Tag Archives: Facebook
Why every customer service “success” on social media is really a customer service failure
One of the main benefits of social media is to provide instant customer service. While this might be true, I think we’re seeing it from the wrong angle. Companies are looking at it as a way to put out fires, to delay an customers eventual frustration.
Sure, we should be exploring how social technologies might change customer service. But first, we should look at how we actually conduct customer service away from social media.
A few weeks ago, as soon as Google+ was unleashed, Michael Dell asked people if they would like to connect with Dell Service teams via Google Hangout. Lots of people thought it was a great idea, but one comment in particular caught my attention:
Danny Sullivan - Jul 18, 2011 - Public
No +Michael DellI don’t want to use Hangouts to connect with Dell customer service. What I want, from you or any company, is to ensure I actually get the best customer service experience possible when I actually use your “normal” customer service channels.Eventually, I’ll finish my long-planned blog post on how every customer service “success” on Twitter, Facebook or Google+ is really a customer service failure. In short, consider this.If I walked into a store and started yelling about how bad the store was, to get my problem resolved, who would consider that a successful customer service model? But that’s basically what we are encouraged to do through social media, yell there as an attempt to get problems solved as a last resort.OK, it’s more nuanced than that. I have have great respect for the people who do perform huge customer service through social media channels. But these shouldn’t be end runs your customers need to use because your regular customer service channels are so convoluted and so often backed by people who aren’t enabled to just solve problems.That’s where I’d like to see you or any company put your energies, before we get more social media candy.
And that (in bold), is the point.
People are using social media as a last resort to vent their frustrations. And businesses are reacting to it by asking customers to post positive reviews online to counter the hate. Sure, businesses will react positively after an unhappy customer (who is well connected) posts his frustrations on Twitter and Facebook. It’s common sense. But this doesn’t help things, it just creates a never ending loop of reaction.
They’re not delighting customers, they’re merely delaying frustration.
What we really need to do is look at social media as another way to win the hearts of customers. To delight them. Not as a way to put out fires.
While you may see Zappos using social media for customer service, they don’t really see it that way. For them it’s another way to connect with their customers and as an opportunity to win their hearts. One more way to ‘Deliver Happiness’.
Problems will arise no doubt because no company worth mentioning never makes a mistake. Just don’t keep on making the same ones over and over again because that is what frustrates customers.
Bottom line is delivering customers service through social channels should not be seen as a silver bullet solution, simply adding more touch points to your mix but not solving the customers problem isn’t going to to save you. The customer doesn’t care if you experiment on Twitter, Facebook, Linkedin or Google+, what they care about is being treated with respect and getting their issues resolved.
And lastly, don’t ignore them. I repeat, don’t ignore them. If you’re on these channels, they expect you to be there for them.
P.S. I’ll leave with a few more comments to reinforce the point:
Related articles
- Is social media marketing causing you to lose money? (smartblogs.com)
- Yes, Customers Are Willing to Use Social Media for Customer Service [Infographic] (readwriteweb.com)
- How social media can save your business from a customer riot (smartblogs.com)
‘Better’ is the more practical approach to innovation in general
It all starts with the question: How can I make this better?
Framing is important and when talking about innovation that usually means deciding between incremental and radical change. Yet for most businesses, they don’t want to hear about change. They want the world they exist in just the way it is, especially if they’ve had some level of success.
But which is the more practical approach? Better or different? (more…)
Why you need to break out of your network to innovate
Yesterday @JuhaLipponen shared his post on how gathering people from diverse backgrounds to brainstorm breeds new and fresh insights. This idea of bringing in outsiders to shake things up isn’t new, but it’s definitely one that you don’t find being practiced more widely.
And this brings me to an important point about innovation: Where all think alike no one thinks very much.
You can start seeing this on the web where the tools we use to communicate and find information (Facebook, Google, Twitter) play into our biases of familiarity. The more we use them, the more they know us and become personalized for us.
If in the past you hadn’t thought about this, today it’s even more imperative that you do. Why? (more…)
To innovate: Steal don’t imitate
When no one knows what’s going to happen we’ll naturally look at other people for clues on how to behave. This is the basis of imitation, and it’s a survival tactic. Simply said, in an environment where the world is changing, the best strategy is lots of imitation. The problem with this is we’re rarely aware of how ‘much imitation’ is necessary and outright imitation is stupid plain and simple. It’s a balancing act to decide what to copy and what not.
Practice ‘Smart Stealing’
The best strategy is to ‘steal’ from different sources, ideally ‘the best’ sources outside your industry.
Examples abound of companies who have ‘stolen’ from others. Apple stole Xerox’s musical interface and mouse ideas. Facebook and MySpace stole Friendster’s social network idea. Microsoft stole Netscape’s browser idea. Kobe Bryant has stolen moves from other basketball greats. It’s even happening in the Venture Capital Industry where one popular VC firm models itself after a Hollywood talent agency. (more…)
Useful and valuable
One of the things that stuck with me from reading Braden Kelley’s book Stoking Your Innovation Bonfire is something that is rarely mentioned when deciding on an idea to execute, the distinction between useful and valuable.
Usually we have products and services that are useful but not valuable. But then again what’s useful and valuable to you is not the same for me. For example, Evernote is both useful and valuable to me because I can write, save, edit, clip notes and access them from wherever I am. Evernote is a tool for the information obsessed like me. I’m on the fanatic end of their users where I can’t imagine going back to not using Evernote.
On the other hand, an opposite example is Facebook while useful is not really valuable to me. I could care less if Facebook disappears tomorrow. But if Twitter disappeared tomorrow I would feel empty. Twitter is both useful and valuable to me for many reasons.
Like I said, this might not be the same for you.
One size fits all makes it difficult to be both
This is the complexity of creating products or services that aim to satisfy a specific need with a one size fits all approach. Some customers will see your product or service as both useful and valuable while others may just find it useful. This is where it’s our job to help those customers ‘discover’ the usefulness in what we offer either by educating them or by influence through fanatic customers. This is also why word of mouth works, it’s more likely that we like what our friend likes from his ability to show why his new toy is the greatest thing in the world and we might just give it a shot.
Complementary ain’t that bad
Taking the FB and Twitter example, another thing to consider is that while the media likes to put them head to head, they’re both different. And that makes them more valuable. Some of us can imagine life without FB and others without Twitter, but can you imagine life without both?
Both complement each other and that makes them, IMO, more valuable. That’s also why it’s so important to differentiate!
But still it’s not ‘either’ ‘or’, it’s ‘and’
There are certain products and services that will be both useful and valuable to some, but those are very scarce. But that shouldn’t stop us from considering thinking about how useful and valuable it is for the customer when creating a new product or service.
Braden nails it in this short paragraph from the book:
Often usefulness comes from what a product or service does for you, and value comes from how it does it. If you’re looking to truly deliver innovative products and services into the marketplace, then once you succeed at the designing and developing the ‘what’, don’t forget to also focus on achieving excellence in the ‘how’.
Bingo!
Weekend innovation tip: Look for tipping points
Here’s a fascinating talk about our digital future by Carnegie Mellon University Professor Jesse Schnell who dives into a world of game development which will emerge from the popular "Facebook Games" era. Prof. Schnell sees a future where our behavior is determined by the same way outcomes in games are determined: by the number of points we get by doing a task.
This is very interesting and you should definitely watch the video, it’s well worth the 28 minutes!
As a fellow gamer, this doesn’t hit me as strange because games have built ‘addictive mechanisms’ that while annoying sometimes; you’re still playing another 2 hours. And now we have all these social games that are also moving into the mobile arena that will get us doing things to get more points while interacting with out environment. The fact is, games are addictive and companies like Zynga and Foursquare know this and are making great use of these mechanisms (I’ve stayed away from Farmville as I believe is a BIG waste of time but know people who are HOOKED on it like crack!).
What’s happening beneath these ‘trends’ is that industries are overlapping on one another and the tipping point was when Facebook opened it’s application platform to developers a few years back and then network effects took over that now almost half a billion are only a click away from becoming contributors to point gaining behavior.
Could we have predicted that social gaming would take off as it has? No. Could we have anticipated? Most likely.
We’re evolving!
Different domains are converging with one another and is shaping our behavior. Yesterday I posted my thoughts on the topic of evolution and I argue that to evolve doesn’t mean to grow, it means to change. Change doesn’t come from doing the same thing over and over again, it comes from the convergence of different domains. It’s very hard to predict what might happen, but what we can do is try to anticipate these changes or if you’re brave enough, create the change you want to see in the world yourself.
So how do we look for turning points? Here’s how I go about it:
> Try to determine the underlying causes behind competition in different domains and think about how these might overlap.
> Look for any sudden successes or failures in the business world that people find hard to explain.
> Examine the greatest anxieties of those on the inside of any business or industry.
> Keep an eye out for any kind of shifts in tastes or values.
More importantly after you’ve thought about the things above, ask yourself ‘WHY’ 5 times for each! You don’t have to be a great forecaster (for all we know they don’t know either!), you just have to be aware that things evolve. How this happens and what the outcome will be is what we want to anticipate.
Weekend innovation tip: Lessons for business from the top 10 good brands
What makes the best brands special? PSFK studied 10 brands and published a report on the qualities that make the special The Scorpion King . Below I’ve are some lessons for business from those 10 brands.
Download the Good Brands Report 2009
GOOGLE.
Experiment rapidly and embrace failure.
APPLE.
Rage and Honor movie Every aspect of your brand should be as good as the product.
ZIPCAR.
Stop selling products, start selling services.
GOOD MAGAZINE.
Set the agenda and let your customers spread the conversation.
AMAZON.
Identify parts of your business that could be offered as additional services.
FACEBOOK.
Create a playground and let your customers define your offering.
VIRGIN.
Think big, think small. Amaze customers with your audacity, and please them with your attention to detail.
TWITTER.
Stay flexible, allow your audience to dictate how your products or services are used.
IKEA.
Take a wider view of the shopping experience, making each step along the path to purchase simpler and more enjoyable.
SKYPE.
Reach scale with free product, make money from premium services.
