Tag : Customer Service

  • Should You Follow Your Favorite Brands on Social Media Platforms?

    Posted Aug 1st, 2011 By in Social Media With | 3 Comments

    Social media marketing is a booming trend, so it’s no wonder that it’s easier than ever to find all of your favorite brands on popular websites like Twitter and Facebook. Businesses of all sizes are relying on social media to improve customer communication since social networking is much more efficient and cost effective than communicating via the telephone or e-mail.

    If you’re a customer that has a concern, question, or a comment, you can reach out to the majority of brands through social media in a matter of seconds. On top of that, since brands are relying on social media for marketing purposes, many top businesses are giving their customers rewards for following them on Twitter or liking them on Facebook.

    Here are a few top benefits you can receive from following your favorite brands in social media:

    1. You can be heard. Rather than sending an e-mail to a business or even participating in a survey, you can post your comment or tweet a response in just a few seconds. Since most businesses are new to the social media plunge, it’s likely that you’ll receive a response within a few hours or even a day to your question or concern.

    On top of that, since Twitter is a public website, a business won’t want other customers to see a public customer concern that hasn’t been dealt with. If you’re posting on a public social media website, a business is much more likely to respond to you than if you just send an e-mail.

    2. You can find out about special deals and contests. Brands are more excited than ever to use social media to promote specials, giveaways, and contests. Even mega brands like Verizon have leaned heavily on social media by using hashtags on Twitter to promote a series of giveaways to drum up sales from new customers.

    If you have a favorite brand, it literally pays to stay in the know and use social media to take advantage of discount offers you can’t find anywhere else.

    3. You can eliminate confusion. If you’re confused about a company’s new product or how to take advantage of a coupon, you can post a question on Facebook to receive a near immediate response. This is much more effective than visiting forums with answers from other Internet users.

    Why rely on another customer’s speculation or perspective when you can go to the horse’s mouth and get your answer directly from the brand through social media? Even better, you won’t have to worry about staying on hold with a company for minutes on end to get the help you need.

    4. You can become part of the bigger picture. Starbucks is one of the leading brands in social media, and they have taken the next step by introducing the forum My Starbucks Idea. The amazing thing about this forum is that customers are allowed to post their ideas and suggestions, and Starbucks actually listens.

    This is a brilliant strategy on behalf of Starbucks. Customers everywhere are impressed that they are being heard by a large corporation, and Starbucks is getting great ideas for free that they can use for product development.

    Guest Author:  Bethany Ramos is an expert in Internet marketing and social media marketing, and she also co-owns her own e-commerce website, The Coffee Bump.

     

  • Ask Mirna: What criteria do you suggest people use to select a social media expert?

    Posted Oct 17th, 2010 By in Ask Mirna, Business, Social Media With | 5 Comments

    Question: There are so many pseudo social media experts out there, each with his or her “solution,” that it’s become overwhelming to identify the real McCoys. What criteria do you suggest people use? – Jim Taggart, LeadershipWorldConnect

    Answer: Thank you for asking a very important question, and for trusting me to answer it for you. I am asked this same question at least once a week.  Unfortunately, the real social media experts are buried under all the hype of the fake experts because the real ones don’t have time to go calling themselves experts so they can pitch you on why you should have 100K Twitter followers, and why you should hire them to do the job. The true authorities in any industry are not hard-selling 24/7. They are too busy strategizing, sharing, learning, educating, creating, experimenting, executing, testing, growing, and helping others thrive.

    It is difficult for me to answer this question without being too controversial or self-promotional.  However, my intent is to always educate and create awareness. Thus, the answer is not only based on my opinion, but also years of business experience and thousands of hours of research and execution to back it up.

    So, how do you weed out the pundits from the fakes?

    First, let’s define expert.  Here is how Wikipedia defines the word:

    “An expert is someone widely recognized as a reliable source of technique or skill whose faculty for judging or deciding rightly, justly, or wisely is accorded authority and status by their peers or the public in a specific well-distinguished domain.”

    Having extensive knowledge about a topic beyond the average person makes you an expert.  Your skills training and credentials make you an expert.  Your years of experience and education make you an expert.  However, given the above definition, the word expert should not be a self-proclaimed title. This title should be earned and given by peers after a person has logged tens of thousands of hours, and the results should speak for themselves.

    Hence, your social media expert is NOT:

    • Someone who shows you how to use the latest feature on Facebook
    • An individual who tells you to just create pages on the major social networks
    • Your web designer or programmer
    • Your previous mortgage broker who has moved on to social media because it is the next hot industry
    • Your virtual assistant
    • Someone who is simply online
    • Someone who has five different types of businesses going at once to see which one makes the fastest buck

    Am I an expert in social media because I live and breathe the Web every day? It’s possible. However, I wouldn’t use that term.  I am a student of my work. I am constantly learning, experimenting, and educating.  My expertise and knowledge are put to the test every time I have a new challenge, a client, or a new project. If I can’t prove that I have some expertise when the situation calls, it doesn’t matter what I call or describe myself. (more…)

  • Social Media – The Newest Customer Service Tool

    Posted Aug 6th, 2010 By in Customer Service, Social Media, Social Networking With | 2 Comments

    This is a guest post by Heidi McCarthy (Bio is below).

    Being so ensconced in customer service, I look for every opportunity to praise good service and to offer constructive criticism when warranted.  In that regard, there is no faster, or cathartic, medium in which to speak out than social media.  Companies today do not realize they are missing both an opportunity to engage with their customers, but also risk letting a disgruntled customer’s small complaint grow into a boulder that is rolling so fast it can’t easily be stopped.

    I have to confess to being a late-comer to social media.  When I first dipped my toes into this vast ocean, I wanted to see what was out there relative to customer service.  So I did a Twitter search on customer service.  What I found would make a sailor blush.  Call me old-fashioned, but I honestly was appalled at the way so many people chose to express themselves.

    Then I took a step back and tried to determine, in 140 characters or less, just what the problems were.  Some people truly were just venting.  Had a bad day at work or fight with their significant other and needed to let off steam, so ABC Widgets became an easy target. Others did seem to be legitimate complaints – and praises.  But what is ABC Widgets going to do with these comments? (more…)

  • 8 Ways to Keep Customers Coming Back

    Posted May 24th, 2010 By in Business With | 1 Comment

    Whether you own a brick and mortar based business, or maybe you have just an online business that you’re running.  Regardless of what you’re running, I wanted to give you 8 effective tips that you can use to keep your customers coming back.  If you find that none of your customers are coming back, you may be doing something wrong!

    #1 Get their information – When someone makes a purchase, always make sure that you get their information somehow.   Whether you get their email, or even a home address, this is a great way to stay in touch.  You can send them discounts, promotions, and more.

    #2 Customer service is a plus – If you treat customers like family, they will want to come back.  People want to feel welcomed when they hit your store.  Even if you just have a presence online, it never hurts to send a customized email.  Also, try to make an effort to answer every email and avoid those canned email responses!

    #3 Give out coupons – Nothing is better than receiving coupons in the mail.  Offer exclusive deals to your past customers.  This is a great way for them to spend even more money.  Tell them in the offer that it’s a deal only given out to them.

    #4 Simply listen to them – Everyone is filled with opinions and they are going to share them.  Whether they are good or bad, make sure that you listen and try your best to meet all needs.  As long as they are legit, customers love when you listen! (more…)

  • Ask Mirna: How Can Social Media Be Used in a Business?

    Posted Feb 25th, 2010 By in Ask Mirna, Social Media With | No Comments

    QUESTION:

    “Hi Mirna. I am hoping you can help me. Every networking event I go to people are questionmarktelling me I have to do social media for my business. I realize that social media can be another marketing tool, but can it serve another purpose besides marketing and where do I start with all this? Any insights you have would be very helpful.” — Andrian Pital

    ANSWER:

    Social Media can be used for many things besides marketing and attracting new customers to your business.  To just name a few:

    - Public relations (brand recognition or to respond to a crisis like most recently, the Toyota recall)

    - Creating relationships and building stronger bonds with existing customers

    - Ongoing customer service

    - Listening tool (observing what people are saying about you and your competitors online)

    - Market research before developing a product or service

    - Engaging with journalists/media

    - Collaborating with employees (internal or external communication)

    - Integration with offline networking efforts

    - Finding joint venture partners

    - Recruitment

    As you can see from the above list, social media can play a role in every department of a company. There are a few steps you need to take before deciding if social media is right for your business:

    1. Decide what you want to use social media for (see above list).

    2. Know who your target audience is (age, gender, location, interests, values, etc.).  Of course, if you are a B2B the parameters would be different.

    3. Identify your objectives.  These should be very specific and measurable.

    4. Learn what social media means as a whole. Many people think it is about social networking only because this is all they are hearing about.  I designed the 15 categories of social media diagram to help businesses understand the entire social media landscape.  You will need to take the time to learn about each of the categories and the tools involved.  The tools and categories you choose should be based on your target audience and objectives.

    5. Use social media as a listening tool first and observe what types of conversations people are having online.  Are they already talking about you, your company, your products or services?  Are they talking about your competitors?  Are they talking about your industry?  Are the conversations positive, negative, or neutral?

    I recommend spending as much time as possible on steps 4 and 5.   It is really wise to learn as much as you can about social media before you jump on.  If everyone is jumping on Twitter and Facebook, you do not need to follow the hype if it doesn’t make sense for your business.

    If you would like to get your questions answered by Mirna, please visit the Ask Mirna page.

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