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Book Review: Hug Your Haters, By Jay Baer

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My grandfather would have called Jay Baer “a gentleman, a scholar, and a judge of good whiskey.” In other words, the highest compliment he could give.

Jay is all of those things, and his latest scholarly work is his new book, “Hug Your Haters.”

I was not given a free review copy of this book (what’s up with that?); I purchased it with my own hard-earned dollars because I have been hugging haters for almost 18 years.

Haters come with the territory if you expose yourself by starting a business or promoting an idea. They will come in many different forms, both in-your-face, in person, and anonymously, online.

If you don’t have a strategy for dealing with them, you can find yourself distracted from your mission or worse, with a damaged reputation.

Hug Your Haters teaches you who complains, why they complain, and how to capitalize on those complaints. And the book is built on a solid foundation of data that Jay collected in collaboration with Edison Research.

Capitalize? On complaints?

Do tell…

The research showed that “answering complaints increases customer advocacy, across all customer service channels.”

The book is packed with real-world case studies (refreshingly moving beyond Zappos and Nordstrom). You will be able to recognize your own “hater” situations, as well as some you may need to be prepared for down the road. It’s meant to be a reference book, and I already have highlighted numerous passages for my own future reference.

Below are two quick peeks into the strategies for dealing with offstage haters (private communication behind the scenes) and onstage haters (social media or public comments). You’ll just have to go buy the book to get the complete action plan (and I highly recommend it).

Dealing with OffStage Haters – H-O-U-R-S

  • Be Human
  • Use One Channel
  • Unify Your Data
  • and Resolve the Issue
  • with Speed

Hugging Onstage Haters – F-E-A-R-S

  • Find all Mentions
  • Display Empathy
  • Answer Publicly
  • Reply Only Once
  • Switch Channels

If you have a business, or if you are thinking of having a business, or if your job requires you to communicate directly with customers, you need to read Hug Your Haters.

You’ll thank me later.

And your customers might, too.

 

Author’s Bio: Rosemary O’Neill is an insightful spirit who works for Social Strata — makers of the Hoop.la community platform. Check out the Social Strata blog. You can find Rosemary on Google+ and on Twitter as @rhogroupee

 

Buzzworthy customer service begins with eye contact

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The other evening I caught myself with four (FOUR) active screens arrayed in front of me.

I was “watching” TV.

I had my iPad on the nightstand because I had started to play a game.

Thought of a work item I needed to finish, and popped open my laptop.

Of course my phone was next to me on the bed in case I got a text (alerting me to nuclear war or possibly a school delay).

And then…one of my children came in to tell me something.

First instinct was…”I’m busy!”

…waitforitwaitforit….

Seeing the look of befuddlement cross my child’s face, I snapped out of my mania and started shutting down screens.

In every moment, you tell the world what’s important based on what’s in your immediate field of vision.

Have you ever been buying something in a shop when the phone rings? And the clerk makes you wait while he answers the customer on the phone?

Why are we putting the living, breathing humans around us at arms length in order to stare into a screen?

Why do we feel comfortable sending a LinkedIn request to a stranger, but too shy to approach people at a business networking event?

It’s time to get back to eyeballing each other.

Some ideas for practicing eye contact:

  • Take one of your customers out to lunch or coffee. Ask them how they are. (Not how satisfied they are with your customer service.) Then truly listen to their answer.
  • Add a conference or two to your calendar. Get outside your office and meet people.
  • If a living, breathing person is talking to you, close your laptop and stash your phone. Listen actively.
  • Start scheduling video calls instead of emails or phone calls. Body language is a crucial signal.
  • Use your real name and photo in your customer support communications.
  • Turn off notifications when you’re interacting with people (e.g., at lunch, in a meeting, listening to a pitch, serving a customer).
  • Let people know that you noticed them, by offering a specific (and authentic) compliment, referring back to something they said earlier, or remembering details about them the next time you meet.

How many screens do you have open right now?

Author’s Bio: Rosemary O’Neill is an insightful spirit who works for Social Strata — makers of the Hoop.la community platform. Check out the Social Strata blog. You can find Rosemary on Google+ and on Twitter as @rhogroupee

 

Featured image via Flickr CC: Kevin Dooley

5 Social Customer Service Tools You Should Know About

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By Diana Gomez

Gone are the days of customer service phones ringing off the hook.

While some people may still want to use traditional means to connect with companies, modern consumers rarely want to pick up the phone if they experience a customer-service issue.

Instead, they’re turning to social media to voice concerns and ask questions, knowing that a simple tweet is often the best way to address an issue quickly and easily.

Social customer service tools

Did you know that 42 percent of consumers who complain on social media expect a response no more than 60 minutes later?

This may seem unreasonable, but compare that with the time it should take for a resolution via phone. And these days, the advent of social media has not only opened up more communication channels, but it has lowered patience. A recent study showed that people who complain on social media on nights and weekends expect the same service and response time as they would during normal Monday through Friday business hours. How can companies keep up with that? What a beast.

Smart companies are catching on that social media is their strongest customer service tool. KLM, for example, the leading airline in customer service, realized the importance of social media in 2010 when Icelandic ash left tens of thousands of customers stranded in airports everywhere. It was the biggest interruption to European air traffic since World War II.

Those customers turned to social media for solutions to their travel woes, and KLM responded. Soon after, the airline made social media the focus of its customer service efforts. Resolution time was cut to one day, and one social media post is responded to within one hour — and it all happens via social media.

There are several tools out there ready to help companies get their customer service needs under control as efficiently as possible using social media. Here are a few I’ve found to be worthwhile.

Salesforce

Salesforce is the tool that drives the customer-service machine of KLM. How does it work? Its system extracts customer-service requests from over 150 million social media networks, blogs, forums and more using customized keyword identifiers. The tool’s technology works its magic by searching comments and phrases combining, for example, #KLM, @KLM, and any KLM mentions with customer-service trigger words like “help” or “my flight is late.”

The cool part is that the software can then prioritize the results automatically using the purchase history of the customer and their activity level on social media. So if you have a big Twitter following and you’re a frequent flier, you’ll probably be placed at the front of the customer-service queue. Pretty nifty.

LiveOps Social

Another social customer service tool, LiveOps Social, is a cloud-based contact center/virtual call center software. But instead of tickets submitted through voice, online contact forms, or email, it searches requests on Twitter and Facebook and then submits a ticket that way. The concern is then placed in a service queue alongside all the other requests, but it is prioritized according to the customer’s social and service history.

Social Dynamx

This social customer service tool lets companies manage one-on-one, real-time social conversation. The system automatically routes customers to an agent based on his or her expertise, work group, current caseload, average time to respond and service satisfaction rate. Work groups represent different issues, so say a product has a very specific issue — a work group is created to address that particular concern, and they’ll receive all the tweets relating to that issue. If a customer prefers a different agent, or expert, that change can be easily made.

SparkCentral

Companies that handle a high volume of customer service requests are turning to social media helpdesk platform SparkCentral. Formerly known as TwitSpark, the key to its success lies in the response time. This tool provides super fast and efficient follow-up customer service over Facebook and Twitter. From seemingly petty problems to crisis management, it’s all automatically prioritized and attended to promptly.

ConverSocial

Used by big companies like Google, Barclaycard, and Hertz, ConverSocial is a cloud-based social service solution for large-scale monitoring. Using sophisticated technology, the service decides for itself whether or not a social media complaint warrants a response.

Any Tweeter out there can understand that not every tweet deserves an agent to spend his or her time responding to it. ConverSocial totally gets that. Like other tools, it prioritizes a response according to social and customer history. More serious issues of course would go to the front of the queue. If a response is delayed, the system automatically reroutes the issue to a new agent.

Has your company used social media to resolve customer service issues? Please share your experiences in the comments!

Author’s Bio: Diana Gomez is the Marketing Coordinator at Lyoness America, where she integrates social customer service and business marketing strategies for USA and Canada. Lyoness is an international shopping community and loyalty rewards program, where businesses and consumers benefit with free membership and money back with every purchase.

The Wrong Way to Handle a Bad Fit

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By Lisa D. Jenkins

Near where I live, there’s a small independent boutique that’s always drawn my interest. The clothes in the window aren’t something you’ll find on the rack in a mainstream big brand store so I was excited to step in and check things out.

Glass slipper

The clothes on the inside matched the promise of the storefront; the cut and quality of clothing had me really excited to do a bit of shopping. As I browsed and added things to my dressing room, I talked with the owner about her choice of stock.

She’s filled her store with short runs of clothing from independent designers and that appeals to me on a number of personal levels. She stocks each garment in a single size run and when it’s gone, it’s gone. There are no new orders and if something doesn’t fit, there’s no ordering another size. That means that there’s little time for a customer to dither. If I wanted a specific piece for myself, I’d need to buy it then and there.

I love that she supports independent designers who aren’t able to mass produce their clothing. I can get behind her tactic of creating a sense of scarcity and exclusivity to drive sales.

Let’s shop!

As I tried clothes on, I found a couple of items I loved and had them set aside for me behind the counter.

Then I tried on the piece that brought me in the store. The fit was lovely, the sizing spot on but the color just wasn’t right for me. It washed me out. I knew it, The Husband knew it and the shop owner knew it.

As I turned to go back to the dressing room the owner said to me, in an exasperated tone, “You know it’s not the color of the garment, it’s your makeup. You need to wear more. Anyone in Europe could wear that color because they know how to wear their makeup.”

I don’t need to wear more makeup, what I needed what that same garment in a different color.

Reality Check

You are never going to have the perfect product or service for every prospect you come in contact with.

It is never your prospect’s job to fit into the constraints of your product or service. People don’t have an obligation to amend their needs or business practices to make your product or service right for them.

If anyone in the dynamic adapts, it should be you.

How to Move Forward

Here’s a tip: Don’t make your prospect feel badly if you don’t have what they need.

Instead, point them to a trusted colleague who can serve them fully. If an existing customer is outgrowing you, maybe it’s time to collaborate on a new product or service that will fit.

Whichever you choose, handle that person with care because the way you treat people when you can’t help them will color their opinion of you far more deeply than how you treat them when you can.

Think of It Like This

Everyone wants to go to the ball, but not everyone is going to fit your glass slipper.

Treat those you don’t fit with respect. Word gets around and when you’ve handled a bad fit properly, you’re far more attractive to others and they’ll come calling to try you on for size.

Tell me, how have you handled not being the right fit for a prospect or being outgrown by an existing customer?

Author’s Bio: Lisa D. Jenkins is a Public Relations professional specializing in Social and Digital Communications for businesses. She has over a decade of experience and work most often with destination organizations or businesses in the travel and tourism industry in the Pacific Northwest. Connect with her on Google+

Image via DeviantArt: http://orico.deviantart.com

Providing the Full Value of a Purchase

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By Lisa D. Jenkins

I’m building my backpack gear set and this past weekend I bought a sleeping bag. Not a regular “throw something on the floor because we’re out of beds” type bag, but a serious “keep me warm in the wilderness at zero degrees” type bag.

sleeping bags

I had no idea where to start, so naturally I began researching on the internet. I learned all kinds of important buzz words: R factor, temperature rating, fill power. These words were everywhere, the implication being they were important and should be factored into my purchase decision. The issue was that I didn’t understand HOW to factor them in.

I’m a newbie.

Armed with my fledgling knowledge I went out into the brick and mortar world to find someone with expertise who could help me choose the right bag.

My first stop was a well-known big name outdoor store. The clerk was mostly friendly but seemed a bit exasperated when I used the words I’d learned during research. I lined out how I expected to use my bag, explained I’d be backpacking with it and asked her to point me toward likely contenders and help me choose one.

She walked me to a rack of hanging bags pointed to one end and said, “The women’s bags are at this end. Each one is tagged with specs you can use to figure out which one you want.”

Tags. So basically, reading – like I’d done on the internet – before I walked through the front door of this store with the hope that an educated human could help me? Not what I expected.

We left and headed to another outdoor store. Where I hit paydirt.

The owner spent almost an hour and a half explaining everything I needed to understand about sleeping bags so I could choose exactly the right bag. I learned that, for me, loft was more important than fill, and that fill was more important than temperature rating. I also learned that fill power is misleading and that temperature ratings are incredibly subjective.

Then I looked at tags on roughly a dozen bags, and this time I understood how to filter the tag information. I took an hour getting in and out of two bags and deciding which one I wanted. It’s a bit heavier than I’d expected, weighing in at just under 3 pounds, but I am fully confident it’s the right bag for me.

On our way out, I realized the store had been closed for an hour and half. I was so embarrassed. I began apologizing and the owner told me no apologies were necessary. Then he said, “I don’t want you to be sorry about the time you spent here. That time let me give you the full value of your purchase. You let me teach you how to make the right choice for you and that’s important because you’re unique and your needs are unique. This type of sale is one of my favorites.”

And that’s when it hit me.

Buzz words are like sleeping bag tags.

We all use them – sometimes with irony and sometimes in earnest. What those of us who use those words in blog posts, presentations and website copy need to remember is that buzz words serve us, the holders of knowledge, not the customers who need the knowledge.

Customers come to us because they need our product or expertise. Tossing a bunch of jargon at them from a landing page or slide deck doesn’t let us speak to their unique needs. Nor does it help them truly understand how we’re the best fit for the gap they need to fill.

Get around the buzz words.

Every website has copy and the use of some words is inescapable because things like SEO matter. But there are ways to go beyond the buzz words and help customers feel confident in choosing our services or products over those of another vendor.

Follow the buzz words up with simple language that demystifies what you offer.

Install live chat on your website so prospects can communicate with a human.

Respond to inquiries with a phone call instead of an email.

At a certain point, our customers need to have some questions answered. They might not even know which questions to ask. It’s our job to help them learn what those questions are and how to prioritize the answers for themselves so they can make an informed decision.

When we give customers the full value of their purchase, they’ll convert with confidence.

Author’s Bio: Lisa D. Jenkins is a Public Relations professional specializing in Social and Digital Communications for businesses. She has over a decade of experience and work most often with destination organizations or businesses in the travel and tourism industry in the Pacific Northwest. Connect with her on Google+

Photo Credit: sdbrown via Compfight cc

Words matter

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Boilerplate kills kittens.

Early in my career, I worked as a technical writer for a large government contractor. The GPO Manual was our ultimate arbiter of word choice, I learned to spell “judgment” without a second “e,” and we relied heavily on giant chunks of pre-written text.

I was a “writer,” but one who was having her soul slowly crushed under the weight of government regulations.

orwell movie

Those formative experiences gave me an intense interest in how words are applied. How just the right word can make or break a relationship, a transaction, a pitch.

Leaders use powerful words. Entrepreneurs must have an arsenal of persuasive words in their stockpiles. Business builders need to project clarity (so let’s ditch the jargon).

When you answer the same questions over and over again, it can be tempting to fall back on key phrases. Same thing when you assume the “corporate” mantle in an email or a phone call.

“We deeply regret the inconvenience.”

See that? A kitten just keeled over.

Would the customer feel better if you simply said, “I’m so sorry”? Yes.

My challenge to you today is to catch yourself using these worn out words. Give a fresh eye to the way you talk to your customers, partners, and colleagues.

On your website, do you ask your customers to “submit a ticket” when they have a problem? Could you change that to “ask for help”?

Do you constantly use the Royal “we” when you’re talking to customers? Stop doing that. You’re not the Queen of England.

Sprinkle some surprise into your conversation, whether it’s online or in person. Humans love surprises.

Communication shouldn’t be complicated. It should just be genuine and simple, with the humility and understanding that we’re all multi-dimensional humans, everyone of which has spent time in both the dark and delightful parts of life. -Bryan Kramer, author of “Human to Human“

We can’t let ourselves be subsumed by our robot overlords yet. Their faux-human handwriting is getting better and better, but they’re not quite there yet.

Author’s Bio: Rosemary O’Neill is an insightful spirit who works for social strata — a top ten company to work for on the Internet . Check out the Social Strata blog. You can find Rosemary on Google+ and on Twitter as @rhogroupee

Photo Credit: David Blackwell. via Compfight cc