Opening up New Channels for Communication with your Customers
Tuesday, 15 September 2009
Peter Gillson
For many of us, the value of the social media world is still uncertain. However, the fact is that many of our customers are now embracing it. Whether it is Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn or just MSN Messenger, having dialog via electronic and internet means is an accepted form of communication in today's world.
So it was not surprising that we read last week that Salesforce have added Twitter functionality to the latest iteration of their product. This is intriguing news and represents some forward thinking by the Salesforce team. Software companies have no doubt been dabbling with the idea of adding one or many of these technologies to their communication channels with customers, but the question that they all must face is – which of these do you include for your customers, if you are not looking to add all options.
As a company we have often spoken about a holistic relationship between a company and their consumers. Changing to meet the consumers' preferred means of communication will certainly help the engagement model and there is no doubt that many consumers today choose to interact via the social media. According to recent studies two-thirds of the world's Internet population visit social networking or blogging sites, accounting for almost 10 percent of all Internet time.
So does it make sense for all vendors to start to create options that allow for this? I guess we need to ask ourselves if the relationship between the Customer Feedback Centre and the customer will benefit from it. More companies are now employing staff to look through blogs, twitter messages and on line comment about the way they are perceived in the market place by today’s generation of a seemingly computer starved society.
Twitter is all about connections and building relationships through publication of information. It is as current as you could find. Recently I was delivering a paper on research and by the time I had left the building the key deliverables were being passed around the world via Twitter. That is an indication of how fast communication - good or bad - finds its way to thousands of consumers in a matter of minutes, depending on the following you have established.
Whether Twittering tweets technology will actually last remains to be seen, but for now it is a way for many consumers to update friends and followers.
Business can use social media to their advantage and it is for this reason that we need to consider this power as a way of extending relationships:
- ● Business can leverage off better customer community applications with innovative reputation and profile management
- ● Improve marketing and sales effectiveness by leveraging web content into CRM processes
- ● Implement an integrated customer support portal to enable customers to easily find answers in a community forum or knowledge based chat options
- ● Automatically escalate critical issues identified in forums for immediate investigation
- ● Measure the health of online communities with real-time analytics and management reports on the state of your consumer
- ● Use social media to engage with today’s consumer and synchronize social responsibility expectations through your CRM systems
Being able to send short sharp updates about specials or product opportunities to your loyal customers, will ensure that you are better engaged with today’s customer. You can easily monitor conversations about your products and any issues can be addressed directly through the customer or social media options. Providing quality service and improved relationships will spread to the myriad of social friends who have a connection with your customer.
Do it badly and you run the risk of becoming disengaged, not only with that customer, but with many more waiting on every publication of negative feedback and having the intent to publish it through as many social media outlets as they have access too.
