How to use the web to make an effective customer complaint
February 27, 2010
The best customer complaint in years.
And customer power at work on the web.
After over 4 million downloads, United compensated them.
Amazing numbers
February 27, 2010
JESS3 / The State of The Internet from Jesse Thomas on Vimeo.
Some numbers that show just pervasive the web has become and how much it is now a part of our life.
( Hat tip to mashable)
Clever Skype viral to engage customers
December 1, 2009
This is the background. This is the site. This is the live stream…clever stuff.
Ikea: A lesson in effective use of social media
November 25, 2009
It’s a simple campaign, that’s what makes it so effective.
The Marketing capability-the future is digital
November 18, 2009
US retailer Best Buy on the value and necessity of business using and embracing digital and social media as part of its marketing strategy.
B2b marketing fundamentals don’t change…
November 12, 2009
This video isn’t quite as effective as the original ad run by McGraw Hill, but here goes…
And the original ad…
Media140: Can 140 characters change your brand?
October 26, 2009
The Media140 conference’s debate on Why Twitter can be important for brands was chaired by Kieron Matthews, the marketing director of IAB.
Robin Grant, managing director of We Are Social, suggested: “With the new media, there is a paradigm shift. It means, that consumers and people have all the power now. Brands need to realise that. It means as well, what you do has to come from the heart, because otherwise they will rip you apart. If you work with social media you have to acknowledge that.”
Scott Seaborn, head of mobile of the Ogilvy Group UK said: “Reach in the new paradigm is a very interesting point. We have to explain that to our clients. However, the idea of customer service is gold. Searching Twitter, listening to your customers and then start working out the problems. First listen, then engage. That is gold.
“Working with mobile media has another interesting perspective. Consumers are really hard to reach, for example. Especially pull media like mobile services can be turned into a gift here, if it is a utility and can be of some fun.”
Nuria Garrido, digital marketing innovations manager of British Airways said: “It might not be the direct revenue, it might be more important to establish communication with your customer, who was out of your league before.
Mel Exon, managing partner of BBHLabs said: “If an agency can’t put together platforms and programs they are not going to be here for much longer. Fundamentally, I rather like to talk about social ideas than social media. Whether you are Nike, easyJet or British Airways, it is a huge investment, emotionally and in case of time.”
Nuria Garrido agrees: “Your customers expect a long-term relationship and not a short interaction, so social media is a long-term commitment. Within British Airways a lot of people understand that digital is important. At British Airways we are not scared to test – and the recession had something to do with this. Social media is relevant, because it is about building a relationship with your customer. If you communicate with them and they feel good about the brand and are taken seriously, they choose British Airways for flying.”
From: http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/advertising/rss
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Media140: The dos and don’ts of social media
October 26, 2009
As Twitter and social media get more and more important for brands, beware of some painful pitfalls
Homewares firm Habitat this summer provoked Twitter outrage when it used the #iranelection hashtag – which would normally alert users of the micro-blogging site to a message about the elections in Iran – to try to drum up interest in its wares.
After apologising for the ruse, the company blamed it on an “over-enthusiatic intern”. But how should brands use Twitter? And why is it so hard for them to understand the new medium?
George Nimah, managing director of marketing firm Iris Digital, said: “Twitter is challenging for brands, because it is made for talks and chats, and their public relation language is very different. If they want to use Twitter, they have to learn to act different and sound human.
“There are some, who just use a popular hashtag and fire their message, and brands have to learn that this doesn’t work. So the do is, be nice and talk to people like they are human beings. The don’t, don’t be an asshole.”
Steve Barton, a founding member of the Word of Mouth Marketing Association UK, said: “The do is be honest and transparent. Don’t lie and don’t fake it. Make it, for example, transparent by whom your Twitter feed is managed on a certain day.”
Lloyd Davis, the founder of The Tuttle Club, a “social media cafe”, said: “The problem with Twitter is, if you make a mistake, you are fucked. Outrage happens overnight.”
Daren Forsyth, founder of community soclia media advisors 140 Characters, said: “Twitter is a place where amazing things happen. But companies just pump their tweets out there, most of them don’t engage. But you have to engage to build up trust – and trust is really important.”
Daljit Bhurji, the managing director of PR firm Diffusion, said: “PR traditionally acted as the voice of clients. Now PR is a content generator. I think the Reuters rules for journalists are a good orientation to understand how you behave on social media.”
Ciaran Norris, the head of social media marketing at global media network Mindshare, said: “The growth in Twitter has been exponential. It is a media zone. Twitter turns the ladder sideways – it made it so much easier to communicate with each other and with brands and to spread news.
“To understand what is going on, search is really important. In fact, the Google homepage is the homepage of your brand, because people use Google as a browser, now.”
There are some tools to help you learn what people are saying about your brand:
• Cymfony is very good to search what people say about your brand.
• ViralTracker is for tracking the viral spreading of video.
• Delicious is good to find the tags of your brands.
• Tweetdeck allows you to have a quick view of what is going on in Twitter on an individual level.
• TweetFunnel allows multiple users to manage a simple Twitter account.
• Tweetmeme tracks the links that were spread around Twitter.
• Twitterfall is good to follow a certain topic. It is set up on the huge screen in the Daily Telegraph’s office now.
From: http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/advertising/rss
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Customer care in online retail: are email and the phone overrated?
October 26, 2009
Nearly half of the online shoppers surveyed as part of the study indicated that they prefer to find information about a retailer’s products themselves before they make a purchase. Only 19% favored email and only 18% favored phone support.
What gives? It seems a little bit surprising at first glance, but I suppose it’s not entirely illogical. Quality customer care is often difficult to find, so there are no doubt many shoppers who would rather try to figure it out themselves than deal with an agent via email or phone. Additionally, thanks to the level of product detail many retailers are able to provide on their sites and the amount of product information and feedback available through customer reviews and online communities, shoppers can often get all the information they need with a quick search or two.
Beyond this, RightNow’s study also provided the following insights:
- Chat is popular with those who try it. Of the shoppers who use live online chat to interact with a customer care agent, 69% said they’d prefer chat over email and 64% said they’d prefer chat over phone assistance.
- Multichannel consistency is a big problem. Only 25% of the shoppers surveyed reported receiving consistent responses from agents across the various customer care channels.
- Selling is okay. Whether receiving help from an agent by phone, email or online chat, more than half of shoppers don’t mind receiving suggestions about relevant products during the interaction.
If the findings are accurate, the implications for online retailers are clear:
- If shoppers are going to help themselves, give them the tools they need to do so. From in-depth product details and product photos to customer reviews, the more information shoppers have access to, the more likely it is that they’ll be able to make a purchasing decision.
- It’s important to recognize how shoppers want to receive customer care. I wouldn’t write off email or the phone but if you have no idea how your customers prefer to interact with customer care agents, you had better find out.
- A real emphasis needs to be placed on providing a seamless customer care experience across channels. Ideally, all customer care agents should have the same training, access to information and authority regardless of channel.
- Customer care interactions provide an opportunity to sell. To seize this opportunity, however, agents must be trained on how to sell and focus in on building trust so that shoppers perceive their recommendations to be worth considering.
Photo credit: cod_gabriel via Flickr.
Distribution problems leave Waterstone’s relying on third-party wholesalers
October 26, 2009
Waterstone’s could be left relying on third-party wholesalers to ensure that customer orders are fulfilled this Christmas following problems at the bookseller’s distribution centre.