LinkedIn Fatigue? VW Doesn't Think So

THE SITUATION: There’s been some discussion recently that a broad and expanding "social media fatigue" has set in, ( for example, click here) ... and that even users of established sites like LinkedIn are in danger of burning out and disengaging from marketing messages appearing in these media. THE CASE STUDY: Volkswagen proved in an innovative user-referral campaign that LinkedIn remains a viable and important tool for marketers. The campaign's success suggests that recent news reports of a decline in interest in social media channels like LinkedIn may actually reflect boredom with irrelevant, untargeted content -- a long-standing problem consumers have had with "spray and pray" marketing messages delivered in many different media. Too many companies try to "sell" on LinkedIn, and forget the necessity of providing a sponsored platform for expressing feelings and opinions within a specific targeted audience, as Volkswagen's "company page" has done for upscale Indian professionals. When the content is relevant and connected directly and credibly to a customer's personal experience and network of acquaintances, the bottom-line results can be stellar. Volkswagen's results bear this out: * Over 2500 recommendations of VW autos were generated by the trusted peers of specific users, using LinkedIn's well designed, easy-to-navigate "company page" feature in combination with paid Recommendation Ads. Read more about LinkedIn's "company pages" in this LinkedIn page, and in this overview from B2B Voices ... and find out how Recommendation Ads work in this equally intriguing LinkedIn case study. * VW's recommendation total represents an increase of over 500% compared to the target number the company was hoping to generate. * The recommendations were generated in a very brief timeframe -- less than 30 days. FOUR CRITICAL MARKETING TAKEAWAYS: Marketing Takeaway #1: LinkedIn's potential for marketers remains robust ... as long as we make sure our messaging remains relevant to the experiences, opinions, and relationships of individual users. Marketing Takeaway #2: Target your audience carefully. If you're trying to sell low-end consumer home maintenance products as impulse purchases, LinkedIn's upscale audience of aspiring, skeptical professionals isn't the right audience. Marketing Takeaway #3: Remember that old-fashioned "spray and pray" campaigns will only bore and alienate users -- not just in LinkedIn, but everywhere else as well. Marketing Takeaway #4: Consider incorporating LinkedIn's "company page" feature and Recommendation Ads into your social media plan. These tools give your customers the opportunity to follow your company and create personal recommendations for specific products and services.

5 Best Practices to Improve Customer Service

Your whole enterprise depends on them ... but if your front-line service people feel like they're on the low end of the totem pole, your customers are going to feel that way, too. It is never too late to change that dynamic! I believe that great customer service is the responsibility of every team and department within the organization, every working day. With that in mind, I would like to share five best practices based on working with world class customer service teams at companies like QVC, Hewlett-Packard, Cross Country Home Services, and Life Line Screening, among others. Best Practice #1: Celebrate the Victories. Remember to highlight what your top service performers do well. If it's been a while since your customer-facing team members were credited for doing something right, change that! Best Practice #2: Give Front-Line Service People More Authority and Respect Within Your Organization. For instance, you might provide people the autonomy to spend up to a certain dollar amount to resolve customer problems ... and then turn those employees who spend those corporate dollars effectively into internal role models for the rest of your organization. Best Practice #3: Re-examine Your Compensation Plan. If the pay your customer service personnel receive is not commensurate with what your company says about its belief in good customer service ... then you won't attract top notch people who can deliver on that promise! Best Practice #4: Create an Effective "Soft Skills" Training Plan. Too often, customer service people know all about the technical and product/service feature issues, but have not received thorough and on-going training on people skills and effective customer engagement. Make sure they get that training!

Customer Service Wow!: Last Saturday, my wife and I dined at the top rated restaurant, Le Bernardin. She enjoyed a wonderful crab meat appetizer, and unbeknownst to me, had found a very small piece of crab shell, which she left on the plate. A few minutes after the plates were cleared, the senior waiter came over and offered the Chef's sincere apologies for the piece of crab shell. We were surprised, since my wife had made no complaint. We asked how the Chef knew about this. Apparently, the bus boy had noticed the (little) piece of white shell (on the white plate) and told the senior waiter, who told the Chef, who immediately sent his apologies. Think about the level of training that caused the bus boy to notice the small piece of crab shell and initiate this escalation...without the customer even complaining. This was a Saturday night, every table was booked, and we received the Chef's apology within minutes! How can you achieve this level of real time, proactive customer service in your organization?

Best Practice #5: Do a Skill Set Assessment. Take a closer look at the people you're putting on the customer service phone or face to face on the front lines. If some of those people are simply not cut out for the empathetic, "people-first", task of hearing customers out, making them feel heard, and cheerfully solving their problems, you need to reassign them to other departments. This will lift the morale, and strengthen the customer focus, of everyone who remains. THE MARKETING TAKEAWAYS: Implement these 5 best practices. Measure results. You should see a significant increase in: results, customer satisfaction and employee satisfaction.

Netflix: 3 Marketing Takeaways We Can Apply

It is hard to say whether, during its short lifespan, Netflix's recently abandoned Qwikster spinoff was more loathed or ridiculed among customers. The reversal of plans to split the company in two (following a similarly unpopular price hike), resulted in Netflix's second global PR meltdown in less than a month. Yet I see, in the decision to abandon Qwikster, three "silver lining" signs that the company is hopefully getting back on the right track. Silver Lining #1: Netflix is listening to the customer. Qwikster would have required millions of customers who wanted both streaming and video access to maintain two separate accounts and field two sets of bills. The (belated) recognition that this would cause major inconvenience to customers suggests that management listened, finally, to the growing chorus of discontent and made the right decision. Silver Lining #2: Those customers angry enough to leave due to the controversial price hike have already left. The company can now focus on keeping its remaining 20 million-plus customers happy. It is better positioned to do that, I believe, than much of the coverage of the current furor has suggested. Netflix still offers a great on-line viewing experience and a huge array of DVD choices. Silver Lining #3: "Core" customers appear to have finally stopped shouting. Significant portions of the Netflix user base either never took part in the on-line complaint frenzy, or have settled back into a less-furious routine with the company. As one user wrote on the Netflix blog, "Finally, someone at Netflix listened to reason and to the customers. I was telling my mom yesterday that I was going to cancel after a 6-year relationship. Now it looks like I will be staying, at least for now." The Netflix 3rd quarter earnings report is due on October 24. It will be interesting to hear the latest trends. Three marketing takeaways from this extraordinary story. Marketing Takeway #1: Maintain open channels for customer feedback. Netflix has definitely done this with its blog, and deserves recognition for that. Marketing Takeway #2: When you drop the ball (and Qwikster was a major dropped ball), admit it. Netflix not only did this, it changed course quickly based on the Voice of the Customer feedback it received. Marketing Takeway #3: Don't mistake the (loud) minority for the Voice of the Customer. Yes, there has been a good deal of shouting on-line, and there will be more. Sometimes, though, shouting is background noise.