Email Marketing & Social Media Are Ruining Customer Service
photo courtesy of www.storybroads.com
Imagine a retail store that asks for the customer’s name as soon as the person walks in the front door. Every ten minutes, in nearly clockwork fashion, the sales agent (using the person’s name) tells the customer about some great sale item in the store. The customer listens politely, but isn’t annoyed at first. When the customer has a question, however, the clerk doesn’t respond. She continues on the regularly scheduled message about some great aspect of the store. This DOES irritate the customer, especially when it becomes apparent that the clerk interacts with other customers….but only AFTER they’ve made a purchase!
What would you say about this store?
- It has LOUSY customer service
- It probably won’t be in business for long
Yet email marketing and social media have caused many businesses to operate exactly this way online.
Email marketing and social media have made businesses lazy, unresponsive and inconsiderate to their customers. Having the convenience of collecting customer information and sending out preplanned messages automatically, doesn’t mean that customers (and potential customers) should ever be neglected.
In the early days of your company’s life, ANY response to an email, blog post, Tweet or Facebook update was welcome. These precious few folk were always acknowledged. But after the brand became popular, it somehow became acceptable to neglect all but the most important of respondents – perhaps the frequent responders and definitely, the paying customers.
This should not be.
But you may be asking, what about Pareto’s Law? Shouldn’t I focus my attention on the 20% who are providing 80% of my revenue? Sure.
But if you neglect the 80% that’s providing the remaining 20% of your revenue, you can kiss that revenue goodbye!
Am I saying that you should respond to every “Atta Boy” and “You Go, Girl!”? Yes, I am.
Am I saying acknowledge responses to your blog posts? Yes, I am.
Am I saying respond to every individual email? Yes, I am. If your brand is so popular that you can’t do it personally, you need to dedicate a staff member to do it!
These are your customers – or they COULD be your customers. Otherwise they probably wouldn’t have joined your list, followed you or “liked” your page. So respond to them, provide great customer service to them….or you’ll probably lose them!
Until next time…Go Boldly!™
Dino Herbert “Passionate about helping people reach their entrepreneurial potential”
Author of “Find Your Own Path to Success” and the forthcoming,
“Business Jump School: 15 Drills You Must Master Before Starting Any Business”
www.BusinessJumpSchool.com/book
www.dinoherbert.com