Listen, Engage and Customer Service

Posted on March 5, 2010 by Phil Bowyer

In this installment of the "Brand Yourself" series, we're talking "Strategy". As you begin to think about your social media strategy, you need to understand that if you don't pair your strategy with excellent customer service you will lose. In fact, your plan should include ways that you are going to respond to customers, whether it be a "you suck" post on your Facebook Fan Page, or a DM on Twitter.

Recently, Walgreens promoted a "special deal" for all of their Facebook fans. In order to get this deal you needed to be a fan (they gave out a special coupon code). Well, the day came, everyone in the savings community was all about this "Great Deal That Walgreens was going to give them". Bam, the curtain lifted, and what is the magical deal? Free Shipping! Now, to understand what an epic fail this was you need to understand the average Walgreens customer. They shop in store, not online. They use coupons in store that they cannot use online. Second, everyone is offering free shipping these days, so really, the "Special Deal" wasn't so special as the outpouring of negative comments shows:

People were hoping for a photo special (after all it's the holidays, pictures go over well this time of year) and expressed so in the comments. I watched this and expected Walgreens to intervene and say something. Nope. They didn't respond until the next day- with a 50% off poster special. Yes it was picture related, but it wasn't what people were asking for. They didn't listen the first time, and they only half listened the second time. Epic Fail.

While I can't tell you what the specifics of your plan should be (well I can, but that's a different matter), I can tell you that you should listen first, talk second. What I mean by that is that in order to find out what your audience needs from you, you first need to listen to what they are saying. Once you've listened for a while, you can start engaging. Start by promoting others, not yourself. By doing this, you build trust with your audience, and when it comes time when you need to promote yourself they will listen because you haven't badgered them with "buy this" offers.

What are some of your customer service horror stories, and had you been the merchant, how would you have handled the situation?