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Social Media and Customer Service How The Disconnect Continues

Guest post by: Leanne Hoagland-Smith

Article Overview: Social media and customer service for many businesses have become integrated partners. Yet there is still a disconnect for many small businesses to even those crazy busy sales people.

Social Media and Customer Service How The Disconnect Continues

Social media sites and customer service are being monitored by retail businesses. Customer complaints to comments are being monitored according to a report released by Forrester. One of the interesting customer service facts was the continued disconnect between customer support and actual customer strategy. In other words, there is a belief that meeting customers’ needs is very important, but the actual execution of that belief continues to face critical challenges. To meet this challenge, about 1 out of 4 retailers will be offering interactive chat (think Word Press 2.0). Social media sites will take an even greater presence in these marketing action plans. What this means for any business is understanding the impact of the Internet and how your site must truly be user friendly as well as found on the web. When your website turns people off after you send them there, you are only widening that gaps between brand marketing, execution and customer loyalty. Unfortunately, many small business owners have ineffective web sites in spite of paying hundreds to thousands of dollars for search engine friendly sites. Today it is critical for small business owners to sales professionals to understand some Internet basics specific to search engine optimization (SEO) as well as how to write better marketing copy before they make the jump into social media as they expand their branding further and further into cyberspace. Then within the customer loyalty plan, specific goals will probably need to be written as to how to monitor what is being said about your business on the web through social media and other interactive web sites. Today being ahead of the flow is necessary especially if you wish to not only increase sales for this year, but to thrive in the years to come.

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Article Tags: customer service, increase sales, integrated partners, small business owners, social media



Related Forum Posts
Re: Kevin needs "social glue" ideas - Hi, I like the idea of "10 items that could act as "social glue" because I am an internet marketer. But I agree with the rest that the 10 recent post is nice. Maybe we should open up a new section in the forums on Social Media...or Social Media Marketing. I will tell you that the world is about 1 1/2 behind when it comes to understanding social media. Building a section now will put EvanCarmichael.com is a great position a year down the road when people realize Social Media can produce more traffic than SEO. Jeff
Re: Kevin needs "social glue" ideas - [quote="WebBizIdeas.com":gvtxsu7g]Hi, I like the idea of "10 items that could act as "social glue" because I am an internet marketer. But I agree with the rest that the 10 recent post is nice. Maybe we should open up a new section in the forums on Social Media...or Social Media Marketing. I will tell you that the world is about 1 1/2 behind when it comes to understanding social media. Building a section now will put EvanCarmichael.com is a great position a year down the road when people realize Social Media can produce more traffic than SEO. Jeff[/quote:gvtxsu7g] Hi Jeff, Thanks for the suggestion. Why don't you start a new post (with a poll) to see if there's enough interest in your idea for a social media section?
Re: UPDATES: New Campaign! New Layout! New Ideas! - GT - thanks for the FYI - I'm not sure if we'll put a link back. Something to consider though! Trent - the new category is "Social Network and Media" which was put in to compliment the Online Businesses category that currently exists. Overall the new categories are: - Looking For, Networking and Events - Review My... - Social Network and Media - Brags and Rants These came as a result of Ringo doing research on other forums and thinking about what could be improved on ours to give a better experience for everyone. I hope you enjoy them! David, I'm looking forward to reading your Brag / Rant!
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Re: Social Media Marketing Ignorance - [quote="vbn411":7qciluxl]Social Media is space that you have to be in to succeed in our current climate. People are going to be discussing your brand / product whether you like it or not, so you might as well join the conversation and add value. [/quote:7qciluxl] I think that's probably one of the most realistic way to think about it. There's no real textbook way of understanding Social Media, it's the networks of people and their interactions that will exist with or without your input. As for Jennifer, You can always have 2 Facebook pages. Many people do. There is also LinkedIn, which is like a professional networking version of Facebook. The only way to know is to try it.


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