What excites you about customer experience?
It is not customer experience that excites me, it is the customer herself who excites me, and the relationship that will develop and lead to trust and loyalty.
customer
The Keys to Attracting More Customers on Twitter ~ via @OPENForum
—–“Seeking a real return on your social media relationships? Prove your business is customer obsessed by employing the Twitter strategies of companies that “get it.”
It’s one thing to say you’re customer obsessed on social media and quite another to show you mean it. Modern consumers are social media savvy, and they can spot the difference, so if you want a real “return on your relationships” (#RonR), you’ve got to be truly customer obsessed on all your social media platformsTo highlight that point, let’s take a closer look at two large companies, JetBlue and Duane Reade, that do an excellent job of putting the customer-obsessed concept into action on social channels. While you may not have their resources, you can certainly pick up a few tips so your small business truly connects with customers.
JetBlue Airways
Being customer obsessed requires paying attention to the little details, and it’s clear that JetBlue “gets it” from the moment you visit the airlines’ Twitter page. You can see the company is focused on customers even before you read a single tweet, thanks to its effective use of Twitter’s profile page functions.Let’s take a look at the details:
– JetBlue’s Twitter page has close to 2 million followers, which is strong but not out of line when compared to other major airlines. The “following” count is what really stands out, though, clocking in at more than 100,000. Check out the follower/following ratios of other popular accounts, and you’ll quickly see that JetBlue is way out in front on the number of other Twitter accounts it follows.
– Take a look at the company’s profile blurb. “Hi, nice to tweet you!” is pleasant and warm, a stark contrast to the all too common “The Official Twitter Page of …” opening. After that, you get a quick, relevant description of the company, followed by multiple contact options. It’s all framed under a welcoming cover photo that’s light on logos but heavy on diversity and smiles.
– JetBlue does a nice job tweeting a mix of customer-focused contests, clever hashtags and charity drives, but its replies to customers are what really stand out. There are no form messages or any other signs of automation. When a customer tweets @JetBlue, they know they can expect a personalized response, coming from a real human being. JetBlue also does a great job of sharing fun travel photos from its followers.
Duane Reade
There’s more than one right way to be customer obsessed on Twitter, and drugstore chain Duane Reade gets there in a slightly different fashion than JetBlue. Both of these companies’ profile pages are well done, and both companies follow more accounts than average.The difference comes in the content of the tweets, and the information each company chooses to share. See what I mean:
– Duane Reade is based in New York City, and the city is a constant theme in their tweets. It’s a great way of saying “We live here, and we care about this place, too!” Duane Reade’s Twitter feed is also full of tweets about area events but not in a self-serving way. Most of the events the company tweets about have little or no apparent connection to the company.
– You’ll also find plenty of photo and video content shared on Duane Reade’s Twitter stream. Cityscapes bump up against silly pet pictures and odes to things like National Hammock Day in a way that makes the account feel more personal than corporate, which is tough to pull off.
– Like JetBlue, Duane Reade does a great job of replying to customers in a personal, timely way and sharing customer tweets. The company also embraces the language and intent of social media, dropping in the occasional bit of Internet slang or emoticon, and linking its various social feeds together.
In the end, customers want to be treated like human beings, not data points, and both JetBlue and Duane Reade embrace that with every detail. It all starts, though, with simple things. Reply to people promptly, with personalized messages, and share relevant, interesting content.The effort you put into being customer obsessed will be more than reciprocated by the return on relationship you build as a result.
Photo: iStockphoto
Originally posted AUGUST 18, 2014 American Express Open Forum blog
How to Find the ROI in Social
In the world of coordinated creation of social media stories, there’s typically two kinds of success, or ROI, on social campaigns – Cost Mitigation, and Sales Increase. And I believe there is a Return on Relationship (ROR) fostered by all brand relevant content and communication… simply put the value that is accrued by a person or brand due to nurturing a relationship. ROI is simple $’s and cents, ROR is the value (both perceived and real) that will accrue over time through loyalty, recommendations and sharing.
Collecting Customer Data: The Trust Exchange ~via @InsideCXM
Big Data. Big Brother. The NSA debacle. People in the United States are feeling vulnerable. And with all the publicity surrounding online security hacks and stolen account numbers (not to mention all-out identity theft), is it any wonder that consumers are leery of giving brands their personal information?
Real Time Marketing – the Good, the Bad and a better Customer Experience
Getting the right message to the right people at the right time is an age-old marketing mantra. And how you hit that sweet spot has been foremost in the minds of every marketer since people started selling things to each other. That hasn’t changed over the years, but our ability to connect with each other and gather information about each other has. So you would think that with today’s Real-Time Marketing (RTM) and all this technology at our fingertips we could hit the bull’s eye every time, right? Well… we’re getting there, but it’s still a rocky road. Sometimes when we try to use advances in technology to get in front of more prospects, we get some push-back, especially online and in social channels. However, that depends on how the information gets used.
Be careful what you ask for, you might just measure it
New media marketing is creating an undercurrent that is shifting the very foundation of business. Without a full understanding of what’s possible, a clear view to the future or an idea of the strength or extent of the market undertow, executives cautiously embrace emerging social and mobile channels based on guidance of internal champions and external pressure from competitors and customers alike. But, leaders can only lead when their vision is focused and direction is defined. The ability to execute becomes paramount and the gaps that exist between goals and capabilities must be identified and solved quickly to stay the course.
@ is the Universal Sign of Engagement
For decades, companies were very good at pushing messages into markets and talking at people rather than with them. Now companies are embracing the idea of two-way interaction. Monitoring conversations is becoming standard procedure as small and enterprise businesses alike make substantial investments in tools such as Radian6, Sprial16 and Brandtology. And, not only are companies monitoring conversations, they’re adopting social media management systems (SMMS) such as Seesmic and CoTweet to operationalize conversations and platforms such as Objective Marketer, PeopleBrowsr and Buddy Media to automate engagement campaigns.
There’s a difference between monitoring and listening and there’s certainly a difference between conversations and engagement. How social media is employed today promotes monitoring as a reporting function and conversations as a symptom of reaction. In many ways, the state of social media is eerily reminiscent of traditional marketing. We’re fooled into a sense of collaboration and co-creation because people can respond. But programs are not measured by functionality, they are valued by the value customers take away from the experience. It begs the question, is social media in actuality anti-social?
New media philosophies, while rich with good intentions, are confined by the culture of the organization they’re designed to help. Corporate culture is pervasive and planted. It is not anything that will change suddenly because of the popularity of Twitter and Facebook no matter how strong your case. Culture shock takes place because a business is subjected to the harsh reality that customers no longer support the way business is conducted.
The Power of the Brand? Ask Their Customers!
Looking to travel from the east to the west coast recently, I decided to take a look outside my normal coast-to-coast airlines United and American Airlines.
Jet Blue, with great seats and video selections, wasn’t flying around the times I needed but noticed that Virgin America was.
Having taken Virgin Atlantic for some Boston-London flights in the past, I pondered whether Virgin America was the same, or as good as (or worse than) Virgin Atlantic.
So I turned to Twitter to ask the gang if they had any thoughts. This was my Tweet:
“Thinking of taking Virgin America Boston-San Fran, any thoughts? (Have flown Virgin Atlantic, but not America)”
How to alienate a customer in just three easy steps
The really great thing about social media is this: it’s faster and easier than ever to ignore, alienate and piss off a customer!
Case in point. As quick background, I joined Weight Watchers 9 days ago (not that I’m counting). It’s not a brand I ever thought I would associate with, but, well, that Jennifer Hudson TV commercial sucked me in, to tell you the truth. I know how to lose weight (lots of experience), but counting calories has gotten tedious so I thought maybe there’s something to this whole “points” thing.
Do You Use Social Media to Attract Customers or Position Yourself as a Thought Leader?
Do you want your social media efforts to lead to high-quality leads and recognition from your industry? While both of these goals can be reached, many marketers attempt to accomplish too much at once. They may use only 1 social media profile to try to bring leads to their websites and share the latest industry trends with their peers.
This approach can work if your customers are also your peers and would be interested in both your thought leadership and your products. However, if your customers are from other sectors, you may need to consider another strategy. When your social media messages speak to different audiences, you’ll have a hard time engaging anybody. For example, a potential customer from the retail sector may see your blog posts about the future of the software industry and assume that your content is not relevant.