The Evolution of Customer Service

In chapter two of Secrets of Social Media Marketing, Paul Gillin suggests for businesses to “Have a Conversation”. I thought this was a very interesting topic because the thought of customer service becoming digital is such a new idea. Everyone knows customer service has been revolutionized since the dawn of the Internet and social media.

People love to complain. The book mentions that calling customer complaint lines is a thing of the past and people have made their complaints digital.  The Internet now makes doing that so much more convenient for consumers to do. Consumers now have multiple outlets to display their unhappiness with services and products.  Some examples of these outlets from the reading include personal blogs, social networks, and sites like Consumerist.com. The book says that editors at the Consumerist are required to do little fact checking. How the site works is they expect their readers to see if the facts are right and then correct them if they are not. The site operates like a free market; it will correct it-self. Social media is the new customer service hotline.

 The book states that customer service is your weakest link.  I would say that I agree with this statement, or that it can be. I think some companies realize that what can separate them from other companies is having excellent customer service. Customer service is something that turns your customers into your repeat customers. This section of the book talks a lot about acknowledging mistakes with social media when they do happen. How you handle mistakes can make or break you. The example we discussed in class about the airline breaking the guitars a perfect example. The company fell short on their customer service and got a lot of bad social media publicity from it.

I think overall when businesses choose to put in the time to interact with consumers via social media it is well worth their time.  Companies now have a much higher incentive to listen to what consumers are saying about their products because consumers are no longer willing to be ignored. For the first time in the history of marketing the conversation between consumer and seller is two ways. I think the new interaction is great. If sellers are made aware of what improvements can be made to their products, it will improve increase the demand for the product because it will be tailored to the customers specific needs.

What do you all think? Are social media conversations with companies beneficial to both the consumer and the seller?

Linkendin

I read a great article on msn about the do's and don't's of connecting with a future employer on LinkedIn. Here is a link to the article.

http://msn.careerbuilder.com/Article/MSN-2689-Job-Search-How-to-connect-with-an-employer-via-LinkedIn/

       The article talked about getting the most out of using LinkedIn, and how to use it to your advantage in the job market. I feel like LinkedIn is the professional version of Facebook. Facebook helps in so many areas of our lives now, we should LinkedIn to help us as well, not hurt us. 

      The article outlined some helpful tips for using LinkedIn. I think the best two tips they gave, and their top two were to 1. Don't be shy 2. Don't be needy. 

      I think the point of don't be shy is very important, because if you are on LinkedIn and do not take advantage of your connections than being on the site is pointless. Use your connections to your advantage; don’t be afraid to ask for a favor, or to network yourself into a company you are interested in. There is also something to be said about not being needy. People do not want to feel responsible for you getting hired or not, especially if you do not know the person very well, or if you recently met them, so not being too pushy is important too.

      I also liked that the article talked about looking for the hiring manager. This seems like it could be very beneficial. Knowing someone’s email to be able to contact him or her directly can give you a competitive advantage. The article says that it is ok to contact the hiring manager directly. This could be a great for writing a cover letter because you will be able to addresses the letter to someone, and not use generic terms for addressing them, which could make you come off as unprepared or not professional. Especially in today’s economy it is so important to make yourself stand out from the competition, and getting in good with a hiring manager via LinkedIn could be your ticket in the door.

      Personally I think LinkedIn is a wonderful concept and is under utilized but hopefully is something that will become more used, since it is such a useful tool. After reading this article I feel more seasoned on the proper ways to use LinkedIn and how to hopefully make no mistakes when job searching on the site. I have had a LinkedIn account since this summer but only recently polished it so I would feel comfortable with future employers browsing my page.  (Which I hope some are!)

      What do you all think? Have you ever used LinkedIn to contact an employer, search for a possible job, or to just check out a company? 

Facebook Firing

I read an article about social media on the Whas 11 website which is a news station in Louisville.I have posted a link to the article below.

http://www.whas11.com/home/12-examples-of-people-getting-fired-over-Facebook-101977118.html

      In the article it talked about 12 specific cases of people losing their jobs over content that they had posted on their personal Facebook pages that the wrong person viewed or their message was deemed inappropriate.

     The terminations were from a wide range of careers, everyone from teachers, firefighters, and a cheerleader have all had problems with abusing social media. The reasons for getting fired also had a wide range, one example got fired for just saying her job was “boring”, while others were more extreme examples like a teacher trying to be funny asking if anyone knew of discrete hit man.

The article stated that in 2009 in an Internet security firm named Proofpoint assessed that 8 percent of companies who have more than 1,000 employees have terminated an employee for social media mess ups. The company did the same poll in 2008 and the results was only 4 percent. This is a growing problem, and I would guess that in 2011 this percentage is much higher now. 

My opinion on all of this is that if you are posting something you would not want your employer to see on your Facebook page, or any social media site, it is something you probably should not be saying in the first place. No status update is worth losing your job or jeopardizing your career.

What do you all think? Is it violating your freedom of speech to not be able to post whatever you want on your Facebook, or has it turned into basically another resume for free game to be judged by employers?