feedback.

Customer feedback is vital to the success of any business.   In the past, businesses have had to resort to “unnatural” methods to access customer feedback.  One common method used to this day is to herd customers into a room and watch through a two way mirror as they “openly discuss” the product in question.   Until recently, this was the
“it’s the best we can do” option.   After all, we couldn’t EAVESDROP on actual conversations – so we have to pay people who might be our customers to sit and discuss their opinions.  The fact that in many cases – these people were NOT our customers was just something we had to accept as a flaw we couldn’t address or correct.  People with jobs and families usually won’t take a day off to talk about deodorant with other strangers – so we’ll talk to people who will.

Enter social media – and suddenly setting up a Google Alert allows us to “eavesdrop” on the written conversations of tens of millions of people.   Since it’s happening “naturally” – businesses can rest assured that the conversations happening in social media are the REAL issues – and not one targeted by a planning committee.

Feedback is of critical importance to the health and well being of a business.  Social media makes it easy to listen in – to not only the conversations about YOUR product or service – but the products and services of your competitors.  Oh the gold mine of information that is called SOCIAL MEDIA.

The value of customer feedback was driven home to me a few days ago when I paid a visit to my local health food store.  The shelves were two thirds empty and there was a hand written sign at the cash wrap announcing discounts if you’ll use the green stuff to buy your green stuff (herbs, natural foods and supplements).  Then, I heard a radio ad for the store on my way home.  The owner does her own radio ads and unfortunately – you can hear it in her voice.  Things are not going well at the local health food store.

This local health food store isn’t online in any way as far as I know.  The only “technology” is the cash register – and there’s only one that can process a debit card.  There isn’t a newsletter, or an email list or even a web site. Even though I’m a regular customer – the owner doesn’t know my name or what I do for a living.

The way I formed a connection with the store owner was one day I asked for her advice one.   My life had gotten out of balance (read about that here in Achieve Success While Maintaining a Healthy Work Life Balance) and I needed help getting “back on track”.  While I poked fun at one of her suggestions –  Hemp bagels.. (When You Hear Hemp, Do you Think “Rope” or “Dope”?) overall, she recommended a variety of supplements which I continue to purchase and use to this day.

Notice – I reached out to her but she did not reach back out to me – her customer.  During the two and a half years I’ve been a customer of the store – there’s never been an opportunity for me to offer feedback to the store’s owner.

  • When she stopped carrying the natural licorice my children adored – I told the clerk who rang me up – and nothing happened.
  • When the supplements were “reorganized” on the shelves and I couldn’t find the products I needed – I wasn’t able to offer an input.
  • When I couldn’t find a product which health food bloggers are raving about –  I asked the clerk about the possibility of getting the product. The clerk didn’t even bother to write down the name of the product I was seeking or even PRETEND that there was a possibility of carrying the product.

Despite the lack of input – and even though it was infinitely EASIER to order the products I need online – I feel a certain responsibility towards the owner of this health food store.  After all, I wouldn’t have known about half of the products if she hadn’t personally recommended them to me, so I’ve made the effort to continue to patronize the shop.  However, since my oldest son has now graduated from high school – the health food store is now a trip in and of itself.  So when I made a special trip and discovered that half of the things I needed weren’t in stock – I was disappointed and saddened.

I was disappointed because I have a feeling that the next time I make the trip to the health food store – it won’t be there.  The reason it won’t be there is simple – the store owner was operating without the benefit of customer feedback.

There’s no doubt about it – the store owner has a gift.  I described my symptoms and she darted from aisle to aisle, gathering the various “cures” for what ailed me.  What she  probably doesn’t know is that when she’s not there – no one helps. During her “trip” around the store with me – she placed about $300 into my basket.  The last time I went – I spent $50.  If she were tracking sales by customer – which she isn’t – it  would be easy for her to look at the “figures” and interpret them as, “She spent less because of the lousy economy.”   It would be easy – but it wouldn’t be true.   There were two factors which greatly contributed to my significantly reduced average purchase:

  1. The products I wanted were not in stock
  2. When I asked the clerk to find the products, she simply told me they weren’t in stock.  She didn’t offer an alternative that was in stock – it was “too bad -we’re out.”

The technology that is driving social media has a lot of potential to provide significant and valuable information to businesses.  However, it still takes human insight to interpret that information.  Sure – the process of analyzing the information is labor intensive – and it’s not easily outsourced for $2 an hour.  However, there is truly GOLDEN INFORMATION to be mined using social media.

The true GOLD in social media is the unaltered and natural feedback delivered in REAL TIME from actual consumers.  Feedback isn’t always pretty – but it’s essential to know what customers are saying.  They’ve always been talking – now thanks to social media, you can eavesdrop on the conversations that are happening “online”.

The fact that this tool can ALSO gather and produce a sales lead or two along the way is just icing on an already nutritious and delicious cake.

Social Media is not Linear

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Social Media MarketingThe straightest path between two points is a line – but when it comes to connecting with your customers – the path is anything but linear.

Ever since I can remember, business people have always wanted a “soda machine” relationship with their marketing and advertising.  Slide a dollar or two into your “marketing machine” – and out pops a sale.

It’s no surprise that those same people desperately want social media marketing to work in a similar “sales funnel soda machine” fashion.

The sales funnel is a myth either created by or created to satisfy the bean counters who wanted to see a direct link between marketing expenditures and sales figures.  In the attempt to “prove” that when a dollar is fed into the marketing soda machine that a soda can customer does indeed “pop” out the other end, the Rube Goldberg type of sales funnel was created.  This was the myth used to explain the complex process customers go through between the time they “consume” marketing dollars and the point in time when they show up in the sales figures.

Like all myths, it had a purpose.  In this case, it was created to provide “hard evidence” that there is a cause and effect between marketing and sales.

Unfortunately, for the sales funnel myth, in the real world, people are rarely willing to be lined up and marched in orderly fashion to make their company coerced acquisition on schedule.  Consumers don’t consider themselves to be “consuming” marketing dollars when they watch a television show.  They feel no moral obligation to purchase from their favorite television show’s commercial sponsor.

SURPRISE!!!  Customers make acquisitions to satisfy their own GDP – Goals, Desires and Problems.

Ah  -there’s the rub.  Those pesky customers have their own agenda.  Those pesky customers expect to be treated like real live PEOPLE  – people who are usually pretty smart and who make decisions as to what is in their best interest.  Those pesky customers who want more from their relatioship with your business than to be treated like a credit card wielding ATM whose goal in life is to keep your payroll and profit margins fat.

Social media is about connecting with people. It’s about pulling back the veil between companies and consumers and allowing companies to put a FACE on those customers who, until recently- were just numbers on a spreadsheet.  It’s about having the means and opportunity to watch as consumers discuss your product online – as they Tweet their recommendations – as they blog about their disappointments.

In Social Media’s Warning Label – I highlighted the story of a business that didn’t recognize or appreciate the marketing intelligence provided  by a disgruntled customer.

With that said, the social media warning label can only help the business owner who understands that the very nature of social media is to remove the veil which separates customers from the proprietors of the business in question.

Again – IMHO the sales process has NEVER been linear.  Success has always been found in focusing on the customer’s goals, desires and problems.  Francois Gossieaux over at emergence marketing writes in his post “Where are my leads?”

A new study published in McKinsey Quarterly reports that 2/3rd of touch points in a buyer’s active evaluations process are now consumer-driven marketing touch points: user generated reviews, word of mouth, and in store interactions. Only 1/3rd of the touch points are still company-driven. DID YOU HEAR THAT? You still control 1/3rd of the touch points!

I’ve linked to Jason’s post before about why your blog needs to focus on creating cheerleaders and not leads but I’m doing it again because it’s a message that needs to be spread.  In a world where 2/3’s of the sales process is out of your hands – it’s best to marshall your marketing forces to try to SHAPE those interactions… or if nothing else – load your customer’s lips.

Your blog – your Facebook account – your Twitter account were not created to function as “sales funnel soda machines”.   They are communication tools to connect you with other PEOPLE!

Your customers are people too.  Their first concern is NOT your bottom line -it’s their GDP (Goals, Desires, Problems).   Creating a business which counts on customers caring about your bottom line is the quickest path to destruction – or if you’re an auto maker – government ownership.

Connecting with people CAN result in more sales for your company, but not because your blog is a sales lead collector.  Social media can literally pull back the veil and literally provide insight into how your company is perceived by your customers – without the whitewashing of a carefully constructed “customer survey” or “focus group” – if you have the courage to listen.

Social Media’s Warning Label

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social media in action warningWhen hazardous chemicals are transported, it is required that warning signs or placards are displayed which warn of the inherent danger. Those placards are carefully coded to not only visually alert emergency personnel that hazardous are being transported but they also warn WHAT TYPE of hazardous material is involved.

When emergency personnel respond and see the placard – they know immediately how to respond to the emergency at hand.  The nature of chemicals being what they are, this keeps well meaning firemen from dousing a trailer which is leaking corrosive liquids with water which would result in creating flammable gases.   However, the same trailer leaking the same chemicals when covered with ash yields a much better outcome.

It would be nice if one of the steps to starting a small business included a similar Social Media Warning Label or Placard.

The Social Media Warning Label would be a labeling system which could warn business owners to the possible dangers which lie ahead with regards to how a given situation is going to play out online in the world of Social Media. What you don’t know about Social Media CAN hurt you

Use of this early warning symbol system could have alerted Graham Langdon that he was engaging with a force of nature when he locked horns with the legendary Turnip of Power.  The resulting battle was literally the driving force behind the launch of an obviously formidable competitor to Graham’s online business.

This fanciful social media warning label could also alert a business owner that a new customer was the author of a popular blog.  In a perfect world, every business would treat EVERY customer as if they had access to a popular, well indexed blog.  Oh wait – with over 112 BILLION blogs being indexed by Technorati – and the ability of anyone with a Facebook profile to create a Facebook Fan Page – maybe you SHOULD treat every customer you do business as if they have easy access to the most powerful tools of social media – because they do!

Not only do most of your customers have have access to the power tools of social media – they’re willing to use them.

Most bloggers LOVE to write about their adventures in customer service. These tales of deception and daring contain all the elements necessary to weave a compelling tale.  We have our hero or heroine (the blogger) and the evil villain (in the words of Betsy Wuebker, the hapless purveyors of mediocrity)  locked in mortal combat.  In these tales, we often relate best to the blogger in question because we’ve been locked in a similar battle as well.   When the melee of a social media shit storm is launched by a creative genius – it’s even more entertaining to watch.

With that said, the social media warning label can only help the business owner who understands that the very nature of social media is to remove the veil which separates customers from the proprietors of the business in question.

The ensuing transparency- which is an essential element of social media- literally serves to strengthen the relationship between a business and its customers.

Unfortunately, not everyone welcomes the strengthening of the connection and relationship that comes from social media marketing. I was recently reading a book recommended by Lori Hoeck of Think Like a Blackbelt in which the author of the recommended book asserts that every relationship by natures causes discomfort.. a.k.a. “pain”.

In the case of the business owner, developing a deeper connection or relationship with your customers can often mean the discomfort of discovering that your “labor of love” needs some additional work.

Which brings us to the illuminating tale shared by Blogger Dad in his blog post Letter to an unnamed cookie company.  In the initial blog post, he showed incredible restraint by not NAMING the company in question, but sharing in exquisite detail his EXPERIENCE of dealing with the cookie company.  The blog post gives us a vivid and rare
glimpse from the point of view of a NEW customer what it’s like to do business with us.

To gain such information via a formal “market research” study would not only be prohibitively expensive for a small business – but it could never be as illuminating as this eloquent tale of customer acquisition shared extemporaneously via this blog post.

Unfortunately, the company who saw themself in the post did not see the beauty of a unique and important point of view.  The company owner tried a “quick fix” to make the situation “better” by sending more cookies and a letter of explanation. (At least she didn’t try to bribe other bloggers to write phony positive reviews…see Social Media – Information Moving in Real Time!!!)

In true social media fashion, the letter the company president wrote to the blogger is shared via the post Letter to a Sarcastic Blogger from a Cookie Company.

Blogger Dad says it all when he writes:

The line, “it would have been nice of you to come to me directly, instead of posting your unhappiness to the world.” Perhaps you’re unfamiliar with this blog, but that is kind of what I do around here, I sometimes post my unhappiness to the world. It’s cathartic and people relate.

Typically, when I have an issue with a company, I don’t complain. There was a time that I did, but usually complaints rarely seem to matter. Most people who are unsatisfied with a company don’t complain to the company directly, they simply tell their friends.

In this case – Blogger Dad has quite a few “friends”… friends with blogs.  Sometimes, I think those friends may be more powerful than friends with guns.  At least guns have to be in someone’s hands to cause damage.  A bullet eventually stops.  It doesn’t build up steam, gain momentum or live forever!

THIS IS SOCIAL MEDIA IN ACTION!

Your customers have NEVER contacted you first when they were unhappy with your product or service.  They have ALWAYS bitched to their friends and family. The first course of action has NEVER been to pick up the phone can call the company.  Instead, poor customer service tends to sounds more like this…

“Honey!  Would you come in here and LOOK at this mess that arrived in the mail today?”

There’s the whole “moral imperative” aspect to social media which drives us to share. When I thought I was picking up a bag containing hand sanitizers and discovered they were condoms – I blogged about that experience as well.  It’s not just about bitching about poor customer service – that gets old after a while.

However, I can understand the other side of it… when you’re a business owner who discovers that a blogger is bitching via a Google Alert – all you see is that dagger in the form of a blog post – aimed at the heart of your beloved business.

Just when I think Jason may be right – that everyone knows by now how permanent and powerful this whole “social media” communication stuff is-  well, in the words of Michael Corleone in the Godfather III, “Just when I thought I was out… they pull me back in.”