Sunday, September 30, 2012

Why Social Media Makes Customer Service Better

This post originally appeared on the American Express OPEN Forum, where Mashable regularly contributes articles about leveraging social media and technology in small business.

By the end of the year, 80% of companies plan to use social media for customer service. On the consumer side, 62% of customers have already used social media for customer service issues. Gartner predicts one billion users will be on social networks by the end of 2012.

The social landscape is evolving, but one thing remains certain in all this uncertainty. Your ability to serve your customers, in the channels they wish to be served in, is critical to your business success. But social media customer service isn?t a cute tool to be used by opportunistic marketing departments to big up the brand; it is an essential method of communication that needs to become part of a clearly defined organizational model.

It Affects Current and Potential Customers

The post-sales experience brings both acquisition and retention power. It is critical to keep current customers happy and show potential customers how well you do business. Social media gives your business a channel to achieve all of the above.

Any strategy for the implementation and integration of social media customer service must be future-proof, responsive and enhance the business as a whole. The social customer service model needs to be as organic and flexible as the medium that created it, while simultaneously delivering tangible results for the business through a stronger brand identity, better customer service and a long-term strategic plan.

But problems still exist. A study by A.T. Kearney found that, of the top 50 brands, 56% did not respond to a single customer comment on their Facebook Page in 2011. Brands ignored 71% of customer?s complaints on Twitter. And, 55% of consumers expect a response the same day to an online complaint, while only 29% receive one. Your customer service strategy must include social media and be part of your long-term business plan to maintain competitive advantage.

It Addresses Existing Customer Service Needs

Debbie Curtis-Magley, public relations manager at UPS and Viktor van der Wijk, director of a-acquisition at KLM deliver two standout presentations on how you can better leverage social media for customer service. The presentations look at how you can boost customer retention and aid acquisition, show how to better serve your customers through social media and deliver the business case to get your social media customer service program into full effect.

Based on these presentations, here are three tips for brands to better use social media as customer service tool.

  • 1. Integrate social media into your existing customer service function. Gone are the days when social media sat on their own at the table, you now have allow social to influence all business functions to become a more responsive customer-centric business.
  • 2. Create humanized response models to engender loyalty and build relationships. Many companies are guilty of creating robust and well-planned strategy for social customer service delivery -? but fall at the final and most important hurdle ? creating a voice your audience can relate to.
  • 3. Monitor social interaction to spot issues and solve problems before they become crises. Social customer service delivery involves dealing with criticism and complaints in public, often in front of an audience of millions. If you?re going to prevent a small problem growing into something worse, you need to have a detailed understanding of what you need to respond to, a path to response, and escalation policies for resolution.
More Small Business Resources From OPEN Forum

- How to Use Hashtags to Promote Your Small Business
- 10 Things You Didn?t Know About Yelp
- How to Master Social Media Like a Famous Comedian

Image courtesy of iStockphoto, talymel

Source: http://mashable.com/2012/09/29/social-media-better-customer-service/

Heptathlon London 2012 shot put London 2012 Track And Field Jordyn Wieber michael phelps Kerri Strug Ledecky

Posted by at No comments:

Georgian grape pickers show government's challenge

SAGAREJO, Georgia (AP) ? The green grapes that Temuri Dolenjashvili and his wife snipped from the vines Sunday and emptied by the bucket into the back of their truck provide the only income for their extended family of five.

The harvest also gave a welcome day's work to an unemployed father and an elderly neighbor whose $75 monthly pension has to help feed her unemployed son, his wife and their sickly child.

Poverty and a lack of jobs are what worry Georgians most going into a tight parliamentary election on Monday that will decide the future of the pro-Western government of President Mikhail Saakashvili. For the grape pickers and others like them struggling to make ends meet on rich agricultural land and unable to sell their produce to Russia, the election offers some sense of hope.

Since coming to power nearly nine years ago, Saakashvili has transformed this former Soviet republic and put it on a path toward what Georgians hope will be eventual membership in the European Union and NATO.

The capital, Tbilisi, its streets once dark and dangerous, now shines. The stately historic facades along its main avenues have been restored to their former glory and the parks landscaped and lit.

Futuristic glass buildings have risen to house the Interior Ministry and Justice Ministry, their see-through walls intended to symbolize transparency. Among Saakashvili's greatest successes have been his creation of a modern police force and the eradication of everyday corruption.

His ambitious reforms and an inflow of Western investment have produced impressive economic growth and raised hopes among Georgians for a better life. Poverty and unemployment, however, have remained painfully high, especially in the countryside.

The official jobless rate is 16 percent, but this does not include those who sell vegetables they grow in their gardens by the side of the road or homemade wine in re-used plastic bottles.

Georgia has traditionally exported its vegetables, fruit, wine and mineral water to Russia, but this market has been closed since the two neighboring countries fought a brief war in 2008.

Just west of the Georgian capital, in the wine-producing region of Kakheti, the gleaming new buildings give way to small vineyards and fields of grazing sheep watched over by old men carrying wooden staffs. On rough gravel roads, horses pull carts piled high with stalks of dry corn.

Dolenjashvili and his wife had come from their home in the nearby town of Sagarejo to pick the last of the grapes in a vineyard that has been in his family for generations. This year they expected a total harvest of just under a ton, about half the amount of previous years because of two hail storms that had ripped up the vines.

They and the two others they had brought along to help with the harvest worked their way down the rows under a bright southern sun, cutting off bunches of grapes and dropping them into metal buckets.

All four said they planned to vote in Monday's election, but none would say whether they would support Saakashvili's party or an opposition coalition headed by billionaire businessman Bidzina Ivanishvili.

"I will vote for the one who will make our lives better and resolve the problem of no jobs," said the 53-year-old Dolenjashvili, whose nose and cheeks were a deep red from the sun.

One of his helpers was 54-year-old Givi Khirdaladze, who said that while he could make some money in the summer in the vineyards, he was unable to find any work in the winter. He lives with his wife and their 10-year-old daughter in state-owned barracks, unable to afford a home of their own.

Nadia Chiaberashvili, 70, wiped tears from her eyes as she described how she lives with her unemployed son and his family in a house with earthen floors and no heat or running water. She shook her head when asked how she planned to vote.

"She's afraid to say anything, afraid they will take away what little she has," Dolenjashvili's wife, Eka Sarukhanashvili, explained. In addition to her monthly pension of $75, Chiaberashvili's family receives about $62 in welfare benefits.

Many in Georgia have been hesitant to state which party they support, with polls showing a large percentage of voters declaring themselves undecided. Some express fears of repercussions, primarily from Saakashvili's United National Movement, which has come to dominate all branches of government.

Facing the first credible challenge to his rule, Saakashvili is under pressure from the United States and the European Union to prove his commitment to democracy by holding a free and fair election.

This election has added significance because it ushers in a new political system that will give greater powers to the parliament and prime minister. After Saakashvili's second and last term ends next year, the party that has a majority in parliament will have the right to name the prime minister, who will acquire many of the powers now held by the president.

Both the governing party and the opposition coalition Georgian Dream have reached out to rural voters by promising to pump money into agriculture, a sector long starved of investment. Ivanishvili, the opposition leader, who made his fortune in Russia, also has said he would work to restore relations with Moscow with the aim of opening up Russian markets to Georgian produce and wine.

For those who depend on their vineyards, these promises hold out hope.

After a morning of picking grapes under a hot sun, Sarukhanashvili set out lunch for the four of them in the shade of a tree. On an overturned crate, she placed cheese she had made from milk from their cow, pickled peppers from their garden, half of a chicken that they had raised, bread baked in a stone oven and a plastic bottle of their wine.

Once everyone was seated, she raised her glass and made a toast.

"I wish that after the election that everything will be better, that everyone will live better in a united Georgia," she said. "I wish that markets will open for our wine and that we will have such good harvests that I will be able to pay for my son's education."

___

Misha Dzhindzhikhashvili contributed reporting.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/georgian-grape-pickers-show-governments-challenge-172151055.html

city of ember virgin diaries kevin smith kevin smith carlos mencia packers stock sale packers stock sale

Posted by at No comments:

officialspin: U.S. to ship 50,000 vehicles, 23,000 troops from Afghanistan, reports http://t.co/0TrJpz8M: San Francisco, C... http://t.co/xATTY2GX