Using Social Media In Economic Downturn

Todd Defren shared how social media may play a critical role in this economic downturn, and it’s a reasonable cause to be concerned about. How do you retain your current customers when times are bad? You do not want to remain stagnant, so how do you attract new ones? For many companies that reduce their marketing activities, are they securing their positions or will they suffer the unthinkable?

The question of budget slashing and reduction in activities is debatable. I often point to the fact that customers are often spoilt for choices these days. Sitting back and waiting for them to come to you, is no longer an option. Let’s not discount the additional activities your competitors are working on to take over your market share. Hence, we’re looking to evolve from the conventional marketing mix. What should come in place is not a new mix, but rather, it’s the shift in methods in reaching out.

You have switched more aggressively with a line-up of new products. So now, how are you going to deliver them?

IS SOCIAL MEDIA A TOOL?

Todd questioned the same in his later comments. While he believes that it is a change in mindset and strategy, I am inclined to reveal social media as an interactive process. I have indicated in my previous post citing the engagement of bloggers, that internet is the tool in oppose to bloggers.

This transfer of (helpful) information from one party to another is precisely the most valuable aspect of social media. Almost like a devil’s advocate, it represents your branding and lead with opinions, when done correctly. The part that companies should take note of, I feel, is that it doesn’t matter where these opinions are found. It could be a blogger network, otherwise it could be in social networking sites. It is the ultimate function of interaction with customers that will allow the principles of social media to flow.

Valeria Maltoni wrote recently of how social media can be applied into customer service, something which I echoed a while ago. If you hadn’t had a good reason to apply multi-discipline social media, perhaps the economic downturn has provided you the best opportunity now. How it will be implemented, is entirely up to you where interaction matters. Afterall, the experiential marketing aspect will eventually reveal your strengths and weaknesses.

Just a few days ago, I had the opportunity to speak to a fellow PR anchor on how important it is to advance ahead of the industry. Take for instance, many PR agencies and enthusiasts are still fiddling with bloggers and all that talks about going viral. Do these really matter at this point? We’re already looking at, instead, how communities can be better managed and the application of social media as an integral part of day-to-day operations. For one thing, social media is an ongoing process more than a one-off campaign. Cheap advertising space in blogs or social profiles is so yesterday.

I said above it didn’t matter where the conversations are taking place. I will leave you to read Jason Falls recommendations how you can better your Facebook groups. That’s on top of other aspects like transparency. The groups will still be there, even if you’re not. The next worse thing you can do, is ignoring the noise instead of using it to define your brand.

Does that mean traditional methods should be abandoned? Not really. How can you integrate traditional methods while increasing the level of interaction to further enhance your brand? That’s what you should really be looking at now.

October 7, 2008 | Filed Under Customer Service, Social Media

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Bad After-Sales Service Turns Off Customers

The decision by Linksys (Singapore) to cease operation of their telephony support is still disappointing to me until today. Having been a customer for years, the telephony support is one of my most-used avenue to ask for assistance to my router or wireless adapter. I have since dropped any further purchases of Linksys products, and even though I have switched to Asus, the latter possess the same lack too.

What Linksys provides now, is online technical support. You can actually have a pretty cool conversation in their Live Chat facility when all is well. Then again, who will actually contact technical support when nothing’s wrong? Sure, there’s a line in US which you can dial but if you’re in Asia, would you?



Think router and wireless adapter, connectivity immediately comes to mind. At a time when either one is preventing you from getting online, you start to wonder how on earth can you even get online to use that cool Live Chat facility. Least of all, the FAQ and wiki. For the average customers, at least you wouldn’t know what’s the problem until you furnish the error codes and be guided from there. With other tech companies, this is pretty much a standard procedure to go through. Is that what Linksys had in mind when pulling their telephony support?

Strangely, as the world gets more competitive and emphasized a great deal on communications with customers, we seemed to fail at that miserably. Instead of finding solutions to see how best customers can be served, we decide to corner customers for the benefit of our convenience or cost-cutting measures. Especially at a time where online interaction is exploding, keeping connected is probably one of the most important aspects. Ask Apple about their experience of failing to meet up with advertised capabilities, I am sure they have plenty to share.

After-sales service also plays a significant role in retaining customers. Given that customers have a wide variety of choices nowadays, switching your brand off the purchase radar is not a difficult thing to do at all.

Be everywhere, do everything and never fail to astonish the customer.
- Macy’s motto

Adapted from More Loyal Customers by Kevin Stirtz

Internet is a great tool, but all of us shouldn’t forget about providing alternatives to customers. It is also providing ourselves with an extra edge in sweeping our customers’ off their feet. Which customer doesn’t enjoy excellent customer service, pre-sales & post-sales?

Have Linksys provided the solution? No, I found mine. My solution is as easy as taking a 5-minute walk to the mall and getting myself a new product from another manufacturer. It doesn’t hurt me a single bit even though I knew I was overcharged for the item, typical in small independent IT shops compared to the price-war in popular places like Sim Lim Square or Funan IT Mall.

Bad resolution, for Linksys at least.

August 26, 2008 | Filed Under Customer Service

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Three Shouts For The Week

I am putting out three things I would like to spread words on this week and the first two come from much respected Kevin Stirtz - The Amazing Service Guy. He sent me his book which I wrote here, and his sharing doesn’t stop at that. I’m not quite done with the book, though. Hence, I am leading you to two of his resources that he emailed me just two days back.

1. Best Customer Service Quotes
Kevin has taken time to compile a whole list of lovely quotes usable customer service. It’s a long list, from famous personalities to even anonymous authors. God knows how long he took. I managed to spot some personal favorites, like Zig Ziglar, Henry Ford, Ghandi etc. The thing I love about quotes is, they satisfy the idealism in me and serve as a realistic motivation.

Kevin has generously made it free for all to copy, re-print or re-distribute in your publications. This later part is not included, but I am going to suggest some ways you can used these quotes.

i. Insert a quote in the email signature. Rotate to other quotes if you’d like.
ii. Insert a quote in your customer satisfaction survey form.
iii. Pick a quote and a relevant case study to be shared with your customer service department each month and have them practise it intensively.
iv. Use relevant quotes for insertion into presentation slides.
v. If you’re working in a service company, even better. Include any of these quotes in your collateral.

2. The Amazing Customer Service Toolkit
My suggestion is, print this out and keep it handy around your desk. From senior management to frontline customer service officers, it will be helpful either as a tip box or can even serve as a customer service checklist. In this, Kevin has broken down the parts and elaborated on each of them. As per usual, they are worded in very simple language which should not be difficult to understand.

There are sections displayed in point form, and also a self checking tool towards the later half. I hope this will benefit you and your departments. Customer service is a RESPONSIBILITY.

3. Chartered Institute of Public Relations (CIPR) Social Media Guidelines
I came across this while serving and it was in-sync with my principles and beliefs in social media. There are plenty others, but I picked this to be shared here because CIPR’s guidelines are closely advocated alongside ethical and fair practices. That’s to say, good practices that yield fantastic results need not necessary be ethical.

Again, I would like you to read the full guidelines for yourself. However, I would like to bring to your attention on certain parts of the guidelines, but not in full. I hold great admiration for any company or individuals who are able to put this into their practices.

INTEGRITY
Integrity is key to the ethical treatment of social media, as indeed it is key to all elements of professionalism. It requires that members are honest and open in their use of social media.

Members should have regard for the public interest. They should be accurate when disseminating information. They should never use social media knowingly to mislead clients, employees, employers, colleagues or fellow professionals. The issue of authorship is clearly relevant here, and is touched on further in this document.

DEFAMATION

  • A company may be held responsible for something an employee has written or said if it is on behalf of the company or on a company-sanctioned space
  • Action can also be taken against you for repeating libelous information from another source, so you must check carefully before quoting statements from other blogs or websites. This can also apply to linking to defamatory information
  • You should consider whether a statement can be proved before writing or using it – in the UK law, the onus is on the person making the statement to establish its truth.

ASTROTURFING
‘Astroturfing’ is the practice of falsely creating the impression of independent, popular support by means of an orchestrated and disguised public relations exercise. The underlying idea of faking grassroots support gives rise to the term, which was coined from the word AstroTurf (artificial grass).

Astroturfing is not a new concept in principle, but social media has provided a host of methods for conducting this type of campaign. For example, in the context of social media, astroturfing techniques could include the creation of a dedicated blog, posting comments on others’ blogs or on message boards, submitting supposedly amateur videos to YouTube – all of which would be designed to give the impression of spontaneous support for an idea/product/company/service.

Do take note though, CIPR is UK-based. Hence, certain definitions may differ due to geographical variations. The other reason why I have chosen CIPR’s guidelines is due to the fact that Singapore’s law is greatly derived from UK’s since her colonial occupation. Due diligence is required on your part to see how you can fit these into your practices.

I hope the above resources will help you along the way, in all forms.

August 6, 2008 | Filed Under Customer Service, Social Media

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