Tag: Customer_support
Use online customer service to create a positve online footprint
Photo: throgers
Swedish SEO guru Christian Rudolf wrote an extensive and insightful piece on how brands get jacked online when negative discussions reach a high ranking in a search for the brand name. I also had the honor to add my comment to the story.
SEO is a founding part of all digital communication, something that is probably still unknown for many within communications. With people learning more about digital communication and discovering new services like blogging, Twitter, YouTube, Posterous etc, and also getting accustomed to liking or disliking brands, brand jacking will become a bigger challenge to organizations.
Digital communication has largely been about campaign sites and hoping for a viral effect, but often there is no strategy for creating positive digital footprints that prevent brand jacking. Creating and maintaining a digital presence is increasingly important and I am convinced that a function like customer service on the internet, where each client dialogue means a digital footprint, will be a natural part of a communication strategy.
Digital footprints is an important part of the strategy when we work with digital presence and online customer service for clients, answering tweets and blog or forum posts. When a forum user expresses a problem it is not only important to answer that person, but also all the users that will follow looking for information about the same product.
Making sure all questions have an answer and also letting users know that the company cares and listens to them is an important message to send both for existing customers as well as potential customers looking for a rational argument when choosing between manufacturers. And in the long run posting the answers online will save time and money for the traditional customer service.
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Uh-oh – 20% of All Tweets Are About Brands
Photo: Somewhat Frank
Marketing Charts reports on Twitter stats published by Penn State University, saying that 20% of all tweets are about brands.
“People are using tweets to express their reaction, both positive and negative, as they engage with these products and services,” said Jansen. “Tweets are about as close as one can get to the customer point of purchase for products and services.”
It has never been this obvious that customer service is one of today's most powerful marketing tools. Make it proactive. Make it part of your core values. True customer service is here to stay.
Using Twitter for Customer Support
Photo: Yo no me llamo Javier
Mashable posted a good piece about how to use Twitter for customer support. The most important learnings according to me are:
- Customer support is powerful and cost efficient
- Track your brand and products
- Respond quickly and transparent
- Be personal and authentic
I felt urged to comment adding two steps to the six Mashable steps. Below is my comment.
We are conducting a Twitter+blog+forum customer support project right now for a global client, and I'd say all of the above applies to our learnings.
I would like to add two steps though:
Step 7. Don't be afraid
Lots of companies fear new channels and personal conversations (you know "losing the control of the message") making them hesitate with e.g. Twitter. Don't! Rather than staying away due to fear, you should dare making mistakes - as long as you are transparent and authentic it will be received positively.
Step 8. Be ready to adapt
Your experiences on Twitter or any other channel including personal conversations will give you new learnings. Make sure you listen to these and pass these on within the organisation. This will develop your company in many ways.
What do you say – are there steps 9 and 10?
Software Updates as Marketing
Photo: blakespot
Sure, customer support is the new marketing. People want brands to care, answer questions and to fix whatever is wrong. This is a great – if not one of the best uses for social media today. Support via Twitter and in blogs makes a difference through engaging in one-to-one communication.
Another way for technology brands to show they care about their customer is by showing they care about their products. By updating it. Some might say an update is only needed if the product is not complete when sold. I personally don't think a technology product will ever be finished.
A product that isn't updated for months gives me a sense of being forgotten by the company. Lots of Internet start-ups push updates once or even twice a week (also including user feedback in the process). While I know not all companies should use this kind of frequency, updates should be viewed as something more than simple bug fixing and adding features.
A product update tells me that this thing is still getting the attention by the company. That I should look out for what's going on with this product. And this company.
Do You Service Your Customers Enough?
Photo: Ben30
Customer support is hotter than ever before, something I repeat like a broken record when I present about digital media. The key message is that an organization's digital presence is a main foundation to their customer relations. The digital presence could be of many different shapes and sizes, however a presence is needed even if it only consists of a monitoring service.
There are several recent examples of the trend as well.
- Salesforce recently added Twitter to its customer support tool, something both Steve Rubel and Jeremiah Owyang wrote about. With customers communicating faster and more often, organizations need to be present in new platforms. (Swedish search engine Twingly posted about the microblogging topic on their blog.)
- The CEO of US shoe company Zappos, says customer service is the foundation of their business model. With that in place they could be selling anything – like plane tickets.
- Swedish travel organizer Fritidsresor offers a money back guarantee to people who have lost their jobs. They won't make money off it initially, but they will build a closer relationship with their customers who will want to come back.
What are your best customer service cases?