Posts Tagged ‘social listening’
Wells Fargo Is Betting You’re Lazy
Yesterday, Wells Fargo announced it was going to charge a $3 monthly convenience fee for the privilege of using your debit card. They are testing this potential revenue source in five states to determine the impact on their customer base.
Because inertia is a powerful thing, Wells is hoping most people will keep their accounts because they don’t want to make the effort to change banks.
In fact, inertia is what keeps most people buying a specific product, going to certain restaurants and using lackluster services.
So how, as a marketer, can you disrupt inertia to gain new customers? You do this by understanding their pain points and providing a solution.
Ways to learn these pain points:
- Social listening – using a social media monitoring tool to listen to what your audience is saying about products and services
- Review sites – look at city search, yelp, kudzu and the like to see what customers are saying, about your company and your competitors too
- Customer research – conduct primary research with your target audience to gain a deep understanding of the challenges in their lives
Does providing a disruptive solution work? When marketed properly – yes.
Look at banking. Bank of America encouraged people to switch with their Keep The Change program.
P&G learned consumers weren’t happy with how brooms cleaned a floor and created the Swiffer.
Zappos changed the way we buy shoes with their selection, fast shipping and free returns.
How have you disrupted inertia with your products or services? Let me know.
Are You Listening?
Listening to the customer is the core of every sales training manual and customer service seminar, yet companies often fail to hear what is being said.
I recently attended the IIR Social Media conference, and heard many times over that corporate leadership didn’t want to hear about negative feedback from customers.
With social media playing a greater role as a resource to provide instant feedback, the customer voice is becoming more and more difficult to ignore.
- Betty White appeared on SNL two weeks ago due to an outpouring of support from fans on Facebook (probably the most entertaining SNL episode this season).
- Nestle recently announced a zero deforestation policy, after ignoring organizations like Greenpeace regarding their sourcing of palm oil
- IKEA’s typeface change caused an uproar that IKEA wasn’t aware of until Lisa Abend, a reporter for TIME International (and my sister), brought it to their attention
Even if your company is not actively participating in social media, here are some ideas to monitor what your customers think of your company, your industry and your competitors:
- Yelp, Kudzu, Citysearch – Regularly monitor these rating sites
- Search.Twitter.com – Twitter’s search engine. Just type in what you are interested in or use hashtags (#) before your word to see what comes up
- Social Mention, Alterian SM2 – free tools that give you a nice snap shot of what it is being said across social media channels
- Ripoff Report – when people are very unhappy, they’ll post it here
Social media may not be the right marketing tool for your business, but it is the right tool to help you listen to what your customers are saying.
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Negative Comments Equals Great Opportunity
0 CommentsThursday • March 17, 2011 • by admin
Social media can impact your company in two main ways:
It’s both fulfilling and frustrating at the same time. When you do good things, you want as many people as possible to talk about you to their friends and contacts. It’s when things aren’t going as well that you wish social media didn’t spread the word so quickly.
So what should you do about it?
The simple answer: Respond.
According to The Retail Consumer Report, 68% of consumers who posted a complaint or negative review on a social networking site received a response from the retailer.
So how does this impact your business? According to the study, after the response to the initial complaint:
And if you wonder about the impact of social media on your business, note that almost 33% researched consumer input through either social networks or online reviews before visiting the retailer.
There are free services like Google Alerts and Social Mention that can help you track the conversation about your company on a basic level. However, if you want more depth in your social media tracking, you may want to look at more robust tools like Alterian SM2 (full disclosure I have a paid subscription to this social media monitoring tool), Consumerbase, Radian6 and others.
In today’s day of exponential word of mouth, finding out what people are saying and then rectifying negative situations proves to be a great marketing tool.