{"id":2713,"date":"2011-03-06T02:14:23","date_gmt":"2011-03-06T02:14:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/?p=2713"},"modified":"2011-03-06T02:14:23","modified_gmt":"2011-03-06T02:14:23","slug":"be-the-change-your-customers-want-you-to-be","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/2011\/03\/be-the-change-your-customers-want-you-to-be\/","title":{"rendered":"Be the Change Your Customers Want You to Be!"},"content":{"rendered":"

In today’s fast-paced, ever changing environment, most brands rank poorly when it comes to customer service<\/a>. We might argue that it\u2019s to be expected, since change is now more constant than ever… but the hard truth is that if we don\u2019t excel in customer service, our brands will become just another nameless part of the noise out there.<\/p>\n

Customers are no longer willing to wait around for us to get our act together, and even if they were willing, we can no longer afford extended timelines for change.<\/strong> Let\u2019s put it into perspective \u2013 what if I told you not to expect to even be doing the same thing in 2 years that you are doing today? <\/em><\/p>\n

Suddenly you can see that it is to our advantage to operate within the customers super-turbo-fast timeline now<\/em>.\u00a0 But how to do that and still provide excellent customer service??\u00a0 Those two goals are not as diametrically opposed as they might first seem.<\/p>\n

Customer service is not just making sure returns are processed correctly, or customer frustrations are smoothed over.\u00a0 In this new social media era, customer service now carries the expectation of continually proving to your customers that you VALUE them in all stages of the sales cycle…<\/strong> from product conception to developing and honing brand personality and promises, to sale, to after-sale satisfaction, to the resulting repeat sales.\u00a0 All to start over again in the change cycle with a re-evaluation of the product and possible reconcepting.<\/p>\n

The key is to involve your customers in meaningful ways through all aspects of the sales cycle.<\/strong> Online communities are one of the best ways to do this.\u00a0 Those communities set up an environment of trust among the brand, marketers, and community members, and provide the technical features required to allow the conversations to stay in the foreground and the technology in the background.<\/p>\n

Ask your customers what they want from your brand, your products and services.\u00a0 Ask your customers how you\u2019re doing, and what they want to see changed.\u00a0 Ask your customers to rate their satisfaction AND to tell you stories about their experience with your brand, products and services.<\/p>\n

Then go do something about it.\u00a0 Make the changes.\u00a0 Step into the future as soon as your customers tell you what it looks like!<\/p>\n

Seek out and embrace change \u2013 look to the future through your customers\u2019 eyes and you just might get there before everyone else! <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Ted Rubin<\/p>\n

Ted Rubin<\/a> Ted has a deep online background beginning in 1997 with Seth Godin, as CMO of e.l.f. Cosmetics, & recently as Chief Social Marketing Officer, Open Sky. Originally posted at SheSpeaks<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In today’s fast-paced, ever changing environment, most brands rank poorly when it comes to customer service. We might argue that it\u2019s to be expected, since change is now more constant than ever… but the hard truth is that if we don\u2019t excel in customer service, our brands will become just another nameless part of the … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[137,7],"tags":[33,1113,548,32,1027,958,30,1029,3],"class_list":["post-2713","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-all-posts","category-tedrubin","tag-change","tag-future-of-social-media","tag-innovation","tag-marketing","tag-online-communities","tag-shespeaks","tag-social-media","tag-social-media-marketing","tag-ted-rubin"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2713","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2713"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2713\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2717,"href":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2713\/revisions\/2717"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2713"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2713"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2713"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}