Archive for September, 2009
What Recession? – Small Home Builder Leveraging Social Media is Growing
Posted by Jimmy Maher in Customer Experience, Integrated Marketing Strategy, Social Media Marketing on September 30th, 2009
Martell Homes of New Brunswick, Canada is growing their business. That’s right – a Home Builder is growing during a global recession that has been particularly hard on the construction industry. Martell Homes sold 16 units in 2007. They sold 40 in 2008 and hope for 100 in 2009. Martell uses twitter, a blog, youtube and facebook to engage with customers and gives those customers the opportunity to speak about their customer experience.
In his blog article, Jason Falls of socialmediaexplorer.com, describes how Martells success is not simply due to the fact that he uses social media, but that he is using social media to tell a great customer experience story. On his website, real customers tell how Pierre Martell was very responsive to their requests and met his commitments. The messages from real customers are very compelling and offer a powerful contrast to the contrived marketing messages found on the websites of many larger Home Builders. As Jason puts it …
“The first thing that hits you about Martell is their URL — http://www.themartellexperience.com. And, that, in essence, captures what Martell is about. Hiring them to build your house gives you an experience. “
You can read the whole article at Social Media For Small Business: Martell Home Builders
The Martell Home Builder story is also featured as a case study at http://jfknet.com/case-studies
Once Again Social Media Flexes It’s Power
Posted by Jimmy Maher in Customer Experience, Social Media Marketing on September 16th, 2009
Today T-Mobile dropped it’s plan to charge $1.50 per month for paper billing. This is in response to a huge outcry by customers who vented their opposition in multiple online communities. This generated some negative publicity for T-Mobile, who might well have turned that publicity in their favor by offering a reduced bill or additional minutes for paperless subscribers. Consumers are leveraging the power of social media to broadcast their customer experience issues. The power of social media cannot be ignored and is growing rapidly.
@jimmytmaher
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Customer Reference Programs Have to Change
Posted by umangshah in Customer Marketing, Integrated Marketing Strategy, Social Media Marketing on September 9th, 2009
Customer Reference Programs, as we know them, are going away! There, I said it. It had to be said.
I’ve been seeing a shift in Customer Reference Programs for some time now. More and more of the traditional functions of the Reference Program seem to overlap with too many other groups within the organization and the core value seems to have faded. Furthermore, the importance of having a dedicated team to act as the conduit of Reference information seems almost antiquated especially with the explosion of Social Media. This reality has played out in the economic downturn, which has proved to be unkind to many Customer Reference Programs who have seen a reduction or, in some cases, a complete shutdown.
This isn’t news. We have been seeing the signs for some time now. In fact, as early as January 2007, Forrester Analyst, Jeremiah Owyang recognized the disruptive impact of Social Media on Corporate Customer Reference Programs in a blog post. It’s well worth the read. Essentially, the availability of product and service reviews in social media often provides prospective customers with ample information to make a decision.
As we have encouraged our customers to join our communities, they, too, have become active in other online communities and often leverage those forums to communicate with eachother without our support. In the same way, marketers must embrace New Media to engage with customers and prospects – it’s no longer an option. If Customer Reference Programs want to survive or, even better, thrive, they need to leverage New Media to connect with and connect together our customers and prospects. As always, take the time to build a proper strategy and select the vehicles that work best for your objectives.
How have you seen your Customer Reference program change in recent years?
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- The 5 Eras of the Social Web (marketing.blogtanker.com)
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Consumers Are Armed and Dangerous
Posted by Jimmy Maher in Customer Experience, Social Media Marketing on September 8th, 2009
In March 2009, Bob Garfield declared victory for the Comcast Must Die campaign. OK – Comcast is very much alive, but somewhat chastened by the grassroots campaign started in October 2007 to publicize Comcast’s poor record of customer service and arrogant attitude towards its subscribers. Over the next two years Comcast was shamed into addressing many of the issues raised by its customers and by doing so improved its overall customer service and received some positive press for its efforts – particularly its Twitter campaign.
The success of the Comcast Consumer revolt has lead to the creation of a new site http://customercircus.net/ which allows consumers to post customer service problems on a variety of service providers including Comcast.
The “Comcast Must Die” campaign really highlighted the new found power that consumers have through social media. Businesses cannot afford to ignore customer complaints and must ensure a positive customer engagement at each customer touchpoint. Angry consumers have powerful weapons at their disposal and are not afraid to use them.
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- Does venting consumer outrage on Twitter actually work? (slate.com)
- Why Measure ROI Of Social Media? (regulargeek.com)
- Comcast’s Twitter Guru Speaks (blogs.wsj.com)
- Comcast Guarantees You Will Have Your Entire Day Wasted [Installations] (consumerist.com)
- How will you respond to a customer complaint in the age of Social Media? (fastforwardblog.com)
- Five Easy Ways to Jump Start Social Media for Your Business (sociableblog.com)
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