WTF and FTW: Two tales of social media and customer service

"What the F___!" or "For the Win!," which do you want your customers saying about you? I experienced two starkly different approaches to social media during my recent trip to downtown Asheville, which offer a valuable business lesson about how your approach to new technology and social media can positively or negatively impact the attitudes of your customers.

WTF! (A tale of how to blow off a loyal customer.)

As I was walking around downtown Asheville, I was stoked to see a Three Dog Bakery storefront. If you are not familiar with Three Dog Bakery, they offer gourmet dog treats made with natural ingredients. Spoiling my three border collies, I have been a customer of Three Dog Bakery for nearly 10 years. I once belonged to their treat of the month club, where they would mail me 3 packages of homemade healthy treats each month. I also own one of their cookbooks. I could go on and on, but suffice it to say I was a loyal customer.

That all changed when I walked inside their storefront for the very first time, getting to see everything in real life rather than from a website. Mesmerized by the stunning treats, my first instinct was to snap a picture of the display case, and upload it using my new favorite iPhone app Instagr.am, which would then post the picture and location on Flickr, Facebook, Twitter and Foursquare. Just as I was about to click, the lady behind the counter said, "Sorry, no pictures." Surprised, I asked why, explaining that I was just going to tell my friends about it. She replied, "We have too many competitors."

Wow, I'm sure I don't have to explain how ridiculous that policy is.  It's not like you can keep your competitors from coming into the store, spying and buying all the treats they want. Meanwhile, this business prefers to silence a loyal customer who just wanted to share word-of-mouth excitement for their brand. I left the store with no desire to purchase anything.

FTW! (A tale of turning a fan into a super fan.)



Just down the street, I had my eyes on visiting the new Bake It Pretty storefront. Bake It Pretty is a cupcake/baking supply store with a retro edge that up until recently was strictly online. Their brick and mortar store opened earlier this year and I read all about it on their blog. A few years back, I got to hang out with the owner, Amanda, a few times while she still lived in Hampton Roads. We have a mutual friend, Amber, and a mutual love of baking adorable sweets.

While eating lunch, I tweeted that I was about to stop by Bake It Pretty. About an hour later, when I walked in their door, they were expecting me! What a nice welcome for a loyal customer. Amanda was not there, but her sister was working (who I had never met) and knew to look for me and said hello. She even offered me a family and friends discount and a sweet goody bag for coming in. If that kind of treatment can't leave you in a great mood, I don't know what will. I have always been singing praises for Bake It Pretty on my Greater Good Life blog, twitter and facebook, and I'll continue to do so. I'll also keep reading the Bake It Pretty blog and buying their unique supplies.

Take these examples into account as you interact with your customers both online and in person. Never miss an opportunity to turn a fan into a superfan. Word-of-mouth social media marketing is much more influential than any advertising you can buy.  Are the customers you interact with leaving satisfied and thinking, "FTW!" If not, it's time to rethink your social media strategy.

Reasons you need a blog

A number of my clients still do not have blogs as well as many major companies, and while other social media like Facebook and Twitter are stealing the spotlight, it's time to revisit this oldie but goodie. Blogs offer several advantages and just about every type of business can benefit from the communication tool. Here's what a blog can do for you.

Keep your audience regularly engaged
As consumers, we all have short attention spans. To stay top of mind, you have to communicate a consistent message often. Updating a blog daily or weekly offers an opportunity to reach out to stakeholders on a regular basis.

Search Engine Optimization
Blogs offer rich fresh content for search engine spiders as well as the opportunity that others may link to your posts. Just remember your blog should serve a purpose to communicate with your publics first and foremost. The SEO benefits should develop naturally from that. Saturating your posts intentionally with too many keywords will not win over many readers.

Share content with people who want to connect
Blogs offer a way to connect with customers who want to read your content. By subscribing to your RSS feed, consumers are proactively pulling information. Stakeholders who seek out your information are much more likely to become advocates than passive recipients of marketing e-mails and advertising.

Simple and efficient interaction
Blogs are a tool for two-way communication. By opening up your comments for readers to participate, you empower your stakeholders to communicate and reap the rewards of gaining valuable feedback.

Another tip, blogs can be very time consuming to maintain and post updates regularly. The PR department doesn't have to go it alone. Consider having several employees from different departments contribute to the blog each week. Varied perspectives will keep it interesting for the reader while helping you balance out organizational resources.