Why Your Business Must Embrace Social Media Yesterday - Forbes:
For years I thought “I don’t care about social media. My business isn’t one of ‘those’ businesses.” Maybe you’ve been thinking the same thing. Perhaps you decided to dip your toes in the water, but you’re certainly not going to make a serious investment. How would you calculate the ROI anyhow? I’ve had some good and not-so-good interactions with companies through a variety of channels in the past month or so. It was shocking to see how differently each company chose to embrace (and in some cases ignore) social media.
The Evolution of Social Media
A really long time ago, a junior employee approached the CEO of a company and said “There’s this new technology that people are starting to use. My friends and I all use it, and I think that as a company we should allow our customers to use the new technology to communicate with us.” The CEO dismissed the young employee and his crazy notion that customers expected someone to answer them using that silly device called a telephone. The CEO was probably thinking, “Why do we need telephones? Our customers come into our office or store if they need something.” A similar discussion certainly happened decades later around email, after all why support customers with email when they can just call. Though technologies have changed over the years, essentially telephone and email were the channels to communicate with customers then, just like Facebook and Twitter are the channels today.
Fresh Perspective From Traditional Companies
I had a reason to contact Honeywell regarding a new thermostat we installed as part of a home renovation. Their response via social media was so swift and impressive, that I felt compelled to ask them some questions about how they chose to adopt social media. I was candidly shocked to get a quick response from someone who makes thermostats (since my preferred airline, a business where timeliness really matters, took days to respond to a request for help via Twitter). I spoke with Dane Hartzell, Global Director of ePresence for Honeywell and here is what he had to say:
“Our objective is to engage with our customers — and potential customers — on their terms. Whatever way is easiest for them, we will support. Social channels are great because sometimes people use it to say what they are thinking. Social listening tools allow us to pick up on that, and engage with customers without them even directly asking for help.” Dane also commented at how with social media, since it is not a real-time like telephone, allows them to serve multiple customers at a time and be responsive to all parties.
Dane continued, “A year ago, getting back to the customer the same day seemed acceptable to the customer and they even seemed surprised to hear from a company at all. Today, we feel if we don’t acknowledge the customer within five minutes, and let them know we are working on their issue, they have shorter patience.” What most impressed me about Hartzell’s thoughts was about how Honeywell sees social media. Since in the past they worked through channels, they did not have much direct interaction with customers. “Now with social, we get first-hand interaction that is creating sincere excitement in the company. We parse out the interaction data and help each team understand what it means for them as a daily recap to everyone from executives to engineers.”
Honeywell has embraced customer service with social media, and they see channels like Twitter as a new way to build a community with their customers.
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