Archive for the ‘Miscellaneous’ Category
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?
- Build a real culture that puts the customer first, rather than lip service and mission statements.
- Take the risk that you can not control your message.
- Empower your team to do what is necessary.
- Consciously and proactively communicate with customers.
- 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 …
Introducing Chris Garrett
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.
Between blog posts and tweets, internet users generate an enormous amount of content on any given topic daily. While there’s many products and websites that will aggregate this data, relatively few actually analyze it. We at Boalt interactive thought it would be fun to put together an website which does just that with a topic that people are sure to talk about - Gossip Girl.
BOALT 2009 Outlook
I decided to begin the year with an entry on our vision for 2009. As it stands, like most everyone, I’ve just returned from the holidays in sunny Palm Beach, FL and found myself back in frigid Washington, D.C. As I find myself battling the tail end of a cold and trying to stay warm, I began to think about my accomplishments in 2008 and what lies ahead in 2009. For starters, I decided to take inventory on our accomplishments in 2008:
- Founded and launched, RushMyPassport.com which had over 5 mil in sales its first year in business. We employee over 20 full-time employees between both our offices.
- Launched client websites: ME Hotels & Resorts, Jupiter Pointe Marina, Neptune Research and Palm Dale Oil.
- Presented at Bar Camp Washington, D.C. and Social Dev Camp Baltimore.
- Entered the AppsforDemocracy.org contest and won agency first prize for entry, DCHistoricTours.com.
- Opened up an office in Washington, D.C. (Georgetown) and I personally relocated here.
- Launched the new BOALT website and blog.
- Created KidActsBlog.org and got featured on CNN.
So 2009 is going to be even more exciting. Last year, we decided to only take on 1 client per quarter so that we could focus on building our start up, RushMyPassport.com. This year we plan on actively pursuing more client work and focusing on search marketing, search optimization and social media marketing. The year is already started out well and this is what’s in store:
- BOALT welcomes new clients: Kesmarc and Starquine.com.
- Launched a strategic partnership with Orbitz.com and just finished a major integration with their systems which allows customers to expedite passports through their website.
- Just launched RushMyTravelVisa.com and plan on making it the #1 travel visa expediter.
- Currently working on the Expedited Travel website which will be geared to corporations and universities around the country providing them with travel logistics.
- Our new blog will have an increased focus on services: search marketing, search optimization and social media as well as industries: travel and government 2.0.
- Plan on launching a new KindActsBlog.org in January allowing random acts of kindness to posted automatically through Twitter, Google Friend Connect, AIM, Facebook or MySpace. I personally plan on contributing 1 kind act a week. Check out the new design here.
So that’s it for now. I will continue to update as more comes up. I hope everybody enjoyed their holidays!
I was walking down Pennsylvania Avenue, D.C. and caught a glimpse of what seemed to be a new prototype for an electric Saturn. The 3 gentleman that were rolling the car into a trailer weren’t to enthusiastic about the fact that I filmed a few seconds using my new HD Flip.
The D.C. government is working diligently to prepare for the 5 million plus tourists that are expected to visit our nation’s capital next month. Challenged to learned more about what the government should do to prepare for the inauguration, I turned to the people.
See what a few tourist said about the upcoming inauguration below. If it wasn’t so cold, I would have filmed for longer but it got to the point that my finger was too numb to push record!