Listen to your customers
Jeremiah Owyang writes that
"Attitudes about brands and products have reached a new dimension with the evolution of social media. Conversations happening with or without your presence. You no longer have control over the dialogue. Positive experiences spread to more and some of the negative can spread to hundreds of thousands. But it's far from everything. "
The challenge is how to get involved without being intrusive and learn to be systematic in this. Talk to your customers where they are. This is the first step for social involvement. But that is about to move from talking to its customers to communicate with them.
Below I would like to list 8 approaches to how you can listen to your customers:
YOU HAVE NO GOALS
Your company listens to customers, but has no final goal with it and do not use the new information to something directly.
There is a degree of self-consciousness, but is not information, it is reasonably useless.
Is this strategy for now, it will be sufficient to use tools like Google Alerts and Feed Readers to follow.
YOU maintain statistics on FIRE COVERAGE
In the same way as companies follow their coverage in traditional media through "press clippings" so you use the same method in the social media. You, however, takes no further action on this.
Self-consciousness is increased by keeping statistics on volume, but the depth and tonality of the conversations are not analyzed and the possibilities you can not understand or utilize.
There are various tools to track the product or brand names. Yext, Radian 6, Buzzmetrics and such. Dow Jones offers services and you should choose whichever type of business you represent.
You identify opportunities and risks
A more active process is about seeking out conversations that may signal danger or identify good opportunities.
This gives your company an opportunity to minimize the risks around dissatisfied customers before problems escalate and spread.
It is necessary to actively seek out conversations and make sure to share knowledge within the organization.
You improve performance at the campaign
Marketing campaigns are typically measured after completion of exposures, clicks and - with the above may also - number of titles. But if you set up polls during the campaign and a daily analysis of feedback / conversations, it will be possible to optimize the effectiveness of marketing campaigns in near real-time.
The optimization can be done through strengthening the message that works and leave out the more dead spots.
Use tools to manage responses, activities and attitudes toward marketing and be hands on with the tools that make it possible to change instantaneously. Omniture, Gemius and Google Analytics may be relevant tools for you.
You measure customer satisfaction
In addition to your normal customer service satisfaction survey, it is possible to measure positions in real time, while customers / users are engaged.
The measurements allow to identify satisfaction during the course. It can identify steps that can be improved to enhance overall satisfaction.
Tools could be Sysomos or Back Form. But it is probably also necessary to broaden the focus groups.
YOUR answers to customer inquiries
You fish where the fish are. You respond when the user refers to the company. On Twitter, you initiate a conversation by asking whether the company can do anything if you have registered negative tweets.
Customers can feel a greater satisfaction about your brand, but it also teaches them that it helps to yell to get attention.
To work at this level requires a team that is empowered, trained and ready to respond to inquiries around the clock - if nothing else in common hours.
You improve understanding of your customers
By developing the classical market, so you improve your company's customer profile by adding social information on these.
It allows not only to provide a regular service, but giving them a richer experience regardless of the customer's point of contact with the company.
It develops rapidly new social customer relationship management system that connects a customer or user with their online behavior, attendance and preferences. Talk to your provider and find out what they can offer compared to your needs.
You are proactive and anticipate YOUR CUSTOMERS
By using knowledge of past behavior patterns enables your business using the right generate resources in the right places. It is important to know what your customers want to say and how they react before they do it.
Find opportunities and exploit them before your competitors are making waves in the water. Or make sure to solve problems before they escalate - or at all happens.
A powerful tool could be a customer database that has a predictive element, as well as a team that can reach out to customers before the errors occur. I do not know immediately to such a tool, but talk to your provider of your CRM system.
CLOSURE
I hope it is clarified that the different approaches are listed in logical sequence in which the first is the simplest and least resource-intensive and the last most advanced and resource-consuming. It is also a question of mentality and the level at which the company participates.
Once an approach is learned, the next will be harder and larger, but the beauty is of course that what you have learned will help you to overcome the next "step".
Accept the new reality and accept the enormous opportunities to create a sensitive competitive advantage over slower competitors. The more you are willing to consider what the conversation, the more your company will know about your customers' needs, behaviors and preferences. And just as important to your brand image and products in the social media sphere.
Source: Jeremiah Owyang http://www.web-strategist.com/blog/
