The Reasons Why Your Customers Give You a Good Online Review

Posted by: Neil James // May 31st, 2012

Most businesses understand the value of a good review on Yelp or Google Places. If your small business has twelve five-star reviews, you’re probably getting more web traffic and phone calls than a competitor who also has twelve reviews, but only half are five-stars. As such, businesses are constantly looking for ways to get their best customers to leave sparkling feedback.

A new study by Zuberance, as chronicled in a new article for eMarketer, explored the reasons that individuals choose to recommend brands, products and services online. According to Zuberance:

  • 50 percent of those who make online recommendations do so as the result of a good experience with a product or service.
  • 37 percent want to help others make smarter purchase decisions based on their own experience.
  • Eight percent will make a recommendation but only when asked
  • Three percent do so to be known as knowledgeable about certain brands and types of products.
  • Only one percent do so specifically to obtain incentives and rewards

@NeilAndrewJames

Read More 0

Innovative Use for Social Media Takes to the Skies

Posted by: Matthew Bick // April 30th, 2012

Customer service and information sharing are two areas that many brands focus on in social media.  The airlines are no exception, with the industry as a whole seeing passengers often sharing information about their personal experiences in the friendly skies.  However, most of those fliers would not guess that social media is being used to make the in-flight experience more enjoyable.

Royal Dutch Airlines, known commonly as KLM, is the first airline to offer passengers the chance to choose the person sitting next to them based on social compatibility.  According to CBS’ Washington affiliate, “passengers can enter their information on the social networking sites and share their interests with others before boarding their flight. The program offers passengers the chance to see who will be on their flight.”

Although the program is only available on select flights for the moment, KLM does have plans to continue to expand the service’s availability down the road.

@MatthewBick

Read More 0

Customer Service in 2012 Means Social Interaction

Posted by: Matthew Bick // February 22nd, 2012

One of the very first things that customer service representatives are taught is to listen.  However, the majority of today’s “speaking” is no longer occurring vocally.  Instead, compliments and criticisms alike are found with much greater frequency through social media.

Trish Forant posted on Radian6’s blog on January 12th giving a short list of some of the best ways to harness social listening for purely customer service purposes.  As Forant writes, “Treat each piece of information as a gift, because that’s exactly what it is. You’re getting valuable insight straight from the people who matter most – your customers.”  In the same way that every customer phone call is a chance to learn more about and better serve the customer, every social interaction provides the same opportunity.

@MatthewBick

Read More 0

How to Handle Customer Complaints in a World of Social Media

Posted by: Mark Palony // February 3rd, 2011

Holy cow, but social media has changed how we do business. An obvious statement, to be sure, but one that bears repeating. Almost all areas of business have been touched – management, marketing, sales – but few have been impacted as customer service has.

In the not-so-distant past dissatisfied customers would write an angry letter or call a toll free number to lodge their complaints. Closer to home, they would share their problems with a few neighbors and friends. Complaints were handled quickly and quietly. Not today.

For a lot of unhappy consumers their default is to take to Facebook and Twitter spreading complaints across the Web. For those not monitoring, their brand can be damaged before they realize anything is wrong. If for no other reason, you should be monitoring the Internet for mentions of your brand.

How do you handle a complaint that working its way through cyberspace? Amber Naslund offers 10 Tips for dealing With Detractors on the Radian6 Blog. It’s a solid list and you would do well to print and pass it out to anyone in your company who interacts with customers.

The vehicles for lodging customer complaints are different today and they require you to handle them differently, as well. Prepare yourself by learning from the mistakes 0f those who went before you. Post the tips. Use the tips.

@MarkPalony

Read More 0

10 Easy Ways to Lose a Customer

Posted by: Neil James // September 3rd, 2010

The divide between an upset customer and a poor reputation for customer service is smaller than ever. Remember our post on how mobile devices are affecting companies that enrage their customers? For a brand’s marketing dollars to go as far as they can, its variety of customer service ducks must be in a row.  Not sure if yours are? Matt Owen offers a fresh perspective on customer service in his article for EConsultancy, Ten Ways to Really Annoy Your Customers (and How to Avoid Them.) What are the highlights? Blindly ceding rational judgment to policy, making your contact information harder to find than Waldo and transferring incoming calls like a fiery hot potato.

@NeilAndrewJames

Read More 0