Customer Feedback Is Here To Stay

So as many of you know or should know, one of my previous roles was as CMO for SuggestionBox.com and in that role I was able to watch a market start to form around customers. These select group of companies like Starbucks, Dell, Zappos, Comcast and a few others were paving a path for others on how to leverage customer feedback in the areas of customer service, conversational marketing and innovation. Now if you look at blogs like Customers Rock or Experience Matters; you'd think ... "Why isn't everyone adopting these best practices?" or "How can I capture customer feedback and improve my customer relationships?" I'd say the answer is as simple as installing some type of customer feedback widget (there are tons) and then responding to every single one, but you have other things to do like run your business, pay invoices, interview employees, attend events, etc. For the purpose of efficiency, I want to make a recommendation to take 15-20 minutes out of your day and explore what Uservoice is doing in this space. Their recent funding news in WSJ shows that they are on the right track and will be around for awhile.

Conversations Around The Web

Today I'm taking the time to point out some insightful blog posts that are focused around conversations, positive change in the world and action.

• Scott Monty of Crayon leaving focus on one color, Blue.



• Read the Crayon Manifesto if you call yourself a Social Media Expert ... really? I think there are visionaries, strategists, but experts? Who knows it all?



• Follow Doc Searls if you've heard of "Markets are conversations" and the Cluetrain Manifesto.



• If you're interested on some current news around Social Media Marketing read this and gain some insight into Samsung's newest campaign.



• If you're just getting into this thing called Conversational Marketing, read Kelly's blog post about using Conversational Marketing to market yourself and read the comments about some marketers' own manifestos.

I try to update my blog as much as I can, but am currently splitting my time between my Twitter account, Gooruze account, Flickr page, new CMO role with SuggestionBox and being a devoted husband :)

Why a $3.50 Nonfat White Mocha with Whip Makes My Morning

Most of us are creatures of habit. We wake up to the automated aroma of our Costa Rican breakfast roast, the feeling of the our dog's slober upon our brow or my soon to be wake-up call from the nursery. These are things that define our mornings; let's call this series of events micro-actions. Why micro? If you bundled up the things that you did prior to leaving the house; they are all planned and scheduled on a timeline that is strung together in order to get you to where you need to go each morning. So your major actions are:

1. Leaving the house
2. Getting to work
3. Compiling that marketing report
4. Eating your lunch
5. Finishing the meeting
6. Getting home
7. Going to bed

Not to sound so mundane, but these tend to be the most common major actions within a day. Between each of these are many micro-actions. Make sense? Please let me know if this sounds crazy, but I'm going out on a theoretical limb, where most marketers shudder to think.

If each of these micro-actions leads us to some milestone action, how can you associate this to marketing and a $3.50 Nonfat White Mocha with Whip? Here's how. Every morning I perform the following string of activities between "Leaving The House" and "Getting To Work":

1. Place my things strategically so they don't slide around the car.
2. Tune my radio to my favorite radio station
3. Take the same route
4. Stop at the Solana Beach Coffee Company for my Nonfat White Mocha with Whip.
5. I'm a regular, they know what I want. (There's an expectation and maybe because I'm in the Gen Y demographic, a Digerati, etc. or maybe not)

This interaction each morning with this business is a crucial micro-action between a series of major actions that create the timeline for the rest of my day. If that is thrown off at all, it could create some chaos in the predictable nature of my morning. Something would need to take the place of that micro-action. Solution ...

This morning I stop, walk in and I'm told that their espresso machines are getting maintenance and they didn't send them out in time and the holiday threw everything off. This micro-action is about to be replaced ... They then apologize and present me with a "Free Mocha" card :) Now you can guarantee they understand the value of my loyalty and meeting my expectations. What they don't quite see right off the bat is the "micro-action marketing" they are performing by giving me the free mocha card. You could call this blog post Word of Mouth marketing, Conversational Marketing, but in the scheme of my whole day, they kept my timeline in tack and in fact exceeded my expectations as a small business.

So is micro-action marketing something of value? Yes and no. Yes, be aware of how customers currently experience your product, service, event or location. Plan ahead for their expectations and you've achieved successful micro-action marketing that ignites word of mouth marketing and the feedback loop that most businesses are currently trying to be a part of.

Thanks Solana Beach Coffee Company for my free mocha ;)

Late Night Links For The Owls

So it's 11pm PST and I'm not usually on Twitter and other sites, but they are churning tonight and I wanted to share some of the things that conversations are being created around:

1. Ultimate Social Media Resources List - great list Jordan


2. Google allows trademark bidding in the UK - thanks Gooruze news item


3. Could PayPerTweet be a viable business model? - source: Gooruze.com


4. Techcrunch50 vs. DEMO - Who will survive?


5. Survey Industry Doomed! - $27B in Survey Industry and 30% of surveys are bogus


6. Link Building Fundamentals - great starter list, filter through the stuff you can skip


7. San Diego Web Standards Group Launches


8. Twubble - Do you know who you should be following on Twitter?

5 Classic Ways Companies Should Communicate With Their Customers

A company's success hinges on how it communicates, both internally and externally. Too much emphasis on interpersonal relationships can have a dire effect on outside interaction. Obviously, such a breakdown in communication between the company and its customers will greatly impact customer satisfaction and overall sales.

Businesses that regularly speak with their customers, whether it's directly or indirectly, will flourish. The advent of the Internet has obviously changed customer interaction for the better. However, one mustn't overlook some classic ways to touch base with customers, as some of them have certainly stood the test of time.

Below are the top five ways a company should communicate with their customers:

1. Telephone – No, I'm not referring to cold calls during dinnertime. I'm speaking of old-fashioned, remote customer service. When a customer has a question or concern, they will often want to personally connect with the company (and rightfully so). Whether this results in an inbound call from the customer or a friendly follow-up from the company, this keeps customer dissatisfaction to a minimum when executed properly.
2. Live Chat – Many people are glued to their computers these days, preferring digital communication to personal phone calls. A live chat option with a customer service representative is both practical and welcome in today's society, particularly if a company receives many inbound calls. No one likes to hang around "on hold," after all.
3. Newsletters – Newsletters are an excellent ways to keep customers abreast of new developments and, obviously, new products/services. Print newsletters aren't as common as they used to be, but they are still quite effective for small businesses. The electronic newsletter, however, is flourishing right now and helping many businesses to improve their customer relations. However, companies should make any kind of newsletter an opt-in service, lest it be viewed as "spam."
4. Company Blog – One of the newest successes in the realm of customer communication is the company blog. Often written by higher-ups within the company, it can make even the biggest corporations feel as if it's one with the people. Like a newsletter, it serves as a news service. However, it also encourages highly valuable customer feedback in the form of comments.
5. Customer Surveys – How will a company know what its customers want if it doesn't ask? Customers should be surveyed on a regular basis. However, companies should make this feel like a painless process for the public. Offering prizes to random participants is one of the most effective ways to garner a widespread partaking in a survey.


Companies should never stop experimenting with new technology, such as social networking sites and applications. However, the communication methods above are tried and true ways to keep communication flowing between a company and the widest audience possible. Perhaps older methods like the telephone really will become obsolete one day, but some of them are still quite effective.

By-line:
Heather Johnson is a freelance business, finance and economics writer, as well as a regular contributor at Business Credit Cards, a site for business credit card and best business credit card offers. Heather welcomes comments and freelancing job inquiries at her email address
heatherjohnson2323@gmail.com.

Conversations Around Twitter

Wow, I think I've been abusing my subscribers on here lately by not posting anything new or of value. Well, that's about to change. I'm working through a sinus infection right now, on Day 5, hopefully it will be over soon. I wanted to post a few interesting tweets I noticed today that are very relevant to this blog's purpose and audience. If you care about conversational marketing then you'll enjoy these and I'd love to get your feedback on what you think or some other great quotes about this topic.

"Communities don't build themselves nor do they get built. There are always catalysts and champions, but no directors." MissRogue

"I hope Flickr never adds video, sometimes communities are just fine having only one cool object" Blueace

"I'm not into Second Life, but I hope people who live their online personnas in forums and communities will discover SL and move there." Randulo

"SmugMug's employees are simply nicer to people. So are Zooomr's. Which is why both have fanatical communities." Scobleizer

"Communities work like clubs and are closed to many outsiders" - I guess this is why they work at all" NewConversation

"Publics are the communities themselves, I like that idea. especially because it brings it back to value systems" Brunoamaral

These are posts from Twitter.com that I found via MissRogue's tweet and searched in Buzztter.com. These are the very expectations that we have as users and that companies need to be aware of when engaging us with their push marketing tactics. What all of these conversations reveal is that communities that are value-based and have a simple set of features will continue to grow with the help of super-connectors, passionate members who feel the need to spread the community to their own network. You can't control a community, forecast its growth, tell members to spread the word; it just happens. You just better be ready for it.

Customers Key To Survival During A Recession

I was on our flight down to Riviera Maya in Mexico to celebrate our 1 year anniversary and invite both families down to share in our joyous occasion, when I started thinking about everything I was reading about the upcoming recession and how the government was giving us back money only to have "us" being consumers go and buy unnecessary items. What it brought me to was this notion that with companies potentially limiting their spending or moreso being more cash-conscious, there were going to be areas that would still see significant growth from consumer spending and some areas that would be able to make use of their funds by leveraging those consumers and their insights. So here are my top 10 observations on how customers will lead you to the promise land during a recession:

1. Companies will downsize and outsource to create cost efficiency and at the same time lessen the control they have at certain customer touch points. Look for these companies to invest in ways to garner and respond to customer feedback.

2. Softening real estate creates opportunity for franchisees. Listen to your customers and bring your business closer to them in areas where dirt is cheap and getting access to former corporate managers gets easier with layoffs.

3. Companies, who can, will gain more market share and more customers.

4. Corporations will cut too quickly, require emergency outsourcing. Customer feedback is critical to this process, better have it in place.

5. Innovation will lead to product diversification, increasing the number of vendors you'll have to deal with also. Have a system in place to capture business critical data to ensure smooth transitions and that all those who need it are getting it. Look for an increase in Employee Feedback platforms.

6. SBA is trying to automate front end customer service. This will require employee ideas and suggestions.

7. Consumers cut spending, adopt better "green" products and initiatives. Players in this market will need ways to capture customer feedback to innovate on existing technologies and products.

8. Going Green = new processes, services & products = solution for capturing employee and customer feedback.

9. VC and Angel wells will start to dry in the tech industry. Getting to critical mass is one thing, but having a way of managing all those customers is another. Keep them happy and your word of mouth will spread; bring them discomfort and you'll have to pay to bring them back.

10. Entrepreneurs and Companies alike will look outside of their doors for new revenue streams in the form of partnership distribution channels. Gather the feedback on how it's going and take action.

As the election year 2008 moves on and we progress into this upcoming recession, look to your customers to help you shape and finetune your products, strategies and direction. At the end of the day they're the ones paying and keeping you in business.

500th Tweet!

So I hit my 500th tweet today on Twitter. Kind of a geeky milestone, but I've gotten a lot of using the tool as of yet. Here is my 500th tweet:

"The greater danger for most of us is not that our aim is too high and we miss it, but that it is too low and we reach it.” (Michaelangelo) - Thanks to my wife for the inspiration.

Some things I've gained from Twitter:

1. Access to great minds in the area of marketing, development, design and entrepreneurship.


2. Found a great cause recently and donated on behalf of the cause.


3. Received a Seesmic invite from Jeff Clavier (thanks Jeff!)


4. Broadcasted the Pea Fund and found on BBC Homepage


5. Hopefully introduced some people to HugMyMac initiative from team over at Carsonified


6. A great tool for promoting the new non-profit I joined, Eleho and their first project The Road, a film about freedom.


7. Great leeways and insight into many conversations permeating the web.

The Team Is Growing!

So we've expanded our team and are now looking for the best and brightest marketers in the San Diego/Los Angeles area. Online Marketing Manager description

We're also looking for a PR/Communications Manager. Contact me for details bj [at] positivedigitalsolutions.com

Dunkin Brands: Help Wanted - Conversational Marketing Visionary

In July 2006 I covered the Dunkin' Brands and Foghound search for a unified digital marketing strategy:

It used to be all about "Time to make the donuts", 31 flavors, and great sandwiches, but this week the Dunkin' Brands announced their search for an agency that could bring a unified digital front to their campaigns spanning breakfast, lunch and dessert.

This new "agency campaign" is headed up by the Foghound Corporation and Lois Kelly, best known for her book, Beyond Buzz: The Next Generation of Conversational Marketing. Kelly mentions the need for a leading agency with experience in big retail brands and the ability to handle strategy, creative work, and also back-end operations including e-commerce engines, analytics, and databases. So for all those shops that would love a little donut hole morsel, better get your thinking caps on and setup your own campaign to generate some buzz to grab the attention of Foghound and Dunkin' Brands.

In February 2007, they announced they had chosen Studiocom Interactive based on the following:

"Our experience in engaging younger consumers with brands online, and our ideas for positioning Dunkin' with its present and future customers was, in the end, the determining factor in their decision," noted Studiocom President, Carlos Pimenta.

So I decided to do some more research and check up on Carlos and Dunkin to see how they were doing. With an acquisition in 2005 by Bain Capital Partners and a plan to add 1,000 new Dunkin Donuts locations and 600 Baskin Robbins, I can see why they want to create better conversations with a younger audience. As the current generation graduates from college and goes onto their first career, makes their first investment or continues onto grad school; there is a need to be filled and that need is fresh, young entrepreneurs who want their own Dunkin brand franchise!

So how has the new agency been doing, let's look at how they are crafting their conversations online. Here is a video ad that is on Youtube. It doesn't look as if it was placed there by Dunkin or Studiocom, but it's kind of funny:



Next, they have launched a new website called My Iced Coffee that allows travelers to plan road trips and map its stores along the way in all 33 states where it has shops. Dunkin' partnered with online mapping company MapQuest to power the site, which also features trip-planning advice and instant-win games with prizes of $100 gas cards, JetBlue airline tickets, and global-positioning systems. Uhm ... yeah. I visited the site and there aren't any entries for Iced Coffee tales. The site is designed in Flash 9, which is slow on my home computer and they lost my attention after 35 seconds. Even better is when you do a search for "iced coffee" you don't get anything near Dunkin Donuts, but do you know who you do get???
Onto Facebook. I found a profile for Dunkin Donuts and some groups. These are the loyal youngens you need! Get in there and start cultivating the conversation, listen to them, engage them, put your marketing budget to good use. I'm interested in seeing what else they have up their sleeve for 2007-08, but it's late and we don't have Dunkin Donuts in San Diego so I can stay up all night. Line up them donut holes and make sure you're leveraging everything online has to offer.

technorati tags: dunkin brands | digital marketing | conversational marketing