Note: This post was written in support of my proposed SXSW presentation, Behind The Tweet: Responding to Consumer Motivations. If you like this post, please vote in the PanelPicker by Friday, August 27. Click here to vote.
Treat the cause, not the symptom.
From mental and physical wellness to sociology and legislation, it’s a truism that’s earned its mettle. So why are so many well-intentioned companies responding to their customers’ issues at face value? There are real people behind each tweet, status update and blog post. Their expressions reveal passion and complex emotions. The grievances are just the symptoms and it’s the responsibility of the responder to address the cause.
After all, there is a lot riding on the brand response. Beyond immediate satisfaction and problem solving, there are greater, long-term benefits like loyalty and social-evangelism. Being there is great. Offering a fix is even better. But can the violation of trust that motivated the complaint really be repaired? That replacement part or adjusted bill simply stops the bleeding. It cures the symptom. But rebuilding trust requires more than that. Imagine the moments between the first spark of frustration, as emotions escalate, until the customer complains in public online. That’s the part that demands mending. That’s the cause that needs to be treated.
These are the six steps to focus on, but we start in the middle with the customer’s communication. From that communication, we must decipher the first two. We may never know what the flashpoint was, but as long as we identify the motivation correctly, our response will have a greater chance of building back trust. The purpose of the flashpoint step is less about identifying it and more about recognizing its significance in the chain of events. In many cases, if we address the motivation in our response, the satisfaction of a fix is secondary. Often times, there is no reasonable fix, but we can rebuild trust by treating the cause.
Of course, treating the cause also means fixing what’s wrong with your product or service, but that’s another blog post.
Praise also has motivations that should be addressed with the same considerations.
Trust Betrayal
All consumer motivations start with one commonality; the customer’s trust has been betrayed. This happens when the perceived effort is higher than the perceived value and the trade becomes unbalanced. The moment the customer arrives at this conclusion is what I call the flashpoint. It’s the moment when the widget breaks, the software crashes or the service is slow. Unless it was delivered on the doorstep for free, an unbalance occurs and triggers an emotional response AKA the motivation.
Motivated to express dissatisfaction publicly.
Now we’re at the point of communication, looking back. Communipathology, if you will. What drove the customer to tweet in ALL CAPS, punctuated by a #FAIL? It wasn’t that the widget broke or the software crashed or the service was slow. It was how that flashpoint made them feel . Understanding how it made them feel is the key to identifying their motivation for expressing their discontent in a public forum.
So, how do we ID motivations? I have some ideas, but I’d love to hear your’s in the comments below.
After much debate about whether the Old Spice Guy’s YouTube response sensation moved the needle on sales, the results are in and according to Nielsen (via Mashable), sales are up 107% in the last month.
That’s great news for Old Spice, but ultimately this is about making your grandpa’s brand relevant to a new, modern customer. So how did Wieden + Kennedy turn their wildly popular Old Spice Guy spots into a viral sensation? Social media response, that’s how.
Let’s examine why these 87 short videos responding to celebs and common folk alike, resonated with people:
1. They leveraged a smart and popular campaign of TV spots.
2. The writing and delivery by Isaiah Mustafa was pitch-perfect awesomesauce.
3. The rapid-fire responses over an 11-hour marathon felt live and fresh. 4. Social media response connects consumers with a brand message like no other tactic available to marketers.
The great promise of social media for brands lies not in promotional Facebook pages, PR Twitter accounts and YouTube channels full of TV spots. No, the promise is fulfilled as brands connect with their customers in meaningful and human exchanges called trust transactions. A trust transaction is any encounter that results in an increase in confidence and loyalty.
In this instance it’s a fantasy spokesperson, but the truth cannot be denied; the magic of a real-time, two-way dialogue is a powerful branding and, as it turns out, sales technique.
UPDATE: W+K has released a case study of the campaign which helps to make my case (thanks guys!).
Been thinking a lot lately about the Pampers DryMax fiasco. With so much to talk about, study and learn, I think I’d better postpone the final analysis for a future post. Today, I want to address one aspect of it that stands out like a sore thumb to me.
Pampers is defending a product at the expense of the brand.
After reading several articles covering both sides, I would actually tend to side with P&G on this one. And I’m sure after the effort and investment of a product launch of that scale, I’d want to punch any detractors in the face. But even if short-term sales are flat or even up, what long-term damage do you incur when you blame your customers for the problem?
And while yes, Pampers gets fresh new customers every few years as potty training obsoletes diapers and the stork drops new tots from the clouds, brand loyalty still exists in the form of mothers-in-laws, sisters, and friends.
I’ve always said a brand has as much right to defend themselves as a customer has to broadcast a complaint to thousands, but this case has made me revisit my position.
It’s not as simple as The Customer is Always Right. That’s too much of a blanket statement and we know every instance is different. There are times to defend your product if it’s a matter of education or setting the record straight, but at some point as the wave against you gets bigger and bigger, you have to step back and give the customer the benefit of the doubt and say “While we’re confident of no wrongdoing, we’re launching an internal investigation and in the meantime, will honor some restitution.”
A brand has to pick its battles carefully. Choose which hill do die on, and when to run away and live to fight another day. That’s it. I’m out of corporate war cliches. I think Pampers is in danger of dying on this hill. What do you think?
Well first off, they’re clearly pioneers. When so many companies are just now trying to figure out how to handle Social CRM, these folks have a huge lead. In five years time, nerds like me who care about this stuff will look back at companies like Comcast, AT&T and Virgin America (and others) as the founding fathers of digital customer care. These are the companies who didn’t wait to see if Twitter was a passing phase, or worried themselves into inaction over the ramifications of opening up a real dialogue with their customers on the web. So, what did we learn?
The Similarities.
All three were obviously passionate about their missions, evidenced by their openness to talk to me about internal operations. They are all champions of social media within their organizations, with realistic and sober expectations about how their roles work alongside other non-digital departments. They regard every customer equally – no special treatments or biases given to celebrities or influencers. Speed of response is a big priority for everyone, with Frank clocking in Twitter responses under 5 seconds!
They all believe that Social CRM can scale. In fact, they are doing it right now.
The Differences.
The most obvious differences were team-size and organizational approach. Frank leads an internal team of twelve at Comcast, Bowen has a smaller internal team with some pitching in part-time, and Susan works for AT&T’s PR agency, Fleishman Hillard, with customer care and corporate communications teams. Frank and Susan frown upon using the social media channel for promotions while Virgin America shares infrequent promotions on Facebook. Bowen and Frank both monitor and respond in blogs, but Susan feels it’s too invasive, and focuses on Facebook and Twitter.
Here’s a round-up of all the interviews. I had a blast chewing on the nuts and bolts of Social CRM with Susan, Bowen and Frank, and would like to thank them once again for their time and candidness.
The Interviews.
Frank Eliason AKA @ComcastCares – Video Interviews, Part 1, Part 2, Part 3 and Part 4.
Bowen Payson of @VirginAmerica – Video Interviews, Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3.
Susan Bean of @ATTCustomerCare – Text Interview.
In Part 3 of my interview with @VirginAmerica’s Bowen Payson, we first tackle the “Will it scale?” question, and then cover team size and training, response speed and the future of Social CRM.
Watch Part 1 and Part 2 for the whole conversation.
A big thanks to Bowen for an insightful look inside Virgin America’s social media customer care operations!
In Part 2 of my interview with @VirginAmerica’s Bowen Payson, we talk about intuition, monitoring tools and real-time Social CRM in action; how a tweet can get a pilot’s attention in the air.
Bowen Payson is Virgin America’s Manager of Online and Digital Marketing and leads the social media response team on Twitter, Facebook and beyond. I caught up with him between panels in Austin last month to discuss how Virgin America tackles the nuts and bolts of social CRM in the high-profile and potentially volatile airline industry.
Shocking, I know, but not everyone on Twitter goes to SXSW. And even the ones who are in Austin already like @WholeFoods, might have PR departments who won’t allow interviews (for serious? yes, it’s true).
AT&T was in Austin this year in a big way. After last year, they made sure they could handle the additional load and did an amazing job. My iPhone was never without service, nor did I hear any complaints.
@ATTCustomerCare’s Susan Bean couldn’t make the trip, but she graciously agreed to the interview via email. As Sernior VP & Partner at Fleishman Hillard, Susan leads the Consumer Media, Digital, Social Media, Video and Branded Integration teams for AT&T.
She offers great nuggets about responding to angry customers by “being Ghandi” and the groundswell-driven pricing drop on the iPhone 3GS, and while I disagree about not responding to blogs, her reasoning is nonetheless valuable. What do you think? Let me know in the comments.
Here’s the interview (click READ MORE below for the full interview):
Trustworthy: A celebrity with a following tweets dissatisfaction about your brand. How do you respond? Any differently?
Susan: We try to respond to all tweets expressing dissatisfaction with the brand. We have a team of 13 customer care folks who monitor twitter and DM people to find out how they can help. We also monitor on the Corporate Communications side and respond and we watch to see if people are reporting problems with the network. Social media is the canary in the coal mine.
We wrap up our 4-part interview by turning the focus to the internal process of hiring and training the right Digital Care team. The number-one attribute Frank looks for? Passion.
In Part 3, we learn that the Digital Care team at Comcast sends Tastykakes and popcorn to customers in certain, special cases, and we get Frank’s take on the burning question: How does customer care via social media response scale in a large organization?
Join us here as we chat about social media, response, customer service, marketing, and the benefits of being open and honest. Learn how you can develop stronger relationships with your customers!
After reading several articles covering both sides, I would actually tend to side with