Does Your Social Media Experience Extend

October 26, 2009 · Comments

Tim Hayden from GamePlan I’m thinking about wiring the human business. Does your social media experience extend to your other points of human contact? I believe it was with Tim Hayden from GamePlan that I was having this talk (if not, someone will come along and correct me in the comments, I’m sure). We were talking about the fact that Paula Berg from Southwest Airlines is a great brand advocate for her company, and that Morgan Johnston from JetBlue is a great advocate for his company, but that in neither case do we feel the experience extends to, say, the ticket counter, or the gate agent.

Further, we thought about the fact that if Morgan or Paula tweet some kind of comforting or informational note to someone who’s having a problem in real time, that this information doesn’t exactly travel (easily) through the rest of the system to the people most likely to be directly in front of that person. (Quick note: I’m not singling out airlines and least of all Southwest or JetBlue. They do great work.) Meaning, how does the system of “feel good real time interaction” connect to the system of “standard customer service” such that the user, the human, feels just as loved and touched as they do when talking to the Morgans and Paulas of the world?

Paula Berg of Southwest Airlines I’ve started developing this as a project for a few prospective clients for New Marketing Labs . There are a few things that come to mind. One would be that an organization would do well to have someone riding shotgun on a “nerve center” of communications, something that covers both the larger mainstream stories, as well as the human-sized experiences going on in a day. Probably, this person would work in the customer service or ops department, but they’d have a media and communications mindset as well. Their role isn’t to improve operations, but to keep real time communications flow going at multiple touchpoints.

The yield of this kind of project, besides better alignment of your social media presence and your comms, customer service, and other key areas, would be a living human “pulse” on how information flows. This grants:

  • Reduced time to problem resolution.
  • Reduction in customer complaints.
  • Real-time operational flow information for non-structured data. (Companies know how the gears turn. They don’t know the human stories.)
  • Improved customer retention.

At least those are the few benefits that have rushed up to my head in the project brief that I’m writing.

What do you think? Can you see the value in that? As a company, can you imagine having not only a social media presence, but one that understands in multiple dimensions what the pulse of the organization is, and where to direct “soothing” and recovery?

That’s what I’m wiring up at New Marketing Labs these days. What are you doing to extend your social media experience?

If you enjoyed this post, please consider leaving a comment or subscribing to the feed to have future articles delivered to your feed reader.

ChrisBrogan.com runs on the Thesis Theme for WordPress

Thesis WordPress theme

Thesis is the search engine optimized WordPress theme of choice for serious online publishers. If you’re a blogger who doesn’t understand a lot of PHP, Thesis will give a ton of functionality without having to alter any code. For the advanced, Thesis has incredible customization possibilities via Thesis hooks.

With so many design options, you can use the template over and over and never have it look like the same site. The theme is robust and flexible enough not only to accommodate a site like ChrisBrogan.com, but also to enable the site to run far more efficiently than it ever has before.

  • Chris, you are talking about an age-old challenge...how do you deliver your core brand promise company-wide through every employee, every day. It takes a lot of training, coordination and communication. A great marketing or PR campaign or having an engaged social community doesn't work when people don't get the same experience when they touch your brand. Building a community inside your organization is equally important to building community outside your organization, yet often an afterthought. To me, it's like opening the door before you're fully dressed, you're going to show some things you don't want to.
  • Points for the best analogy of the day, and you're right. It's so well said here. Thanks for adding this perspective.
  • AmberNaslund
    I'll layer on what Jessica asked:

    I think most organizations can see the value. Or at least, they can say they do. The trick comes in deconstruction. Many of the organizations that struggle the most with this are matrixed (and not in the red pill way), siloed, and hierarchical. In order to truly make this kind of communication nerve center work, we have to destroy some of that framework and make it more fluid.

    That brings to the surface many issues that aren't related to operations, but to culture and human nature. The fear of being made "obsolete", and the importance of feeling that you're needed and integral to a company's success. The need we humans seem to have for guidelines within which to work (is that my job, or is it not?).

    I guess that's what I'm chewing on. How to align the culture changes this implies with the structural ones. Engineering a business like this from the start might be easier than devolving one a bit, or reworking the structure. There are lots of conversations to be had around that in terms of internal communication and fluidity of roles and accountability. You know we'll be talking more about this. :)
  • I have a post scheduled for 3:30PM ET that will answer my take on this. I call it the middle-down, middle-up approach.
  • cvharquail
    Chris, I think your post is right on target-- and I want to encourage you to go a bit broader and deeper in considering how social media should "extend" within organizations. Well done, social media should change an organization's culture, by changing the organization's systems. This includes (and isn't limited to) using social media to gather feedback that is turned into problem diagnosis, then into solution generating, then into solution execution, then into customer followup, and finally into organizational learning.
    The recent conversation about whether Twitter has changed Comcast's culture (http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/10/20/comcast-tw...) is another example of what you're addressing. I for one would enjoy hearing your views on that specific example (http://authenticorganizations.com/harquail/2009...).
    Looking forward to more insights from you....
  • gerardmclean
    Chris, you should schedule posts at 3:38 or 3:27 or something like that. An odd minute is more authentic and injects a hair bit of wackiness into the process. :-)
  • Chris

    Thanks for the shout out about by friend, Tim! More people need to understand the genius of Game Plan!
  • It sounds as if the issue is that the type and immediacy of response given by Paula and Morgan is not extending to other customer touch points in these organizations. This is surprising as I would hope it would be quite the opposite. Rather than waiting for an after-the-fact tweet to appear and then responding, customer service should be more proactive. For instance, the airline people that usher you to a self-service kiosk could be a lot more interactive with the folks in line, giving them directions and help while they wait for a kiosk to become available, and making generally nice conversation. People do this on Twitter and Facebook all the time. Why can't they do it in real life too? Great post Chris, and good luck with this initiative.
  • This goes to the heart - for a social media strategy to truly succeed, it needs to be espoused not just by the person responsible for managing the corporate twitter and facebook accounts, but everyone else in the business. Properly embracing Social Media means that a company becomes more transparent and open through that channel - and this is worthless, if not a waste of time, if the company is not transparent and open through every other toch point. Chris, I don't think your sugestion goes far enough; everyone should be heedful of the new culture being forced on us through social media, and adapt to work with it.
  • your point has often come to mind when i see large companies - or even celebrities tweeting or friending. what is the end to the means for these companies? great! i can tweet you but how does that help me use your product/service better or vice versa.

    that is certainly something that the micro businesses (like Etsy sellers) have up on larger corporations using social media. there you are actually talking to the person in charge of design, service, shipping, marketing, etc... your conversation & engagement has real-time results.

    certainly, there is a place for social media in big business - but it seems to me to be lip service until being their "tweep" or "fan" actually contributes to change.
  • I agree that it can feel that way sometimes. The people I listed above are great brand advocates and do lots for customer service in those organizations. You're right that lots of brands are just here because they realize it's cool, but they don't realize why.
  • addytseng
    Hmmm....I like what you said. Sometimes I would like to talk to the designer herself, or the data analyst or the process analyst. These are folks who are in the back office and are not given a face, or mouth to interact directly with customers.
    Everthing's filtered by customer service, or PR and feedback never gets to the back office because generally front office folks do not know the language(?)
    How cool is it to bypass them.
  • I think this is a great idea/thought for all involved in any type of work. Social media does fall flat if its not integrated/embraced throughout the organization. I guess the problem is, how do we all get into one 'brain' or one 'mindset'? Maybe connection and communication is the smaller issue and employee brand loyalty/pride is the bigger one?
  • Your question's a good one. Here's how I'm working on it: my thought is that this is a "show don't tell" experience, where the more success with the results of the yield from the integration will turn into more reasons for people to "join the pulse." Does that make sense? Meaning, I'm doing this more middle-down, middle-up than top down and definitely not just bottom up. Hmm... I smell another post.
  • LOL. Makes complete sense. I see the reciprocal relationship between doing good work and employee brand loyalty. Add to this 'kudos' for those internally who do it well and it seems like a win/win a la great content = great follows/visibility, becoming more altruistic over time. :)
  • Coordinating the social media experience and the social media actions of the front end of your business with those in the back end of your business is a great concept. Certainly, there needs to be a plan to link the two for it to be successful. Feedback to those behind the scenes is terribly important to the success of your business.
  • jackiecameron
    I like the way this has the potential to flow through organisations. Taking this from the other direction ( in an old school/traditional way) some of us will escalate a customer service issue to the CEO because we do not feel that the person in front of us in that business is either interested or empowered to resolve it for us. I love the growth in the Morgans and Paulas interacting directly with the customers but currently - apart from a maybe a letter on the headed paper signed by a "senior person" - we have no real way of assessing whether what we did had any impact. .We are often assured that this will be addressed in staff training - or some such comment - but I see what you are suggesting having the potential to make that far more meaningful ( or feel that way anyway!).

    On the positive side it would also be great to ensure that credit for great service filters through to the whole organisation and allows everyone to realise how good that feels - for both parties!
  • Very nice idea, Jackie. The idea that pressing the good stuff deeper into the company instead of leaving it at the call center is a good point to make, too.
  • fabulousphotogifts
    Hi Chris

    Speaking as a small company, surely this is where small companies, embracing these social platforms can best 'score' over their larger counterparts?

    I'm not saying we do it perfectly by any means but we try to and every day we learn a new trick or read some great comment that encourages to re-double our efforts - your 'pointers' included.

    Of course, the bigger organisations should be able to achieve this more easily once they put their minds to it because they've got the resources, where as a smaller business may well not have the time to chase down every mention or comment made about them / too them etc.

    Customers like it most when you remember - and they don't have to repeat themselves each time.

    Thanks for the encouragement to keep doing more.

    Jonathan
  • You're absolutely right, Jonathan. Smaller companies already breathe this stuff. It's in your blood. I'm glad you're doing what you're doing, and always grateful for your thoughts and ideas here.
  • I like how this takes social media to a new level. Sure, it's nice when I have a problem with a company and say so, I get a Twitter message, or an e-mail back with an offer to help. But there's only so much you can do after the fact to restore trust to your organization. So how does this person work? Do they have an actual stake in helping fix the problem? Or do they just know where to send the issue? This could be a very powerful position, but only if the company will actually use it to solve problems.
  • Ivan_Jimenez
    Chris, reading your blog from Istanbul, Turkey, where corporations are just about beginning to sniff the fact that social media can be used as a business tool.
    The problem is, they have no understanding of the concept of Trust Building. To them Twitter is just a way to push discount offers onto cyberspace. Right now, in the local office of one of the worlds biggest advertising agencies there is a girl, wondering how to Tweet on behalf of the national airline. She is lost, lonely, most of the time speaks to herself and guess what.. noone listens!
    Today's post confirms me, once again, how far behind in the curve we (they) are.. and how many opportunities are out there for those who grasp such simple concepts as Trust and Human Business.
  • ...and again, we get what we measure. I would love to see linkage between SM activity (problem resolution on Twitter, for instance) and measures of customer satisfaction/brand loyalty amongst those who have had the opportunity to be exposed to such interactions. That linkage should form the basis of compensation for SM-savvy corporate reps, which would further encourage the right actions in this space and provide tangible rewards for stars like Paula Berg (and disincentives for bad actors). But, as we've discussed before, this means getting SM out of the marketing/pr silos and into the DNA of the firm.
  • I love when you comment, Tom. It gives me a crazy stomach-ache because I know you're right (and quite the measurement guy), and because I realize that I'm not giving the left-brain thinkers of the world enough to hold onto.

    You are, of course, right.
  • Sorry about your stomach. Keep up that travel schedule and I'll have to refer you to my gastroenterologist, who keeps patching me up :)

    I'm actually kind of right-brained for a researcher, but I sell to left-brainers. If we can raise the game here, social media can really evolve from "experimental marketing spend" to "channel" to movement and eventually to the very theory of the firm. That's where I'd like to drive my career--I know you're driving there too--and giving left-brainers and right-brainers "handles" for this stuff is the way to lift all boats.
  • jmctigue
    I always find it comforting when there are live agents on hand to answer questions and steer you in the right direction, particularly at the airport. With my hands full of bags, there's no way I'm going to reach for my iPhone and jump on Tweetdeck to get help, unless I can stop, put my bags down etc. I know a lot of you folks do this (and tweet about the experience!) but I find it awkward, and the last thing I want to mess with is another gadget when I'm in a rush and confused. Instead, why not arm the the hospitality agents with SM-ready devices so that they can consult with operations or each other to get you the info on the spot, instead of sending you off to wait in line at Customer Service? That way, it's still a many-to-many exchange, but it's also personal and helpful in a stressed-out setting.
  • davidlibby
    I see your point, and don't think this will be an issue for future generations. It's the 30 and 40 something brand managers who are struggling today. It wasn't part of their original job description, nor how they're used to thinking. That can be changed, but it will take time. Question for you. Why isn't there more talk about how advanced CRM systems can help guide the 30 and 40 somethings and teach them how to integrate social into their customer service programs?
  • Because people don't want to buy yet another platform, so they're hoping to see the results without having to buy yet another robust tool set.
  • davidlibby
    True, which is why I think the agencies should manage it for them.

    David

    David Libby
    510.377.1466
    @davidlibby
    www.inspiringdialogue.com
  • gerardmclean
    Think about how cool this would be. I'm flying Southwest Airlines BOS to CMH and they mess up my boarding pass or something in some way. I tweet out something like "Southwest sucks. I got crammed into the middle seat when I booked an aisle." When I land in CMH, I hear "Mr. McLean, please stop by the Southwest ticket counter" I stop by and they apologize for the mix-up and give me a voucher for a free upgrade next time I fly (or better yet, a gate agent meets me at the gate!)

    For this to happen, someone will have had to see my tweet, verify I'm not a chronic complainer just to get free crap, was actually booked on the flight, was bumped from my assigned seat, could authorize an upgrade and coordinate the message to the ticket counter. It can all be done now, just need the will to do it.

    But wouldn't that be the coolest thing ever?
  • Wouldn't it be cooler if they didn't mess up in the first place? I understand what you're saying, but I think that the effort and resources it would take to connect all of those systems could be better spent on making sure you don't have any problems to begin with...
  • gerardmclean
    Always going to be hiccups as long as we have human beings serving other human beings. It's how you solve the problems you will have that sets the bar.

    Heck, if companies had no problems to solve, Twitter have no reason to exist and Chris could retire :-)
  • addytseng
    Good point. Trouble is...no one remembers smooth rides. Bumps once in a while remind us the ride could be smoother.
  • It would be the coolest thing ever! And you'd def fly them again, right? And Tweet how cool it was. That's better than a Superbowl ad in my book. :)
  • gerardmclean
    I'd do all that! And blog about it. And tell my dog @dogwalkblog about it and he would bark loudly to his fans and buds. And for far cheaper than $30million dollars!
  • Kathy SIerra
    While I pretty much dismiss ALL social-media-saves-customer-service notions, when I read this post I couldn't help myself from thinking... "Wow. This *could* actually work." Shifting an entire company culture is both age-old and nearly-impossible. But your idea takes a practical approach. It's still audacious and wildly-optimistic, but... yeah, I can actually picture this.

    Work on this!
  • Thanks, and I'm doing what I can. It starts with a story. THen a campfire. Then people to hear the story. Then... : )
  • I think I understand your post saying that Social Media is all well and good solving problems in the cyber world but does that extend to a company's IRL customer service, where the rubber meets the road so to speak. And does it extend passed that to other facets? I'm actually writing an article on this very thing in banking. One bank has a great anecdote whereby a customer got false info from the telephone channel and shot a vicious tweet out. The bank had ears open and helped soothe and resolve his issue, following up to let him know they were expediting his solution.

    This was a time when Social Media customer service surpassed the ability of traditional customer service in that it could do what traditional channels could not, they were listening to the chatter. I was very impressed with that. As a result the customer happened to be a blogger and wrote about how happy the experience made him feel. It's a real model for not only banks but other companies on how integrating customer service channels to physical retail outlets can work seamlessly.

    What this did was provide anecdotal evidence to the management that social media "works" (and sometimes works better than existing, establish, old-style channels) and can be integrated into branch activity in a way that provides fast, personal service. Instead of letting the customer stew you can work with both online and off line solutions.
  • That's exactly where I'm going. I think these "gee whiz" things are wake up calls to potential business improvements.
  • Absolutely. If enough evidence that this thing really works to benefit a company's relationship with customers and adds immense value to a corporation vs. of the old management fear of "what if they talk bad about us online" then more and more companies will adopt social media into the enterprise as a way of doing business and not just something the marketing department should look into and play with.
  • This is SUCH a big topic! In an organization where you get passed from department to department to tell them about a problem, and each time you have to restate your name, information and concern, they are now going to add an ability to know what is being said on social media? WOW. I think it would be amazing to have a conversation on Twitter with a customer service rep and then the next time I interact with the company they knew about it, but it seems like general business technology is way behind this. Everyone has such disparate systems they would have problems integrating this too. But, it is such a wonderful goal, I think every company should be working toward full understanding of what is out there and what needs to be communicated.
  • addytseng
    Yes, I hate it when I'm asked for information they should already know over and over and again! Seamless data integration is a huge challenge, and it comes down to good data management principles.
  • In the heat of the moment, employees may lose brand loyalty/pride and just start acting annoyed. I agree that there is a serious challenge in extending the "feel good real time" right down to the frontline in real time and having the social media and company comms line up with customer-facing behavior. Frontline awareness (and not the Big Brother kind) of the Social Media stream, if not actual participation or monitoring of this stream, may help.
  • Isn't the real problem, though, that companies don't value customer service enough? They aren't thinking about how every customer touch point is a part of brand experience?

    I think the social media stuff is often kinda.. lipstick on a pig. Why should you have to tweet to get a human being to talk to you?

    I mean yes, what you're saying is true.. and someone riding shot gun.. not a bad idea..

    But its like the resistances business have had to adopting social media, and the superficiality of much of the adoption.. What's it going to take for a company to transform its self in substantive ways?

    As just one simple pimple example of the problem.. the way things are run these days.. the focus and pressure is short term.. Thinking about long term sustainability is not something you are likely rewarded for.. so how do you get substantial change in that environment? How do you get people working proactively against large problems?
  • You're not wrong, but this lipstick has vitamins and restorative powers.

    : )
  • Yes. I think there is already an attempt to infuse this sort of model into several businesses, but more work needs to be done to make it seamless.

    One of those companies in the airlines industry, I suspect, is Virgin America. Passenger service agents clearly responded to tweets related to a poorly handled delay, but the connection wasn't seamless. While ground relations improved, online relations were limited to a monitoring function as opposed to an engaging function.

    There was something odd about that experience. As ground relations improved for the 100 or so people at the terminal, online relations were neglected (other than monitoring) for the 2,000+ people online. Would integrated communication have worked?

    Perhaps. One thing I think you would have to consider, Chris, is that such a model might still need to contain specific customer experience given that we generally feel differently about experiences while their are occurring as opposed to once they are are concluded.

    This means companies entertaining the idea have to ask some real serious questions, e.g., does a company really want every customer experience to be shared with tens of thousands in real time when the impact is confined to, let's say, two people without the benefit of a resolution?

    Maybe, but I'm not sure. Certainly people already report in real time. However, adding such a model might increase the propensity for people to report in real time. While there is nothing wrong with that, there are consequences.

    For example, someone who stuck in a long line might complain for 15 minutes without the benefit of a resolution. Perhaps the customer service agent (by the time they are being serviced) resolves the issue. The outcome might be one single report on the resolution as opposed to a dozen or so complaints prior to the resolution.

    That might be a net sum negative, even if there is a happy ending.

    Another consideration would have to be scalability. What happens when hundreds are impacted? Do they all receive the same tired promise that someone is working on the situation over and over again? I hope not.

    Those are just a couple questions to consider as you work out the interesting idea to make online/offline experience integration work. I suspect it will happen for some companies, but it might difficult to determine just what will happen once it's implemented. ... Not to mention how non participants might feel as some customers seem to be treated differently for the sole purpose of having a smart phone at the ready. Hmmm...

    All my best,
    Rich
  • All great thoughts, Rich. I'm thinking through it.

    Scale, I don't care about as much, but the others, I think are really important. (The reason I don't care about scale is that after a certain size, there's less likelihood that people will get the same treatment no matter what, etc).

    You've got me thinking.
  • Great. And yes, I understand your reasoning about scale. Perfect.

    Best,
    Rich
  • Indeed, at least twice you and I have discussed the disconnect between linear planning/operations and the living/breathing conversation that is happening departmentally with so many brands. This is where social and mobile technology is kicking marketers back on their heels. There is a great danger in becoming excited about "socal media" when the rest of your customer touchpoints are not aligned with the voice that daily or weekly tweets, blogs and posts. The brand who fails to realize that its onlne and offline voices/culture must echo each other stands the greatest uphill challenge in realizing success using the tools and technology that may drive deeper engagement.
  • The key to all of this, I think, is figuring out how to get companies to understand that *everything they do* is a form of communication. A communication failure is an operational (and brand) failure. And vice versa. But most companies separate--usually with quite a distance--operations and communications. Operations are seen as core to the business; Communications/Marketing is there to "get the word out" (or even worse, "make things pretty").

    The companies that will succeed in this new marketplace are the ones that can figure out how to unite the two...or find someone who can.

    So perhaps the real question is: where are the operationally gifted communicators? Or the operations folks with a gift for effective communication? Find them and we'll find the future of business.
  • Great way to size it up. Everything they do is communication and every touch with a customer is marketing. Agree?

    And you're right. The best communicators will be who brings the conversation forward.
  • Absolutely agree. My not-so-secret plot for taking over the world lies in figuring out how to move the conversation *beyond* marketing. Every interaction with a company,or a person, reveals what--who--that company is. That's not just marketing. It's something much, much larger.

    If we're talking about human business, then we need to find human analogies to the business terms we use almost without thinking.

    When I, Tamsen, interact with you, Chris, that's not "marketing"--that puts the focus on the wrong thing entirely. And yet we think of B2B and B2C communication almost entirely in the "marketing" context.

    Person to person interaction IS communication, in all of its forms. But the communication and its forms are not the goal--we don't communicate simply to communicate. It's moving the conversation forward, as you say...but that, too, has a larger purpose.

    And it ain't "marketing."
  • I've spent 12 years as an airline ticket/boarding agent! I saw many behind the scenes operations and how perhaps communication failed. I love social media and learning and absorbing all I can to build my brand. The idea to integrate the social media into lets say the airline infrastructure could be good and bad! I could see it being abused by the consumer, but I can see it being effective too for the airline industry as well. Real time resolution, there is nothing better! A dissatisfied customer who can be defused of a bad experience will almost always share it with others. It's a win/win situation for both the customer and the service provider.
    I agree with the other commenter about, it's unfortunate that it would have to take a 'tweet' to resolve or provide 'great customer service' but it is what it is. There is no perfect situation and 100 % ideal customer service. Airline industries are notorious for looking for better ways to improve their customer service, provide ways to improve their brand. This to me is a great way to make it happen, figure out how to integrate it internally to the ticket agent, customer service counter and so forth! There is a system that can be tapped into, there are at least one monitor at every gate, counter and so forth. Set up the nerve center, tap into the system and let it prove itself. Will there be those customers who feel they have not been vindicated? Sure there always will be! Will there be customers that will be pleased with real time resolution, you bet! The benefits behind social media and IRL branding for the airline industry is simple and far outweighs the negative abuser who is looking to take advantage of a free ticket in exchange of a canceled flight due to a natural occurrence (act of God, weather). Benefits such as reduced time to problem resolution and reduction in customer complaints as Chris suggests! Those are by far most important to the airlines after being in the front line after all those years! I say they are missing the boat if they don't implement something! Even if it was just one happy customer, it would be worth it! But I would bet it would be far more!
  • Chris - Thanks for the post. The problem with what you say above is that you are right. This is an inherent problem in the pecking order and ranking system in most companies. Statistically starting at the top, people tend to have the most vision and passion for their companies and their jobs. By the time you get down to the person at the ticket counter, people are paid less or traditionally are not in their 'dream job'. So how do you create a strategy that carries the passion from EVP's all the way down to that dude that is wearing the bad polyester uniform with their name tag on it? The good news is that it requires that the people at the top take care of their employees which requires attentiveness on the exec level. The harsher reality is this takes lots of TLC to do it right.
  • Hey Chris;
    Great post to get the discussion going! Your concept is in some way quite similar to something called various names by different people. We call it Reputation Analytics. Here at Gossamar, we use a tool from Sysomos to do what you are suggesting on behalf of our clients: we monitor the social media space, looking for mentions of a company or its products and rate that mention as being positive or negative using the natural language capabilities of the service. This allows people to react in real time to a potentially negative event or situation.
  • mia
    hmmm....I'm not sure I totally understand, but being on the *receiving* end of bad customer service, I have to say, I have an opinion. I think the problem with the ticket agent or the baggage claim officer, or whatever point the customer actually interacts with any given company, is that those individuals are not empowered to make decisions. If each person were given the marching orders to 'make it so', a lot less nonsense and run-around would ensue. For sure. How many times have we been banging our heads against the wall of c/s, only to be finally connected with a manager or supervisor who can suddenly do *something* and then it's fine, everything's fixed, but you can't unring that bell of having spent half-an-hour in hell. If you really want to have those points of contact, make it not with the customer. Make it with the people who are already the points of contact with the customer. Know what I mean? The ticket agent should be able to type a message in to their terminal, explaining that there was x problem, and then the lovely Paula or fantastic Morgan can get back to them *immediately* with "no problem, here's how we handle that". Totally transparent to the customer, but think of all the aggravation that could be saved. Just my two cents.

    ps Miss you! :)
  • I enjoyed @AZRealEstate's comment most of all, because it showed a willingness to want to see something like this work. Weirdly enough I wrote a post today about how social media could be used in hotel chains in more of a proactive, two-way conversation like what happens with Southwest and JetBlue than what happens now.

    This post has me wondering if there would be some way to begin to integrate or collect any social media usernames during the log in process and if that would help make the interaction more seamless when/if it happened. It would allow for interaction before, during and after the trip - meaning that you could make it extremely personal. Not really sure if it makes sense or not, but I'm hoping that it's a possibility.
  • Great post which touches on something I have also thought about for awhile. I use Twitter (@guyatcarphone) every day at work to provide customer service/help and support. The challenge for businesses engaging with customers through the use of Twitter (or other social media platforms) is how to take the best of Twitter (ie. real time feedback loop, early warning system etc) and extend that through not only to the more traditional customer service channels, but the company as a whole.

    From a customer perspective, whilst a company may acknowledge a complaint or issue more quickly than ever before, the actual resolution of the complaint or the implementation of an improved process may still take the same amount of time as it always did. To this end, however, the type of role you are referring to above, I believe, would truly enhance the customer experience. Whilst I believe your prescient observation will likely happen in one form or another, I do not think companies are quite ready for it yet. The implications of it are potentially far-reaching.

    I would go a step further perhaps, and say that the creation of such a role requires it to have some kind of accountability from the other parts of the business it comes into contact with should change be required. Otherwise, you may simply end up with a role that has a powerful roar, but a weak bite, if that makes sense.
  • whitneyhoffman
    Are you essentially talking about culture change that extends top down and bottom up in flow? I think everyone owns a customer's experience. I can get all the help I need from the top when things go bad, but the gateway experience forms a mindset and attitude, it creates more barriers and challenges than if the threshold experience started out positively.
    For example, Company X on twitter can solve my problems, but the fact that many of their ground employees are less than knowledgeable about what they sell or differentiating brands or making meaningful recommendations or for that matter, taking notice of me when I am at a counter, in front of them, clearly looking for help, but instead carry on the conversation about what they are planning to this weekend...yeah, that ruins the experience.
    In a doctor's office, the receptionist and nurse make an initial impression that sets the tone for the doctor when he sees you. If the front office treats you well, you assume the Doctor will do likewise and vice versa- and none of that reflects how "good" the guy or gal actually is at their profession. just whether or not they can hire competent staff.
    I think the threshold experiences set tone and mindset for later experiences as well as customer loyalty- what say you?
  • This is a huge topic and the comments that followed your opening this up to your readers is proof of that. The phrase I was using among my business partners was "standardized service". A business is built based on a philosophy, you try to convey that standard through the very way you conduct your business, you write about it, you live it and then you possibly loose control of it!
    I think someone in the comments hit upon it.....a social media person relating to those who are out there in the field representing the company. Listening and interacting daily. Marketing the business model to the people who ineract with the consumer..... I'm going to start doing that today! Thanks Chris, once again.
  • I really like the thought process here. My question to you is...who is this person? A manager, an agent? How do they report on what is happening?

    I really like this idea and am looking at ways to expand social media presence into other departments. But I get concerned when we talk about an individual because this still represents a limited view for the front line personnel. Is this as simple as setting agents up with read-only access on Radian 6 to listen to what is happening and giving them a view of how the social media team is responding? Or even to take it a step further and integrate right into your CRM, so when you pull up a person's accounts you can see all of the social media communications as well as other account activity. Then you could flag an account real-time with a "watch for this" obviously only if their social media presence could be connected with their account information. If not, you could still post messages of things to be on the look-out for. What do you think?
  • scottwheaton
    I completely agree with this concept - why not use the power of social media to extend further into the consumer's experience? As it is, social media is a tool very much siloed from the rest of the organization's functionalities. Social media's real-time or near real-time platforms could deliver truly remarkable value when spread across multiple facets of the organization's communications and customer service efforts. This would provide for a brand experience that is valuable & consistent across the board.
  • neilkevin
    This is very informative article.I was wondering this stuff only.Thanks for such a great post.It is very useful for me.I would like to know more in this topic.Hope for know more in it.
    Thanks.

    xmas presents
blog comments powered by Disqus

Previous post:

Next post: