Insights and Ingenuity

Shut Up When I’m Talking To You!

Now those companies wouldn’t create marketing campaigns full of print ads, radio spots, direct mail, and online banners announcing their “La la la la, I can’t hear you, la la la la” position on social feedback, would they? Of course not. But if they didin’t, what do you want to bet their customers automatically assume some level of online listening, if only from the proliferation of corporate Web sites bearing “Follow us on Twitter!” badges, not to mention the astro-adoption rates and case studies documenting customer service satisfaction and general sentiment ratings skyrocket?

They wouldn’t formulate an official release statement stipulating that customers and prospects, even trade media and potential investors must phone toll-free 888-888-8888 between the hours of 8am-4:30pm CST Mon-Thur if they have hopes of being heard. Would they?

Tell us on our terms, or don’t tell us at all.  Huh?

That would seem a little stiff, a little rigid. It would put a lot of onus on the customer (et al) to initiate a connection under specific use terms dictated by the corporate giant. It certainly wouldn’t acknowledge the on-the-go consumer lifestyle, ‘always on’ connectivity, or the technology tools available widespread today.

And it dang sure wouldn’t send the message “We really care how you feel about our company and your purchase of our product. We know you had choices.”

And yet the newly released Social Media Survey conducted by PR Week and MS&L indicate that “Most marketers fail to use social media feedback to improve products or marketing efforts, even though monitoring customer attitudes and gaining business intelligence are the top two business uses of social media.”

Come Again?

Yep, you heard me.

• The communications channel exists.
• Er, lots of end-user customers use it. Prolificly.
• Companies know it.
• Customers are saying stuff (good, bad, and ugly) online.
• But many companies aren’t doing anything about it.

“Let Them Call Toll-Free!” (no cake)

The study reports almost 70% of marketers say they have never made a change to their products or marketing campaigns based on consumer feedback from social media sites.

In addition, 43% said lack of knowledge and expertise [Seriously? Do these folks not read? I have some Delicious tags I can share to help with that...] prevents them from using social media in their marketing programs. 39% said they are not convinced of its value or ROI.

The online survey polled 271 CMO’s, VP’s, and directors of marketing in the US during June 2009. Did I mention *online* survey? Can you say irony?

C’mon In, The Water’s Fine.

Yes, it takes resources, time, company-wide commitment, operations structure, ad nauseum to properly establish and maintain online customer support channels like the opportunity afforded by Twitter, for example (if adopted for that purpose) or online forums. I’m not making light of what could amount to an organizational shift, impacting several departments and certainly requiring new communications protocols be established. That’s big stuff, for sure.

But holy smokes, isn’t the risk far greater if you ignore the medium – and the messages (because they ARE happening) all together?

This entry was posted on Monday, October 19th, 2009 at 10:00 am and is filed under Customer Relationships, Social Media. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.