Tag Archives

Posts with word of mouth tag.
The Key To Everything? Customer Service (STILL!)

Customer service. The term is thrown out like freebies,
party invites, pitches and proposals at NADA. Customer support? Customer
satisfaction? Customer focused? What do your vendors call it? Does that come
after reviewing how many days or weeks they’re allowed after you open a ticket
for something that should be a 1-2 hour operation? Customer service should be
about the…wait for it, CUSTOMER!

What we call customer service has morphed over the years, likely more based on
scale, capacity, programming and software than the requirement to actually take
care of the customer. Very few businesses, still today, put the customer first
however their marketing screams service.

And not following any of the “blueprint” norms really comes
through. Does your website, SEO, SEM, mobile, call tracking and chat companies
really show an amazing zest for paying attention to you? And back you up? And
surprise you from time to time?

Recently my experiences with a couple airlines showcased, in
more detail, what happens to really separate customer service from promises of
service and marketing. With the changes that Delta Airlines has applied to its
SkyMiles program to qualify for 2014 status, the reduction of benefits for my
level (Silver Elite) of status including the amount of complimentary bags you
can check in (now one, so “bag” is more appropriate) and, seemingly, the
ongoing increase in SkyMiles it takes to book an award ticket, coupled with the
number of flights I’ve taken on Alaska (claiming Delta SkyMiles) over the past
couple years with great on-board experience the decision to switch programs
happened last month.

While I’m no social media superstar or influencer, Delta has
followed me on Twitter for quite a while and has, for the most part, responded
to my tweets and mentions whenever they happen. My tweets talking about my
switch to Alaska Airlines resulted in no mentions from Delta’s online teams
(including @Delta and @DeltaAssist) to keep me loyal, however Alaska Airlines
(@AlaskaAir) followed immediately and has mentioned back as well as sent direct
messages. And that is on top of the significantly better experience when flying
them.

On my last flight, Alaska’s ticket counter staff was fantastic,
accommodating my bag without question (my previous flight they accommodated
two, one more than Delta and I didn’t have MVP status on Alaska!). My bag,
which was checked in 32 minutes before the flight made it and the gate agent
addressed every customer when boarding by their first name. Class acts for sure
and to top it off, the counter agent matched my Delta status on Alaska
effective immediately; One person, empowered to make that happen, however the impression
and experience did so much more. With a smile on her face making me smile and
thinking about how to make our customers’ experience even better.

So what does this make you think about? Your investment, or
lack of, in customer service? Whether you have a satisfaction agent or not?

Many companies wrap themselves in customer service; however
when was the last time they paid you a visit entirely based on anything but a report,
pitch, upsell or because they were asked to?

 

Best Practices: Professional Insight, Powerful Results


February 18, 2013 by Gary May 0
Digital Signals: Hate The Player Or Hate The Game?

No matter how much it’s discussed, there are still massive
amounts of misinformation in addition to retail kick back in regard to social
media in general and what it does specifically for car dealerships. However the
simple question still remains the same: why?

It’s almost 2013 and some social signals are already making
a significant impact on local search queries and a couple networks are
absolutely affecting search engine optimization. Almost nobody at the OEM
level, not one of the existing enterprise social media providers and most
vendors have demonstrated proper use, understanding or leverage of social to
benefit you. It’s sad, however most dealers aid in this continuing and continue
to buy “services” from them…

If you’ve simply hired a social media company to “manage”
your social network content, you’ve likely made zero or near-zero impact on
local search as well as branding, defending SERP positions and a list of other
benefits. We see this continually via mediocre dealership Facebook pages,
auto-feed only Twitter accounts, automated blog posts copied onto hundreds, yes
hundreds, of other dealership blogs and copied Pinterest photos; the result? Complete
disconnect from people on their networks.

“But it’s not selling cars!” or “I don’t care about that
social garbage, that’s not what we do”, or “When it shows results, we’ll jump
on it properly” responses demonstrate that what’s happening in digital simply
hasn’t sunk in. Yes, there’s lots of talk, just very little good action, let
alone great. So are you going to hate the player or hate the game?

Most simply want to hate the game, not who’s doing it at the
dealership or outsourced to (aka the player). 
Some hate the player recognizing that the game is not to blame. However,
it’s neither. Our focus continues to go, inexplicitly, to BS “traditional”
marketing especially when there’s a sunny financial or industry volume
report.  There’s a near blanket of
ignorance put toward the largest, yes largest, shift in media consumption. And
we all do it. Well, over 90% of us.

How can you book an airline ticket online after checking
Kayak or Travelocity, or buy a pair of boots you’ve never tried on before with
glowing reviews, or even do a stock trade on your phone, tablet or computer
followed by sharing your gain on Facebook and then turn around and ignore
what’s happening with the socialization of media and search?

Digital signals are unavoidable. More importantly,
everything we do affects how others consume products and media, let alone
search.

So hate the player if you want, or hate the game if you’ve
got a louder voice or bigger fist, but when you finally decide to pay
attention, make investments, educate staff properly and turn the tides in your
favor, don’t complain if it’s too late or that someone else is eating your
lunch. It’s already happening.

 

Best Practices: Professional Insight, Powerful Results

November 4, 2012 by Gary May 0
All Of Us In Automotive Need To Be…Less Automotive (At Least Socially)

One of the things that I love about IM@CS is the fluid nature of what we do. In consulting to different businesses (and thankfully contributing to different industries), we are involved in different aspects of attracting, engaging and retaining customers. One thing that is more than evident is the necessity to be more than single-track minded. And frankly, that is being screamed for in Automotive.

So as businesses skew, some forced, more into mainstream consumerism there is a natural shift to social engagement both online and offline. For some, CRM is a well-used tool. email has its proper place, social networking traction is gaining, true sourcing is an every-day activity, analytics are a way of life and e-Newsletters are not static. In fewer cases, reputation management and new technology like QR codes have started to garner true, distinguishing results.

Enter the reward game. Handfuls of dealers have gone into using dealership-exclusive offers within their marketing similar to many attempts made over the years. Except nowadays, there aer monumentally better ways to track and measure the effectiveness. But what are we offering? And how effective a reach could we be benefiting from if we just stopped to think about it?

Put it this way. Answer this: What do at least 25% of your clients do? Right now. Without looking at your CRM, 3×5 cards or notes. Now are you offering them something related to what they want to do away from your dealership? Why do people go to dealerships and dealership websites? Simple: shop, inquire, transact. Nearly nobody, save for the extremely loyal and enthusiasts (which we're all thankful for), wakes up in the morning and says "I'm going to hang out at the local BMW dealership today". I've never heard anyone say "my life will get better if I spend a few days a month at the local Ford store".

Let's say your store is utilizing Foursquare (meaning you've actually claimed your location which is similar to the process with Google Places) and have published your first offer. What is your offer for? 10% off service? A you making the first payment on any new lease? Awesome! You've made the jump and are hopefully tracking the results. How about 10% off the local hot spot's dining or drinks? How about 25% off green fees at the local golf course? How about tickets to a major sporting event (and the ones provided by your OEM don't count)? How about donating to a local charity that your customer chooses so everyone feels great?

Not to say that a discount for your loyal customers is not great. It absolutely is. Reward them and they'll continue to come back. So the dealership perk aside, are you doing something exciting for more of your customers and non-customers? Let's say 65% of the R.O.s created between 10:00a and 3:00p are for women. Do you have a Manicure Monday or Mommy Massages and bring in some popular local businesses that offer those businesses?

Better yet do you deploy cooperative or reciprocal marketing with local businesses so there is a mutual benefit? That seems to be a lost art in today's too-eager-to-grow and too-eager-to-cut environments. Have a (legitimate) Facebook page with at least a couple hundred Likes? Have you done a giveaway yet? It's great to do that as long as you follow Facebook's rules. Do yuo deploy technology that when people are ready to print the incentive/coupon, they must share it first on their Facebook wall? That has much more wide-ranging implications and people that are engaged are many more times likely to do that!

And be creative. No, more creative. No….even more creative! If you take a vacation and your resort offers you a $150 resort credit for using the restaurant and other merchants or a 10% off your next stay, which one are you likely to take?

It's time for all of us in automotive to be….well, less automotive. It's not hard. Yes, it takes some forethought, some work and extra effort to get the word out. But do you want a typical result or an amazing result? Do you want a few more people referring business or would you rather have a lot of local businesses referring business.

You don't need to answer now. Just think about it. After you put down the Bluetooth earpiece that you got free with the smartphone that your stock broker told you about, and turn off your big screen TV with DirecTv service that came with the free HD upgrade and take your car to get the free car wash that you earned with purchases from your local grocery store and finish dining at your kids favorite local restaurant with the free desert that your kids earned months ago with good grades at their school….

Best Practices: Professional Insight, Powerful Results

 

July 22, 2011 by Gary May 0
Powered Webinar: “Influence the Influencer: Creating Brand Advocates with Social Marketing”

Featuring Jill Griffin and Allen Silkin

Date: Thursday, November 12th

Time: 2pm Central / 1pm Mountain / 12pm Pacific / 3 pm Eastern
Duration: 1 Hour

Get the details and register to attend

Consumers are more demanding than ever and earning their loyalty gets more
difficult every day.  Turning them into brand advocates is the holy grail of
marketing and the best source of advertising.  But many companies rely solely
on traditional marketing tactics to facilitate customer loyalty.  This
approach will fall short of the mark unless social marketing is
integrated into the mix. 

Join Jill Griffin, The Loyalty Maker, and Allen Silkin of Atkins
Nutritionals as they help you learn how to "Influence the Influencer:
Creating Brand Advocates with Social Marketing". To attend, please
complete the form to the right.

Social marketing helps companies reach audiences in new and more meaningful
ways and opens up incredible possibilities for building lasting relationships
with consumers.  Not only does social marketing provide a way to communicate
with consumers on a personal level, it also provides consumers a voice they
have not had in decades: they blog and tweet their brand opinions, they rate
and review products, they participate in online discussions and
they recommend brands based on their experiences.  If your company is looking
for ways to tap into social marketing to create brand advocates, then you
need to attend this Webcast.

Jill and Allen will discuss:

  • Four ways to tell if a customer in your advocate
  • How to climb Advocacy Hierarchy
  • Why complainers must be managed and how to do it
  • 9 ways to minimize detractors and maximize advocates
  • How to get online communities spreading your good name

About our Panelists:

Jill Griffin Headshot

Jill Griffin, The Loyalty Maker

Jill Griffin
empowers firms to attract, keep, grow and win-back high value customers.
Clients served include Microsoft, Dell, Toyota, Marriott, Hewlett-Packard,
Wells Fargo, Western Union, and Sprint. Jill's book
Customer
Loyalty: How to Earn It, How to Keep It
 was named to Harvard
Business School's Working Knowledge list and has been published in six
languages. Her coauthored book,
Customer Winback
,
earned Soundview Executive Book Summaries' Best Books Award. Jill newest book
is
Taming the Search-and-Switch Customer: Earning Customer
Loyalty in a Compulsion-to-Compare World
 (Jossey-Bass/Wiley,
2009).

Jill serves on the board of directors for restaurant chain Luby's
Incorporated, a New York Stock Exchange company with 95 locations and roughly
six thousand employees. In addition, Jill serves on the board of the Austin
Convention and Visitors Bureau as well as the Tri-Cities Chapter of the
National Association of Corporate Board Directors. Jill has served on the
marketing faculty at the University of Texas (UT) McCombs School of Business.
Her books have been adopted as textbooks for MBA and undergraduate customer
management courses taught at UT, Northwestern, and other universities. She is
a member of the Board of Trustees of the University of South Carolina Moore
School of Business from which she graduated, magna cum laude, with Bachelor
of Science and MBA degrees. In 2003, Jill received the Moore School's
Distinguished Alumna award. An in-demand speaker, Jill keynotes conferences
worldwide.

Allen Silkin Headshot

Allen Silkin, Atkins Nutritionals

Allen is a seasoned internet veteran who specializes in monetizing traffic
and content to generate revenue via advertising sales, ecommerce and
subscription sales. He experience includes managing internet operations at
CBS SportsLine.com, eDiets.com and HealthGrades, Inc. His knowledge includes
help companies improve their marketing efforts of social media, ad serving,
media planning, sales funnel optimization (A/B and Multi Variable testing),
search engine optimization and marketing.

Get the details and register to attend

November 11, 2009 by Gary May 0