BizCoachDeb's BizBuzz -

Archive for November, 2008

Just when I thought I’d hear every rationalization for a small business not to use social media, I get this one: ” If we start reaching out to our customers this way, it will just create more noise, more stuff for my staff to do.” The obvious piece that this guy was overlooking was this: he KNEW that the use of social media would be successful, but he was actually afraid of this: Thinking that his people will be working on “social networking” instead of working on “work.” While that could be true if your team has already shown you they are easily distracted, (clue: forwarding countless silly emails or being the one always running the company football pools), it won’t be true of people in your company that “get it.” Ask a person that works in social media and they’ll tell you it’s “business suicide” to not adopt a social media model for your company.   The rest of the story...

Over the weekend, there was quite a stir surrounding an ad campaign the Motrin people came up with, called the Mom-Alogue. It was geared toward “mommies on the move”; you’ve seen them toting kids around on their back or front in little papoose-style carriers. Heck, I even tried it when my daughter was an infant, but no one thought of courting me for a sale because of the pain in my back. Poor me? Please, who has time for a backache?! Not me and not a lot of other moms out there.

Speaking of sales, there are two common mantras, (1) Find out what is causing your customer pain and remove it, and (2) Put yourself in your customers shoes. The Motrin folks “win” on both of these counts, but “lose”on their execution-they let the blogosphere and social media frenzy go unchecked for too long; check the stats on Twitter and you’ll see page after page of complaints and rants. Wow, talk about the exposure!   The rest of the story...

What has happened to customer service in America? It’s so rare customers get exceptional service, they actually are quite surprised whenever it happens. In a waning economy, with consumers finding more and more reasons to hold onto their dollars, you’d think businesses would wake up and realize now, more than ever, they need to work to keep their customers, plus, work at keeping them happy. Well, one company has, and no one was more surprised than me, as I experienced it firsthand.

Recently, I caught up with always-on-the-move, @Frank Eliason, Director of Digital Care; his unit is called, aptly, Comcast Cares. Based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, he and his team of 7 address service issues for customers across the U.S. He provided a revealing look at how Comcast is using Twitter to reach their customer base and shares five ways your business can use it to break the mold on customer service. As Frank puts it, “Being a customer advocate makes it an easy choice to use Twitter. It’s so instant.” The team he’s assembled view customer care the same way, putting the customer first and sometimes going against the company grain. “It’s more important to take care of the customer than to tow the company line.”   The rest of the story...

Can you find them? My sister sent this pic to me and while I found many right off the bat, I thought I’d share this fun and interesting waste of time with the community. Happy hunting! (You’ll likely have to click the image to make it bigger.) Here’s my list so far:

• Led Zeppelin
• White Zombie
• Cowboy Junkies
• U2
• Smashing Pumpkins
• Scissor Sisters
• Guns and Roses
• Queen
• Matchbox 20
• Phish
• Presidents of United States of America
• Styx
• Gorillaz

  

Just when I had some of the worst rash of customer service experiences occur over the last week, I return from a trip to California to find a package containing my recently-ordered ClothMoth t-shirt, a tribute to Mother’s Cookies. Okay, so the packaging wasn’t any great shakes, but they did send it USPS Priority Mail, making it here to me only about two days after I ordered. LOVE that. Enclosed, the shirt was packed in a plastic wrapper and my shirt was neatly inside. The big unexpected WOW?  A snack pack size of Circus Animal cookies, which as you already know, I believe are little nuggets of delishiosity. (my word, you can borrow it…) I got a little nervous by the “Best by date”, but somewhere I read these have a very long shelf life. I’m not sure that will be an issue, as I’ll probably promptly inhale them after this next cup of java.   The rest of the story...