Corporate Podcasting Expressway

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In part 1 We look at the benefits of documenting a customer journey.

- Why consider this as a key business strategy
- What is a Network product / service Life-cycle?
- We look at 4 different strategies for mapping client needs

In part 2 outlines concepts and strategies for Customer Loyalty

- Increasingly, retention strategies and effective communication approaches (e.g: podcasting) can help convey organisational confidence and generate interest in the services offered by a firm.

Until next time, Thank you for your support.

Dr Savi

PS. Free white papers on these subjects and associated transcripts are available from our k-wiki

Popularity: 51% [?]

One of the issues that I have noticed whilst convincing senior managers and CEO’s about the power of new media and the latest innovations facilitated by the Internet, e.g: Web 2.0 is potentially how ‘sleep inducing’ the dicussions can be!?

Sure, CEO’s probably love reading about how two innovators developed a jaw dropping awesome application like YouTube. Or, how MySpace was purchased by NewsCorporation for millions of Dollars . Unfortunately, they tend to fail to see the benefits of such innovations for their business. Maybe they are only inspired by the sums involved. Or, the ‘cut to the chase’ attitude. Another way to put it is as follows:

’If I spend X of both my time and money what will I get in return and when’?!

It could be that the definitions and examples given to answer the latter, are simply too complex and technically orientated.

After doing some research and thinking, I came up with the following to help:

Q: What is Web 2.0 and why would I need to change my website?
A: Web 2.0 is not a new version of the Web. Instead, it offers increased collaboration between teams. For example, storing, sharing and enabling synergies between users – leading to potential increases in productivity. Improving your site will also aid in making your company’s marketing more sticky for your existing and potentially new clients.

Q: What is Social Media – sounds like an excuse for virtual water-cooler!
A: Imagine being able to easily share content, for example, video, audio, images journals/experiences (Blogs) and build a knowledge pool – It would be a way of ensuring that your corporation’s knowledge ensures effective communication, consistency, continuity and contingency – and offering opportunities for greater customer service.

Q: There is a lot of talk about Feeds – Is this just not another way to give people updates. Wouldn’t a ‘what’s new’ section on my company’s current site be enough?
A: Actually, no it would not be sufficient. That is because feeds are a great concept for people (internal and external) who are interested in your business to automatically receive updates if they subscribe to receive them. That is not the same as email. Therefore, consider the huge savings in the cost of owning and managing email and their associated attachments.

I assume that the next stage is to build / publish cost benefit models that show current and future prospects.
I recently put together a publisher’s podcast model, i.e: translating an existing rate card for selling space within an agreed episode format.
In that way a direct financial return could be forecast adding greater motivation to both invest and track the performance of the money spent from day one of the project.

Popularity: 37% [?]

I mentioned recently that I would come back to why last week I had such hassle - Here is a copy of the letter I wrote to the Managing Director of my ISP, re: my nightmare, week-commencing 10th April for 5 consecutive days. NB The name of the ISP is not listed and I believe when you work through the detail you will understand why I am motivated to finish one of my books on how organisations have forgotten about the customer!

I decided approx 6-8 weeks ago to move from a shared service to a managed business server.

However, this is what happened on Tuesday 11th April.

1. All of my MySQL configurations had been cleared out!?
2. The result - NO databases!
3. Disruption to my business
4. Stress galore.

My issues

1. No information about why this happened
2. Very poor change control on “isp’s name!”’s basis
3. No warning or communication about what was happening
4. Poor response from support
5. After 3 days I managed to get back my databases by exporting from SQL5 to SQL4 4. Amazingly, you don’t offer MySQL 5 on a dedicated box - again no one told me to prepare for this.
6. On the 3rd day all the server settings were turned off!!!?
7. The latter resulted in NO information on what settings I needed to enter to get all my services restarted.

My expectations

I need compensation for all the hassle, your lack of change control procedures (I’m happy to write some for you - I’m not being funny here just helpful), my loss of some data and disruption to my company business.

I love “isp’s name!”’s competitiveness but fail to understand how change control was missed on this occasion.

I look forward to hearing from you.

Popularity: 29% [?]

It’s one of those sad facts of human nature-bad news spreads a lot faster than good news.
One large corporate study showed than when a customer had a bad experience, they told friends, and friends passed it on to their friends. In one example in the end, up to 100 people heard the story of how a �friend� was dissatisfied with a company’s service.
Bad word-of-mouth (WOM) can be a real problem for a small business especially if it does not have the human power or business esources to put a Customer Relations team or part of the organisation on the trail of dissatisfied customers.

Strategies to avoid bad WOM.

1. Tell customers right up front what you will do to help them if they are not satisfied. Implication - Very few will take un-due advantage.
2. When things go wrong, apologise
   Implication � It will usually diffuse the situation � and the truth may surface from the guilty.
3. Make an effort to work out the problem.
   Implication - Often the effort is more important than the actual solution.

An episode where a complaint was turned around by a PR initiative.

The case in point refers to an article that was written in a leading newspaper. The article was by a journalist that had suffered a bout of food poisoning from a roadside hamburger chain. The chain was not particularly large, focused across just 2 towns, consisting of 3 shops.

Unfortunately, the �bad press� lead to a boycott of the entire chain.

Distressed, the managing director of the chain called-up the journalist. He apologised and suggested that she return to the restaurant for a special treat. In addition, he agreed with the classified section of the associated newspaper to run a special advertisement � consisting of a welcome statement and coupon for a free meal. The story goes that there was a good return to business soon after.

Is there such a thing as a service crisis?
Like most other problems that at first appear complex, there are only a few fundamental reasons for a service crisis. Blame has been positioned or put down to a lack of training, and one aspect of that problem in particular is the need to effectively handle customer complaints.
On suggested approach is to �Go the extra mile�. The concept of going the extra mile is especially relevant to handling complaints. Anyone who has ever had to deal with an irate customer knows the job can be just as difficult whether it’s done over the phone or in person. Yet there are some very good reasons to make the extra effort, to rewire the usual attitude towards complaining customers.
Interestingly, research shows us that 95% of all complaining customers will do business with a firm again if they resolve their complaint on the spot. And like “kissing and making up”, these customers feel better about you than they did before their complaint. The resulting “loyalty effect” is not just something touchy-feely either.
If a business occasionally performs below customer expectations, it can still be perceived as reputable if they have stood behind its guarantees and promises - and have handled criticism diplomatically.

We should not overlook how handling complaints better, an integral part of delivering excellent customer service this can also help to develop respect and the organisation�s reputation.
Another reason to welcome customer complaints is suggested by Rosabeth Moss Kanter who, in “The Art of Innovation” contends that complaints can be an untapped source of new and profitable ideas:
“That’s why the CEO of Procter and Gamble listens to the ‘800 number’…(where customers call in complaints)… so often. It’s from the complaints that you hear where the change is needed. It’s from the complaints where you get the new idea for a valuable new product.”
Some innovative companies go so far as to recruit complaining customers into focus groups, using the dissatisfaction to brainstorm new products and services that can put these companies more in tune with their market.
In summary, none of the suggestions in this article suggest that handling customer complaints is easy. There are, however, many benefits to those who are willing to endure the wrath of an angry customer.

1. It’s a good defensive strategy to help reduce customer fallout and loss of market share;
2. It’s a good offensive strategy to help increase your market share, top line sales and bottom line profits;
3. It can serve as a valuable source of new ideas and products.

So consider the next customer complaint you get for what it really is.

Read more and similar articles from Knowledge Hemispheres wiki: http://www.k-wiki.com - The free online Business Consultancy encylopedia.

Popularity: 27% [?]