Social CRM, customer engagement, and next gen call centers

February 10, 2012

A LinkedIn Rant (About Bad Behavior)

by Dave Brock with 2 views

It’s been a while since I’ve ranted, but I’ve hit a tipping point. It’s about LinkedIn–actually, about how people use LinkedIn. I can’t imagine any business professional not leveraging LinkedIn as much as possible. It’s powerful in... [read more]

February 9, 2012

The Social CRM Process, And How Tropicana OJ Didn't Use It

by Adam Metz with 15 views

Photo: Elizabeth/Table4Five/Flickr(creative commons)

Case Study: Tropicana Orange Juice Tropicana Orange Juice, part of the PepsiCo brand family, learned the hard way, in January 2009, that not engaging the social customer could be very costly. The brand launched a full-scale package redesign,... [read more]

February 9, 2012

Making The Angry Hordes Work For You: Lessons From Ellen and JC Penney

by Jon Burg
with 41 views

Earlier today the always insightful Geoff Livingston share a post highlighting the fear major corporations have of the angry mobs unfortunately common to social media. While this point is certainly valid, I have long believed that there is tremendous opportunity in utilizing advocacy... [read more]

Is Personal Customer Service Dead? (guest post)

February 9, 2012 by Dr. John R. Miller
with 48 views

By Laura MeredithMaybe I am just getting older (I am forever 29), but I miss the personal service that used to be inherent in the customer experience. I can’t say from a former era because it’s really not that long ago! I’m not referring... [read more]

Why Social Media Is Like a Raucous Bar (video interview)

February 9, 2012 by Paul Simon
with 23 views

Social media is a lot like the activity at a bar. You know, the kind with drinks and sometimes loud music. That’s Dave Carroll’s take. Long before we started Linking In and Facebooking and Tweeting, he was playing his music in university-area pubs. [read more]

Does America Run on 'Dunkin’ Donuts'?

February 8, 2012 by Douglas Hanna
with 27 views

Image: Craigemorsels/Flickr

Brands Keys Customer Loyalty Engagement Index sets Dunkin’ Donuts as number one in customer loyalty for the coffee category. Second only to oil production, coffee is the largest commodity sold. [read more]

The Real Winners of Super Bowl Ad Race

February 6, 2012 by Jennifer Roberts
with 176 views

Image: Courtesy of author blog

The 2012 Super Bowl was a great example of why moving beyond simple buzz and sentiment metrics is required to get a true understanding of what most resonates with consumers. CI’s engaged consumers metric (taking into account several levels of positive word-of-mouth as well as negative reactions), revealed the clear winner of Super Bowl advertisers (as of the end of game night, 11PM ET): M&Ms. [read more]

Analysis: Top Social Media Trends for Customer Services in 2012

February 8, 2012 by Luke Brynley-Jones
with 94 views

Image: Courtesy of author blog

One of the biggest issues that got raised at my Social CRM conferences in New York, London and Paris last year, was stressed in the next highlighted trend: “Customers expect service to be cross-touchpoint — that is, being able to start an interaction in one communication channel and complete it in another. [read more]

Team Collaboration Secrets: Make Social Media Deliver

February 8, 2012 by Adam Honig
with 31 views

Photo courtesy of Flickr user SuperFantastic

Is it time to rethink your approach to collaboration?How have Twitter, Facebook, self-service communities and social media outlets changed the way your customer-facing teams collaborate?To date, many businesses have already begun embracing social networks to help them attract and retain more customers, and to sell more products and... [read more]

‘United Breaks Guitars’ Launched Dave Carroll's Career in Social Media (video interview)

February 8, 2012 by Paul Simon
with 77 views

Within four days of the video’s posting on YouTube it had a million hits. Two and a half years later, it’s been viewed 11.5 million times and Dave Carroll’s name is synonymous with customer service. [read more]

Super Bowl XLVI Proves Increasing Use of Mobile Internet

February 7, 2012 by Mac Ocampo
with 16 views

Photo: Stephen Luke/Flickr(creative commons)

It was a great Super Bowl game again this year, and the digital world was once again involved in a big way. Super Bowl XLVI had the most number of tweets for a sporting event, [read more]

Swimming with the Smarter Customer: The Speedo International Story

February 7, 2012 by Brent Leary
with 31 views

Photo by Greg Livaudais via Flickr

This post was written by Laurie McCabe of SMB Group. Recently, Brent Leary and I had the opportunity to talk with Gareth Beer, Ecommerce Manager for Speedo International and learn about how Speedo International is applying smarter commerce philosophies and solutions to better serve its customers. We think Beer’s insights about... [read more]

'United Breaks Guitars' Sparks New Customer Complaint Resolution Model (video interview)

February 7, 2012 by Paul Simon
with 42 views

Musician Dave Carroll always has had a passion for customer service. So it’s not surprising that in the wake of his highly popular “United Breaks Guitars” video on YouTube, he’s become a one-man band in support of companies treating their customers fairly. [read more]

'United Breaks Guitars' Made Dave Carroll a Customer Service Celebrity (video interview)

February 6, 2012 by Paul Simon
with 241 views

"United Breaks Guitars" went viral quickly after musician Dave Carroll posted it to YouTube. He talks about the experience in this video interview, the first of four segments. [read more]

What the Social World Thought of the Susan G. Komen Debacle

February 6, 2012 by Michelle deHaaff
with 26 views

Image: Courtesy of author blog

What a week for the Susan G.Komen for the Cure foundation. An organization that I’ve supported for years faced a huge debacle related to an issue that has taken center stage in the conservative political debate, [read more]

Social Media Resolutions: Made Any? Kept Any?

February 6, 2012 by Courtney Hunt
with 20 views

As 2011 faded from memory and 2012 came into sharper focus, people around the world engaged in the annual “resolution ritual.” This post invites folks to share their social media goals for the year ahead, evaluate the progress they have made so far in keeping the resolutions they have made, and refocus their efforts to ensure their goals... [read more]

AT&T Proves It Knows Zilch About Positive Customer Experience

February 6, 2012 by Chris Bailey
with 50 views

Want to know how to quickly turn a new customer into a vocal ex-customer? Offer pretty talk without delivering meaningful results. This is my personal experience dealing with AT&T. [read more]

What Customers Value, More than a Coupon

February 6, 2012 by Neale Mulligan
with 42 views

Everyone knows about the proliferation of the latest “deal” emails and offers (a.k.a. Groupon, Living Social, Google Offers, and the like). However, marketing is more than just offering a discount. Marketing that relies only on price cuts becomes a battle over the lowest price but that doesn’t help company grow or build long-term customer relationships. [read more]

Social Media Co-Opts the Super Bowl

February 5, 2012 by Pam Dyer
with 63 views

Image courtesy of author's blog

With more than 100 million tuning in to watch each year, the Super Bowl has long been a mecca for advertisers. Brands have historically unveiled some of the best commercial spots of the year during the game, which they’ve kept under wraps for months. These ads are pricey; not only are production values high (read costly), but... [read more]

More Social Customer Engagement Models That Don't Suck

February 4, 2012 by Adam Metz
with 173 views

Ed. note: This is part of a series of excerpts from The Social Customer, the new guide to social customer acquisition, monetization, and retention by Adam Metz. For the first entry, go here. This installment continues Chapter 2: The “How” and “Where” of Engagement and the Four Social Customer Scenarios. Adam introduces two more... [read more]

10 Top Sales Trends for 2012: Staying Humble and Hungry

February 3, 2012 by Josiane Feigon
with 64 views

In 2012, you will find that companies continue to sit on their cash reserves, and stressed-out consumers continue to postpone purchases — just because they can. [read more]

Komen and Planned Parenthood: The Pace of Social Media Outrage

February 3, 2012 by Alyson Stone
with 74 views

Image: Mark HIllary/Flickr(creative commons)

When The Susan G. Komen Foundation took the unexpected action of cutting off funding to Planned Parenthood, they triggered an event that represents the power and reach of our increasingly social communication [read more]

Lessons Learned: Susan G Komen Vs Their Public

February 3, 2012 by Jon Burg
with 102 views

There has been a bit of a social media/public policy kerfuffle over the past week regarding the Susan G Komen non-profit. [read more]

Drink Up… This is How Listening Builds a Brand

February 3, 2012 by Keith Paul
with 49 views

When was the last time you acted upon recommendations from your customers? No, I mean you really acted. I like to make sport of calling out companies for botching their social media activities (see Chrysler and Starbucks). I seldom see awesome successes like Narragansett’s. And yes, I count it a success even though the ultimate... [read more]

Selling to Sales People With War Stories

February 3, 2012 by Steve Reeves
with 19 views

Image: Courtesy of author blog

How do sales people sell to other sales guys? You might think they get very technical, preening themselves with demonstrations of their intellect. You might think they brag about past achievements and future opportunities. [read more]

8 Marketing Trends to Implement in Your 2012 Marketing Plan

February 2, 2012 by Yasmin Bendror
with 171 views

As I’ve said before, social media needs to be INTEGRATED into your overarching marketing plan. It’s not the magic pill. It’s not the hard sale, it’s the soft sell. It’s not going to blast your sales from $0 to $10,000 overnight. But social media is a powerful marketing tool that must be used in your marketing tactics today. And other important marketing tactics must not be ignored either. [read more]

Social Customer Engagement Models That Don't Suck

February 2, 2012 by Adam Metz
with 51 views

Before we can examine the Four Social Customer Scenarios—where your brand is, currently, in relation to your social customers—we must look at the Social Customer Engagement Models, the “where” of the social customer, within your organization. [read more]

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