Making Social Media Easier

by on Monday, January 23rd, 2012

When we talk with local businesses about Social Media, the most frequent objection to becoming more socially engaged is time. Many local merchants believe that the time required to attend to Facebook and Twitter is better used for tasks more directly related to running the business. Rather than argue the importance of Social Media, we’d like to pass along a post on Mashable that introduces some tools that make it easier than ever for a small business to manage its Social Media presence and derive maximum value from this powerful marketing medium.

via Kevin Moore (Creative Commons)

Some of these tools are geared toward agencies or at least larger companies, but there are two that we have used successfully at Zavee: HootSuite and TweetDeck. Both applications live on the desktop although both have mobile versions. TweetDeck is free and HootSuite has a free version that should be fine for most businesses. Both apps let the user manage multiple streams (e.g., Facebook and Twitter) simultaneously, including posting the same content to several streams. Both apps make it easy to schedule posts, so an hour or two on the weekend can result in a week’s worth of posts.

It’s also easy to redirect content, so a link, image or other content that is found on Twitter can be shared out on Facebook (and vice versa). This can be especially valuable for Zavee merchants, because Zavee shoppers now can share merchant-related content on Social Media even more easily than before. So merchants that sees a good review or recommendation can increase its reach by putting that content in their own Social Media stream. Merchants also can push news announcements published on Zavee to their Facebook and Twitter streams. That gets their own content noticed by even more potential customers.

Social Media can’t be fully automated, any more than any other marketing tool. But these two apps (and others mentioned in the Mashable post) can make the time devoted to Social Media time well spent.

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Can Social Media Build Loyalty?

by on Tuesday, November 22nd, 2011

Pitney Bowes recently released the results of a large-scale, multi-country online survey (PDF) about which specific engagement techniques encourage consumers to “continue using a business and maybe buy more from them.” The key finding of the study, as reported in MediaPost and elsewhere, is that social media has little effectiveness as a channel for building loyalty: “Only 18% of consumers believe that the ability to interact with a large company on social platforms would encourage them to buy from that company. This average drops to 15% for small companies.”

Consumers were more likely to be loyal to brands that gave them more control over the shopping experience: “Being able to choose home delivery; choosing how to interact with a company (which communication channel); controlling the frequency of those interactions; and having a say in the company’s development of products and services.”

Social Sharing (via Elmo H. Love, Creative Commons)

So, does that mean that social media is a waste of effort for brands that want engage with consumers? Not at all. Although the underlying survey data hasn’t been made public, the survey as reported reflects a very narrow understanding of social media and how it can be used to promote customer engagement.

The survey report focuses primarily on the use of social media as a communications channel between the brand and the consumer – a cooler but less measurable version of email. Viewed that way, it’s easy to conclude that social media doesn’t offer much as an engagement vehicle. But the potential of social media lies in so much more than its use as yet another top-down channel in which brands say a lot but don’t listen much.

One of the most fundamental recent changes in consumer attitudes and behavior is the decline of the brand as authority figure and the increased consumer preference to be in control – something reflected in the Pitney Bowes survey itself. But another aspect of this paradigm appears to have been ignored: Consumers who formerly relied on the brand as authority now are more inclined to rely on each other.

The online retail space is full of brands that facilitate interactions among consumers, not just between the brand and consumers. Kaboodle is a women’s clothing site that invites consumers to “Shop and share your style with friends.” Users share their style tips and can in turn be followed by other consumers. Kaboodle’s merchants rely on these interactions in making selection and stocking decisions. ModCloth has a similar social shopping model, including a “Be the Buyer” tool that lets users directly affect the merchandise that is carried.

Both of these sites facilitate consumer control, but the social context adds a dimension that arguably makes the relationship stickier. According to one customer: “I love Kaboodle because now I have people from all over the country (who used to be complete strangers) as shopping buddies! This is my new favorite way to shop.” Note, too, that most of the social interactions take place on these companies’ respective sites, not on social media platforms, although the ModCloth page on Facebook has almost 375,000 likes.

The Zavee takeaway:

  • Social can build engagement and loyalty, provided it’s used creatively. It isn’t just another form of email.
  • The genius of social media is that it puts consumers in charge – and lets them learn from and help each other.
  • Social sharing is a paradigm, not a technology. It isn’t limited to Facebook and Twitter and might best be implemented on your own site.

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Tis The Season to … Shop Locally

by on Thursday, November 17th, 2011

Here’s an idea: let’s make December “National Shop Locally Month”. Big brands get lots of media attention with their Black Fridays and their door busters, on top of the biggest ad budgets of the year. Maybe a wristband and a car magnet aren’t much, but local businesses always have had to make do with less.

On second thought, there are better ways to raise awareness of the importance of local commerce and persuade consumers to spend more at local businesses this season. Shift Your Shopping is an umbrella site that provides a great deal of information about the impact of local business on the nation’s economy. Spend some time on the site and you can’t help but be impressed by local business as an economic driver. In addition, there are several organizations that support small business in the community. Take a look at their sites and consider making them part of your own community.

Black Friday (via lululemon athletica, creative commons)

Consumers want to save money, but studies show that most consumers don’t make purchase decisions solely on price. They want personalized service, a relevant product selection and a merchant whose integrity is beyond question. Those are your strengths as a local merchant, so make sure your customers know about them. Don’t overlook the power of social media to engage consumers about the importance of local businesses in general and value that yours adds in particular.

Best wishes from Zavee for a prosperous holiday season.

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Steve Jobs RIP

by on Thursday, October 6th, 2011

I’ve been the “Mac Guy” in most of my workplaces since at least the mid-90s, but I didn’t start out that way. I actually liked Windows’ command line, because I thought it was cool to be able to diagnose and fix my computer’s (alarmingly frequent) problems.

Then I started using the early Macs in film school and I was completely hooked. It was easy and fun to use as a word processor but what made me a Mac guy for life was an editing workstation called the Avid Media Composer. It was so sophisticated the software wasn’t for sale by itself. It only could be purchased pre-installed – and only on a Mac.

Steve Jobs, 1955-2011, via apple.com

It’s no exaggeration to say that the Avid revolutionized film and video editing, and at the time the Mac was the only widely available platform that could support it. Without the Mac’s intuitive interface and extraordinary graphics support the Avid simply couldn’t have existed as a commercial product.

I was a student, not an experienced editor, when I first encountered the Avid. I couldn’t have added much to a conversation about how to improve it.

But Steve Jobs’ greatest insight was that he didn’t need to spend much time asking users what they wanted. Instead, he observed and listened to users in the real world and drew brilliant, transformative inferences about what users really needed – even if they didn’t know it yet. He recognized that consumers are often motivated to satisfy their short term needs. They have no reason to look over the horizon and imagine tomorrow’s needs or the products that would address them.

But Steve Jobs had every reason to look over the horizon, because that’s where he was most at home. He had his share of setbacks, but in most of what he imagined – easy-to-use interfaces; small, content-oriented devices; even long-form animation – he was more than vindicated.

The Zavee takeaway:

  • Don’t rely on your customers to provide vision for your company or imagination for your products. Listening to your customers is no substitute for listening to yourself.
  • Be true to yourself and your vision. It’s no guarantee of success but you’ll feel better about yourself along the way.
  • Do what you love. Love what you do. Life is short.

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Airline Service and the Art of Communicating Bad News

by on Tuesday, September 27th, 2011

Do your customers hate you? If not, you probably don’t own an airline.

I’ve blogged before about airline service, mostly because as a frequent traveler I see a lot of it. But I also write about airline service because I believe it holds lessons for every business.

Airlines frequently disappoint or frustrate their customers, often for reasons that are beyond the control of front-line employees. Flight attendants and gate agents can’t predict weather delays or overbooked flights and they can’t do much about charges for checked bags and onboard food.

Creative Commons via popculturegeek.com

With all that practice, airlines should be outstanding at communicating bad news to customers. They aren’t. This is how airline employees on three recent flights on the same airline handled the common issue of the flight being too full to store every passenger’s carry-on:

  1. (Flight attendant) Please help us fit as many carry-ons as possible into the overhead bins by stowing them with their wheels out. We hope you understand if we run out of room and have to gate check your bag. There will be no checked baggage fees if we do have to check your bag.
  2. (Flight attendant) Carry-ons must be stowed wheels-out. I am going to come through the cabin and if I find any bags improperly stowed I will take them off the plane and gate check them.
  3. (Gate agent) Please do not give me a hard time if I tell you I have to gate check your bag.

The first example is probably what most employers expect from their associates. The other two, not so much. Unless airlines are uniquely tone-deaf, they probably wouldn’t find condescension and rudeness acceptable, either. The lesson for airlines – and every business that cares about its customers – is to do a better job training associates in the fine art of conveying bad news.

Associate training should focus intensively on likely scenarios where “customer satisfaction” won’t mean giving customers what they want. Associates need to understand that sometimes the best way to satisfy customers is to treat them with respect, be transparent about the source of the problem and be proactive about minimizing its impact. That can make the difference between acceptance and resentment, good will and bad.

It seemed to me that the two hostile airline employees never got that message. Perhaps they thought they were “protecting” the company or perhaps they were um, winging it, but they clearly were not calling on an appropriate set of skills. My take on the flight attendant who got it right was that she was relying on solid training when she: explained the situation clearly, enlisted the customers’ assistance, asked for understanding and communicated a countervailing benefit.

This example shows how important it is to monitor how associates handle customer interactions. Airlines and other large companies should spend the money for mystery shoppers if they can’t provide dedicated personnel. Smaller businesses should at least solicit feedback, whether in person, by email or by using social media. And just asking for customer input can improve customer perceptions.

The Zavee takeaway:

  • Businesses will inevitably frustrate or disappoint a customer from time to time. It’s vital to prepare associates for these situations so they can provide as good an experience as possible under the circumstances. They should never be taken by surprise.
  • Effectively communicating bad news to customers isn’t an art, but it is a skill. It needs to be part of every associate’s training and performance review.
  • Failure to monitor how associates interact with customers should be unacceptable in every business. In a small business it can be fatal.

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Loyalty Marketing [INFOGRAPHIC]

by on Thursday, September 22nd, 2011

Sometimes they are brilliant and sometimes they are useless, but infographics are almost always fun. Here is one about brands and loyalty programs, courtesy of Get Satisfaction.

One of the most interesting factoids is that 60% of respondents intend to use the social web and networking tools to derive ROI from loyalty programs. If so, that would be a significant change from how the loyalty industry’s historically slow adoption of technology.

Enjoy!

via getsatisfaction.com

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The Old Ball Game Finds Some New Tools

by on Thursday, September 1st, 2011

ESPN baseball writer Jayson Stark has an entertaining and informational column this week about how the iPad has taken over baseball. Not just the device itself, but the information that it can display and the way that information is used.

Instead of relying on scouting notes, which are inherently subjective and qualitative, managers, coaches and players can look at opponents’ statistical tendencies – and video clips that back up the stats. Citing the Rays‘ Joe Maddon, Stark calls this the “second great renaissance” in baseball, the first being Branch Rickey‘s pioneering use of statistics from the 1920s on.

Marc Falardeau via Creative Commons

Today, of course, the growth of Sabermetrics has made the breadth and depth of available statistics in baseball somewhat overwhelming, so computers are essential to unlocking their value. What the iPad does is put the necessary number crunching and report displaying power required into the hands of every pitcher, catcher and hitter – as well as every manager and coach. Stark cites many examples of how these changes have changed the game, from increases in defensive shifts to decreases in fastballs in fastball counts. It’s a fascinating piece, and not just for baseball fans.

The theme of Stark’s column, obviously, is that knowledge is power. Many smaller businesses operate like the baseball teams of twenty years ago, knowing intuitively that more data would help them perform better but believing that experience and intuition can fill the gap. But like baseball teams that are slow to embrace statistics and technology, the difference in achievement is there for all to see.

Savvy marketers, of every size, know that there is no substitute for data. Judgment is important, and no business – or ball club – should be run by robots, but merchants need to have the most in-depth understanding possible of who their customers are, what they are doing, and what they want. Some if this information is difficult to obtain, but some is there for the taking.

For example, Zavee lets merchants see every purchase by a Zavee shopper, observe trends, and even determine which Zavee offers are working better than others. This is the kind of information that lets merchants segment their customers and market separately to each segment. It lets merchants test and evaluate marketing plans. And it helps merchants determine the return on their marketing investment. It even works on an iPad.

The Zavee takeaway:

  • The only businesses too small to use data are the ones that want to stay small.
  • Some information is difficult or expensive to find, so obtain what you can afford and use it creatively (Hint: Zavee can help).
  • Do what baseball does and decentralize information – let colleagues help collect, analyze and use information to grow the business.

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Ron Stack of Zavee to Speak on Marketing for Shopping Center Retailers

by on Thursday, July 21st, 2011

I will be speaking tonight on a panel sponsored by the Broward County chapter of the International Council of Shopping Centers (ICSC). The ICSC is the world’s largest shopping center trade organization.

The topic for the evening is “Shopping Center Marketing and Networking Trends” and I will be speaking about how Zavee expands the reach of merchants’ word of mouth marketing, offers effective, affordable, easy-to-use loyalty tools, and provides actionable data about merchants’ customers and their purchasing behavior. More generally, I will be discussing how technology like the Zavee platform and the wide adoption of social media offer local merchants effective and affordable new ways to build their business.

Also on the panel will be several shopping center professionals plus a representative of Living Social. One of the points I intend to make is that Zavee’s social loyalty platform combines the social media tools that have helped Living Social and Groupon grow so quickly with the core loyalty marketing strategy of building long term value creating relationships between merchants and their customers. This gives merchants the best of both worlds: social shopping that builds loyalty as well as traffic.

The seminar is today at 5pm at the Hard Rock in Hollywood. If your business is in a strip center, why not call your landlord and suggest that they attend. What they learn can help them market better – and that can help you.

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Airlines and Loyalty … It’s Not Getting Better

by on Wednesday, June 29th, 2011

Bill Hanifin of Loyalty Truth recently posted about airlines and customer service, a post prompted by his trip around the world (Malaysia and back – that qualifies). My trips are rarely as exotic but I fly almost every week, primarily between Newark and either FLL or PBI, and primarily on Continental. Like Bill, I have a soft spot for airlines, having begun my career in aircraft finance. Again like Bill, I am amazed – and not in a good way – by the unforced errors airlines commit when it comes to customer service.

Bill writes that airlines should be using the wealth of data available to them to build in more flexibility in dealing with customers, some of whom may be very valuable to the airline. I agree, but I think that ignoring their own data is only half the problem. A lack of empowerment is the other. Associates can only be as flexible as the rules allow. And I have a hunch that consolidation has made carriers more rigid and reduced employees’ sense of ownership (anyone have similar – or different – experiences at newly-merged carriers?).

Bill isn’t a fan of unbundling, but my view is mixed. I think baggage fees are a slap in the face to passengers. Airlines ask us to cooperate in limiting what we carry aboard, then charge us for our cooperation. Nice. On the other hand, unbundling food is a win-win, because concourse food concessions are improving steadily at many airports just as on-board food is disappearing. Carrying on our own food is one of the few freedoms we have as passengers, and I wouldn’t want to turn back the clock.

via Flickr - where are the jonses

Maybe it’s because there aren’t any bosses or unions at 35,000 feet, or maybe it’s because the airlines know how to hire for the cabins, but most flight attendants do a great job despite more crowding and fewer amenities. One recent flight departed “on time” by pushing back before the aircraft was fully catered. Not surprisingly, grumbling ensued. Very surprisingly, the flight attendants up front decided to open bags of almonds left over from the inbound flight and serve them in wine glasses. It showed that the flight attendants cared and it put a smile on every face in first class. Airlines can’t teach that kind of resourcefulness, but I hope they reward it.

One of the biggest customer engagement problems the airlines face as they impose more rules, charges and limitations is that the customer-facing staff is constantly required to disappoint or frustrate the customer. The trick, whether in the cabin, at the gate or at the ticket counter is to avoid turning delivering bad news into delivering bad service. Being told your bag has to be gate-checked is bad news; being made to wait for it at baggage claim is bad service. Being handed your bag at the Jetway is a smart way to ease the sting.

Flexible rules, empowered associates and a premium on resourcefulness can do wonders for an airline’s word of mouth. At a time when consumers are increasingly willing and able to share their experiences effectively, bad service is just reckless. If I hated Continental – and I don’t – I’m sure I could find a different way to get to Florida every week. Travelers under fewer constraints can drive to a more distant airport or just drive to their destination. And many people would just as soon stay home. Customers like me who really have to fly can use social media to make sure that everyone in our social graph – including whoever runs social media at the airline – knows exactly how and what the airline is doing.

The Zavee takeaway:

  • Airlines need empowered, resourceful associates applying flexible, data-driven rules. The alternative is an ongoing low-intensity conflict with customers that the airlines can’t win.
  • Every customer has an alternative to a bad airline, even if it means staying home.
  • Social media levels the playing field for airline customers. They can sit us down, but they can’t shut us up.

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