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One of the major ways companies are getting positive return from their online campaigns is by improving their customer service quality and responsiveness. It is clear now that social media is going to be key in the coming years for engaging buyers and potential clients, but have you thought about where great customer service really comes from?

Go to any book store or library and you can find a gajillion books that promise to tell you how to deliver a stellar customer experience. Then there are all the online case studies that show the tools, procedures, rule books, and call center scripts that are essential if you are going to make the shopper super happy and want to return again and again.

In truth though it is not that simple. There is a key reason why parroting these successful companies just will not work.

Zappos.com

One of the most famous examples of using social media for customer services is Zappos. If you have not heard of Zappos they are a successful online retailer specializing in shoes. Check out this from an Inc. article:

The Web entrepreneur and marketing guru Seth Godin has likened Hsieh’s ability to use technology to connect with his customers to the Beatles’ ability to animate their teenage fans. The blog Search Engine Land calls Zappos “the poster child for how to connect with customers online.”

What most of Hsieh’s admirers — and even some Zappos employees — don’t know is that this openness doesn’t come naturally. Hsieh has been exceptionally shy all his life and finds meeting strangers exhausting. (His trick to get over his shyness is to pretend he’s interviewing you for a job.) Those seemingly off-the-cuff Twitter missives? He spends 10 minutes or so carefully composing each one

So it’s not instinctive or spontaneous, and it seems it is not even comfortable to the founder of the company who is so lauded and studied by other company leaders looking for a boost in their own fortunes.

Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh

Anyone who merely observes and copies Zappos on the surface is going to fail miserably. There is obviously more to this success than the gimmicks written about in the media, or even their innovative human resources tactics (for example offering new hires a couple of grand to get them to quit).

Zappos has built in super customer service into the company from the inside out. They did not set out to create this customer experience as an example to others, it was a survival strategy:

Because the company could not afford to spend money on marketing, the sales strategy involved making customers so happy that they bought again or told their friends or both.

… and it has worked, partly due to taking the risk of enabling the staff and colleagues to have freedom to do whatever it takes. As in the following example …

he told a story about a woman whose husband died in a car accident after she had ordered boots for him from Zappos. The day after she called to ask for help with the return, she received a flower delivery. The call center rep had ordered the flowers without checking with a supervisor and billed them to the company. “At the funeral, the widow told her friends and family about the experience,” Hsieh said, his voice cracking and his eyes tearing up ever so slightly. “Not only was she a customer for life, but so were those 30 or 40 people at the funeral.”

So what do we really learn from Zappos example?

1. Build a real culture that puts the customer first, rather than lip service and mission statements.
2. Take the risk that you can not control your message.
3. Empower your team to do what is necessary.
4. Consciously and proactively communicate with customers.
5. OVER-Deliver on your promises.

In the last point Zappos again has a lesson. They now do not promise overnight delivery, even though they do deliver over night in many cases. This is not to save money on shipping, but so when the items arrive the customer is surprised and thrilled.

It is not just about service but experience. That means going beyond being responsive, taking it further than what you should do and being constantly on the look out for new ways to engage customers and enhance the relationship.

Your customers are only a click away from a competitor. Why should they stick with you for their next purchase?

Twitter in particular is becoming key to proactive customer service – hunting out the people who are upset/disappointed before their issues fester.

• Start by listening! Search for people mentioning key words, especially your brand
• Set up Twitter accounts and Facebook fan pages, and let people know they exist and that you respond to them
• Use social media as channels to get out exclusive offers, discounts, voucher codes, competitions
• Request and gather feedback at every opportunity – ask questions and show you are listening to the responses
• Look for ways you can help, and give staff the permission to seek out and interact

Remember also that getting involved in social media sets an expectation. You must follow through. If you set up a presence then people will expect you to respond when they talk to you. Ignore your customers and they will remember, and the idea will backfire. Make sure your company is engaged in social media for the long haul.

We are not yet at the stage where social media is a “must have”, like a website and email customer service, but I think we will get there.

Do you have examples of fantastic customer service? Please share in the comments …

One of the phrases you hear a lot in discussions about social media is

“It is not about you”

This is because when you come across anyone who is all “me-me-me” that is a turn off. It is certainly not attractive, and in business attraction is a vital first step in making our online efforts turn a profit.

The danger though is that people take the simplistic view, they take the guidance and exaggerate it to mean “It is not about you at all“. This is just as bad as having too much you.

People come to you for a reason. They want to hear what you have to say, and they want to get to know the people behind those words.

When I left the advertising agency world to strike out on my own, I set up a company website. The language in that site was all “we”, “us”, “team”, “our solutions” with a view to making my company look corporate friendly. Quickly though I found out my customers were not attracted by that, it in fact made them nervous. They wanted to work with me, and would be constantly looking for reassurance that I was not going to hand their business over to someone else who they did not know.

Of course the solution would have been to have a team page showing photographs and descriptions of team members, and get them involved in blogging and communicating with customers. I could not do that though, because my “team” was actually a basket of freelancers who I would outsource to on a case by case basis, so my solution was to drop the company site entirely and base my whole business around my blog.

The lesson was while the services were the same, and my ability to deliver did not change, this stand-off approach was damaging my business rather than helping it.

You might be doing the same thing.

Social Media is Socializing the Internet

More and more customers are becoming attuned to the social side of the internet. They like to deal with people rather than faceless corporate robots. This means letting personality shine, and relating to them.

Consider this as relationship building. Relationships are not just about gaining “opt-in” to your communications. It is like in any human interaction, yes there are narcissists who talk to you just to hear their own voice, but for the most part there needs to be an exchange of information, and some kind of bonding process for any kind of relationship to form.

When it is about you

• Are you real? - There are so many spammers and scams online that anything that shows you are real human beings will provide reassurance. This human face will also encourage people to interact with you, it is much more welcoming and inviting, and will encourage people to want to get to know you better.
  • Write under your real names
  • Show photographs
  • Add personal details to anecdotes
  • Use multimedia so people can hear and see you
• Your stories – We do not want to hear the same old stories that everyone tells, we want to hear your case studies, your anecdotes, and learn from your experience.
• Show proof - Potential customers want to see evidence of your solution and expertise, can you actually deliver on the promises you are making? When I write a public blog critique I get more customers. My expertise becomes self-evident, because they can see real world solutions in action. How can you make your expertise self-evident?
• Build trust – For anyone to make the leap to actually putting down money with you they need to be able trust you. Are you established, capable, honest, and reliable?
• Do I like you? – Service businesses where the customer works closely with the vendor are often differentiated by relationships, they need to like you and want to work with you.

In summary … Why YOU rather than anyone else?

… But it is not ALL about you

We should not get carried away, as mentioned earlier, “me-me-me” is not good. Your messages still need to come down to how everything relates to your prospects issues, wants, challenges, problems and desires.

• Audience focus – Focus on the exact people who you want to attract and on serving their needs. It is not about selling your product but about matching your solutions to their problems and communicating how that works.
• Find the pain points – Continually drill down into your audience, do surveys, polls and speak to customers to find out the issues they are facing and what their biggest challenges are.
• Provide beneficial context – Rather than talk about your products features, describe your customers problems then explain how you solved them and the benefits and results your customers achieved.
• Show empathy – If you do all of this right then you are demonstrating that you understand your audience and therefore can help them better than anyone else. The combination of this empathy together with expertise and an attractive persona will encourage more customers to confidently go with you rather than any competitor.

In summary … WIIFM – answer the big question in any prospects mind; “What’s In It For Me?”.

Be the Solution With Personality

Today with social media quickly becoming a key weapon in your outreach arsenal, it is not enough to just have a solution, you have to be the people your customers are happy to work with and want to interact with. This means being three dimensional human beings, with compelling stories, and self-evident expertise to back it up.

Talk to your customers about their subjects, presented how they want it, but with your personality and case studies, and your customers will be attracted and buy from you with confidence.

Over to you

What is your experience? Have you bought something based on your relationship with the people in the company? Do people buy from you because of your relationships? Please share your thoughts in the comments …

As Chris is the new face here on this blog I thought I would take a moment to ask him some questions and introduce him to you.

Who are you and what are you doing here?

I am Chris Garrett and I am a new media consultant living in England.

As for what I am doing here, Boalt is all about “persuasive online experiences that result in customer acquisition, loyalty and brand mindshare. With expertise ranging from conversion-centric Ecommerce strategy to Search and Social Media Marketing”, and that is what I do also, but perhaps with a subtly different take on things. My specialty is in the content and social media, attracting an audience that grows to know and trust you, and therefore buy more of what you have to sell.

When asked I often describe myself as a web geek. This is because I have been working with the internet since 1994, and played with online “stuff” for a couple of years before that.

I will be writing about how your business can benefit from online marketing, and some tips, ideas and tactics for how to do that.

What is your background with online marketing?

My background was first as a techy, networks, programming and database type stuff, then moving into branding, advertising and direct marketing as my career progressed. In the past I have worked with big and small companies, from huge global corporations such as Coca-Cola, Procter & Gamble, Toshiba and Heinz, through to charities like Marie Curie, and non-profits such as the English National Ballet.

What do you do now?

In 2005 I left marketing agency life to start my own consultancy, and along the way co-founded a couple of start ups, appeared on the internet marketing speaking circuit, and wrote for a lot of blogs.  Outside of the internet geek community I am probably most associated with the Problogger Book, which I co-authored with Darren Rowse of Problogger.

Right now we are just finishing up a brilliant “virtual conference” called the Social Media Success Summit which has been a lot of fun and very successful. I also run an online course called Authority Blogger where I teach people how to grow trust and credibility while attracting and retaining customers through blogging.

Why online marketing?

The internet is just so effective, a better question would be why would you not? The measurability, return on investment, efficiencies and speed all add up to a no-brainer for me. We once built a whole campaign that brought in hundreds of thousands of dollars in profits for the same price as just the prosthetic goats head used in the TV advertising for the same client!

With a combination of an effective web site, solid email marketing best practices, search and social media, you can create far more audience engagement and conversions. Of course I do not recommend throwing away any offline strategies that are working for you, but as you can probably tell, online is now my first choice.

How can readers find out more about you?

The best place to go is my main blog, Chris Garrett on New Media or follow me on Twitter.