I was speaking with @LisaHoffmann (?http://newmedialisa.com/?) on Twitter about monitoring one’s ROI [Return on Influence/Investment] concerning customer satisfaction, when Twitter went down for maintenance. I couldn’t have planned a more strategic timing to illustrate my point: communicating is listening. The only way to truly listen to your customers is by monitoring multiple forms of media. When one goes down, they will find a way to substitute another.
In today’s fragmented marketplace, ?your customers come in all shades of variety, from completely dialed in to the bleeding edge of technology to old-school snail mail & telephone land-line users. People tell you how they want to use your product. You can not dictate how or what people will say about your product. Customers are your business. It is your business to please your customers. Even though you may think most or all of your customers are using one form of media, it is your job to monitor all forms of media for potential customers or customer issues.
Some ways to monitor customer happiness: take polls, review taped calls & online customer queries, monitor your online presence, set up google alerts. The main thing that these tools illustrate is that you should ALWAYS BE ASKING. Zappos is doing it right by having customer service phone calls go to everyone in their company. Their WHOLE company is customer service, not just one section of it. Radian6 ( http://www.radian6.com ) is an integrated way of monitoring social media for your company. Not every solution is the right solution for every company, but no solution is definitely not the solution. ?
The solution is to listen to the people. People are very vocal advocates. They want to be heard and validated by others. Their ideas and beliefs are very important to them and they will vocalize to defend them. Utilize this fact to your advantage. Be there to guide the conversation from the side. Offer feedback and useful knowledge. Just remember, you can not tell them how to think and act. You must be the expert and give them what they are ideally looking for. When presented in a palatable way, people will gladly integrate this information into their vocabulary, especially if it is a well-crafted party line.
People are social by nature. They want to be your biggest supporter. They like spreading information. They?are looking for something they can believe in. They are looking for something they can be happy about.?
Happiness is not something that can be specifically measured with numbers and analytics. You can measure your effectiveness with how well you are doing your job but that won’t necessarily translate into your clients view of you. Are you really doing your job if your clients aren’t 100% satisfied? If there is something that needs to be addressed with them that may be outside of your core mission it is now PART of your core mission. ?Your customer is your business and servicing your customer is your business.
So, who is making you happy? Who are you making happy? How are YOU doing it?
If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!
Hey great post Damien. I really like your line “Are you really doing your job if your clients aren’t 100% satisfied?”. How true. Customers of tons of brands are voicing issues, asking questions, comparing products, raving about features etc..in social media everyday. When people talk online generally their goal is to be heard, perhaps in many cases by the brands they are talking about. Obviously ignoring these customers would least to less than 100% satisfaction, leaving the door open for competitors to listen and engage on behalf of the oblivious brand. Not listening not only leads to a brand potentially losing many customer but also to missing opportunities to find new ones (listening for the “point of need”).
Again, really like how you pulled your views together.
Cheers.
David
Great premier post, Damien. I think your insights are on target. The one thing that I would add is that simply monitoring alone is not enough. You must also ACT on the information in order to effectively address the needs and wants of the marketplace. Follow the interactions, look for trends, identify brand ambassadors, and tailor your initiatives accordingly. But remember, that like any research, not everything clamoring in the echo chamber is representative of the entire population, making it even more critical to blanket the market using various tools.
The most powerful message you can give to your customers is that you’re listening to them. But you can’t achieve that with some pithy marketing slogan, claiming, “We listen!” Ads don’t equate to sales any more than sales equate to relationships. And it’s relationships that generate sales, build brand equity and sustain your product or service in the market.
Your brand longevity is in the hands of those harnessing the power of the social web to share their experiences — good or bad. So take the time to find out what people are saying and address it through the appropriate channel. There is no message that resonates better with someone than showing them that they are valued.
The information is available. You just need to access it. In the end, your customers will tell you what they want. Then all you have to do is give it to them. And the moment that you do, you instantly deliver on a brand promise that you care, and the intrinsic benefits of that far exceed any time or money spent in a silo, crafting messages that appeal to agency copywriters and art directors — instead of your customers.
Great post here, Damien. My favorite line, “The main thing that these tools illustrate is that you should ALWAYS BE ASKING.” In my mind, the huge opportunity these tools offer is to listen to your customers, and find out how you can do your job better. As you say… “Who are you making happy? How are you doing it?” And I’d only add, “How do you know how happy they really are?”
Excellent post.
Sometimes you may never know the absolute truth about how your clients feel about your service, but if don’t take time to find out, you’re missing a golden opportunity.
In fact, I would rather hear at least some “bad” feedback. Even if a client loved the work and the service, it’s good to know where I can improve.
I recently posted an article on communication but realized that the listening element was lacking. This is too important to miss and you’re spot on for bringing it up.