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.

Flashpoint. Motivation. Communication. Response. Satisfaction. Trust.

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.

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.

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!

Plus, some customer training for Guy Kawasaki…

(Apologies for the harsh lighting on Bowen.)

If you read this blog, Frank Eliason needs no introduction. He’s the force behind @ComcastCares and as Director of Digital Care for Comcast, he leads a team of ~12 passionate responders who monitor social media channels every day.

I tried to avoid the usual social media platitudes and focus on the practical, hands-on insights. Frank graciously delivered the mother lode. Below is Part 1 of a full 20 minutes of his experience and wisdom. I’ll be posting the rest just as fast as I can edit them.

Winner of our iPod Touch giveaway.

As a way to spread the word about Trustworthy during SXSW and to give back for all the love we felt there, we invited everyone who stopped by our booth to enter to win an iPod Touch. All we asked was that people tweet @trustworthy and #sxsw to enter. We had a great number of entries helping us become the third most-tweeted about company at SXSW.

Christine Young

With all the bloggerati and Twitterati there in Austin, it’s no surprise that the winner was Christine Young AKA @YoungMommy and author of From Dates To Diapers. She’s also one of WalMart’s “Eleven Moms”, the retailer’s latest social media strategy to aggressively recruit mommy bloggers.

Congratulations, Christine! And thanks again for stopping by to see us.

Rob and Holly listen and respond while Travis tracks the tweets.

We’re back from an amazing weekend at SXSW and we couldn’t be happier with the response from everyone who dropped by to visit us. The overwhelming consensus is that companies are now keenly aware that they need to develop an open and transparent line of communication with their customers in social media – and that the service Trustworthy provides is a welcome solution for them.

The people we talked to are in the social media trenches at their respective organizations. They fight for budgets and legal approval on a daily basis. The persuasive ones get to execute the new mandate, and quickly find it’s a full-time job for what is often times an army of one.

Everyone we talked to immediately recognized that social media response is an idea whose time has come. We made lots of friends and hopefully, a few new customers of our own.

Along the way, we discussed repairing consumer relationships with Ben McConnell (Church of the Customer), CC Chapman (Managing the Gray), Julien Smith (In Over Your Head) and many others we’d only met via Twitter before. It was great meeting you all in the flesh.

We’re already thinking about panels for next year!