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Friday Freak Out – Review Sites Are Ruining Customer Service

August 3, 2012 By 2 Comments

Mike had little to rant about this week (shock!) so our pal Rob decided to vent instead. Enjoy!

Rob drew this.

I have good reason for saying this. Review sites are a great resource for customer decision making. I use them myself when finding places to check out. They have also, however, become a forum for passive-aggressive criticism. Many of the complaints you see on these sites could easily have been resolved if customers would simply grow a pair and say “Excuse me, waiter, my soup is cold” or “Hello manager-type person, I received poor customer service and I’m unhappy about it.”

Instead, people put their head down, stew over what made them unhappy, and write a scathing review on a website later. There are two severe problems with this.

1. The perceived anonymity of writing online reviews (without a person’s face to look into) allows people to say things they’d likely never say if they were addressing their complaints to a real person. This makes the reviews much worse and the situation often blown out of proportion.

2. Many owners/managers/etc simply do not have time to keep up with online reviews, so the complaints either go unaddressed or the company is in a perpetual state of damage control. This mars a company’s reputation with something that could have easily been corrected on the spot.

Self-centered foodies and wannabe food critics aside (there’s no pleasing you guys anyway), if there’s an issue with a business, give them a chance to fix it. If they don’t, then take your review to the people of the world and rant away.

We know this post could hit a few buttons! Did it hit yours? Leave a comment and tell us whether you agree, disagree or would like to leave us a cheeky review! 

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Filed Under: Consumer Opinion, Friday Freak Outs, Google+, Local Focus, Social Media Customer Service Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,

Would You Pay For Twitter? [OPINION]

July 10, 2012 By 8 Comments

Twitter is a really important part of my life. That may sound a little overblown or even a bit sad, however it’s true. It has helped my career massively and The Social Penguin Blog would struggle to exist without the traffic and interaction it creates. I’ve been thinking recently if I would pay to use Twitter and I am pretty sure that I would, especially if the future of the platform depended on it. It got me thinking, can services like Twitter stay free forever?

The Simplest Form of Monetisation

Twitter has, and is struggling to make money. Its ad model is far from perfect and isn’t even obtainable to the majority of businesses due to the expensive nature of the ads (options for smaller businesses are coming). Aside from the cost of products such as promoted trends, there is little evidence of any real ROI. So what if the ad model never really takes off  and Twitter decide to start asking users to pay? Not a huge amount of money, but a few pounds/dollars etc a month? After all, paying for products and services is hardly an alien concept to us humans, right? It’s the most obvious way for  a service like Twitter to make money and survive.

If they did take that step, what would they need to do justify that?

  • Really clamp down on the huge amounts of spam
  • Offer an ad-free option for those who pay
  • Ensure that it is so robust that it never goes down (although the ‘fail whale‘ is rare these days)
  • Be 110% committed to a truly excellent user experience

If the future of Twitter depended on paid subscriptions, would people pay? I asked Twitter:

@Tambourinos - ‘negative, however I do think most of the internet will cease to be free in the near future’

@ginandting - ‘Yes, but I’d want some added value for that (no ads, more features, etc)’

@_NatStar  - ‘I wouldn’t want to on principle. But could I live without it? Probably not. So I’d be likely to give in’

@Calzo - ‘Nope. It would turn into a bunch of companies trying to sell their products to each other. There would be no customers’

@UKHaiku – ‘Yes, if it was instead of any advertising or non-anonymised use of my data. I also reserve the right to my choice of client’

@btocher – ‘We’re already subjected to adverts on some Twitter clients, so I’d be very reluctant indeed’

@jackiecameron1 – ‘so far I have not paid for any social networking so I can’t imagine why that would change’

@craigmcgill – ‘Yes. But wouldn’t pay for Facebook’

@theFullSouter – ‘Absolutely! Twitter is my jam. I only use Facebook because friends and family do. I tried to hold out but caved’

A real mix of opinion there, interesting that people would pay for Twitter use over Facebook. This post has had real value added to it by those quotes, thanks to those who submitted feedback.

So, over to you folks, does Twitter offer you enough value to validate paying for the service? If it was a live or die situation for Twitter would you pay to help it survive? If Twitter allowed donations, ala Wikipedia, would you throw them a payment from time to time? Please do tell us your thoughts in the comments section below…

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Filed Under: Consumer Opinion Tagged With: ,

How to Deal With Online Reviews

May 8, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Image credit - freedigitalphotos.net

Let’s face it, online reviews are a staple now. Often times, if you Google a storefront business, apartment rental company, or service industry company, the first page is bound to turn up review results. Be it from Google Places, Yelp, Apartment Ratings or others, people are taking the recommendations of others to judge your business. What previously would have been only local word of mouth is now quite possibly the first thing prospective customers will see representing your business. If someone searches “Your business name reviews,” it is highly likely that the reviews will even show up before your own website’s listing in the results, depending on the depth of your SEO. If you fall into the category of a company that has a customer base of raving fans, this will certainly only help you. If you are a company that has inadvertently provided poor experiences to some very vocal customers, this could potentially stave off new customers, even if those few instances do not reflect the typical experience of your customers. So what do you do? You make your presence known and join in that conversation! Let’s talk tips on responding to online reviews. The slow, painful decline from red to yellow: 

Responding to bad reviews

Don’t over react! How you handle bad reviews and criticism is crucial, but is also the toughest part. Someone is criticizing your life’s work, your passion, your well-thought business practices, and that can hurt. You can NOT, however, get into a screaming match online. If you can’t step back and look at the situation objectively, get someone else to handle the responses for you. This is especially important if the response has to be public (which is the case for all Google Places reviews and some user-designated Yelp reviews). Arguing online never gets anyone to a better place, EVER. You WILL indefinitely come out looking like the bad guy. Remember, people are checking these reviews because they aren’t familiar with your business, and they will inevitably side with other customers. Humble yourself, thank the customer for visiting and reviewing, and try to reel them back in. With the ability to post reviews via mobile devices, they may have hastily posted a review in the heat of the moment. Perhaps with some reflection and your calm response, they may change or remove their review entirely. Even if they don’t, you’ve shown that you care enough to make the effort, and that goes a long way in the eyes of someone who knows nothing about your business.

Responding to good reviews

Don’t ignore them! Sure, you may be thinking, “It’s already good, why do I need to do anything else?” This is where many business owners go wrong. These good reviewers are your fan club, your brand advocates, and they ought to be commended. They didn’t have to go online and tell everyone how great of an experience they had. In fact, many people don’t. Many simply expect to have good experiences and don’t feel the need to boast about them. So few businesses respond to good reviews that people are shocked when you do. Literally. I’ve seen so many people come back with “Wow. It’s so awesome to see a business owner who actually cares what people think. I’ll definitely be back now!” And that, my friends, is good old fashioned loyalty. Most reviewers just want to be heard, so stroke that ego a little. It can pay off.

Compensation

Don’t make it your first line of defense! Often times, the knee jerk reaction to bad reviews is to give something for free. I say don’t do this unless you absolutely have to. Refer back to two things I just mentioned.

1. People sometimes write reviews in the heat of the moment.

2. People often just want to be heard.

Responding to a negative review and asking the customer to give you another opportunity to WOW them can sometimes be enough to encourage another chance. Feel customers out. After an initial response, if they are still hesitant, then perhaps offer something. However, if in their review they specifically state that they would never come back to this establishment or never do business with you again, you may try upping the ante right off the bat. Most importantly, ask the customer to revise their review to reflect their new experience if they do in fact give you a second chance.

Working with Yelp’s filtering system

It’s like trying to find sasquatch riding a unicorn over a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. I’ve yet to meet anyone who completely understands the secret sauce to Yelp’s filtration system. Some reviews that get filtered are obvious. Things like “posted by the business owner” or “violates terms” make sense. Sometimes, however, completely legitimate reviews from completely legitimate customers get filtered, and it sometimes seems the reason is lack of engagement with Yelp itself. There’s a great article here that offers up some tips on ways to potentially get around Yelp’s system and get some of the good reviews to be unfiltered. The thing about filtered reviews is that they don’t count toward your overall rating. If you have 2 good reviews and 10 terrible reviews showing up, with 8 more good reviews filtered, your rating is awful, even though you have 8 completely legitimate customers who gave you great reviews.

The most important part is that you are engaging with your customers and being part of the conversation. Be sure that you’ve claimed your business on Yelp and Google Places, engage users online and encourage those that visit you or use your services to give you a review. People are going to talk about your business, so you might as well be part of the conversation. The downside is that this can be very time consuming. At Main Street Hub, we can help you with online reviews and work to get your online reputation back to where it belongs by responding to reviews and working to help you get filtered reviews to show up. This is just one of the services that we offer. Check out our website for more information. Right now, U.S businesses only.


What are your experiences with online reviews? Any horror or success stories? Anything else you’d add to the list above? Chime in below!

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Filed Under: Consumer Opinion, Digital Marketing, Guest Blogging, Local Focus, Online Measurement, Social Media Marketing Tagged With: , , , , ,

The Truth About Peer Recommendations

May 3, 2012 By Leave a Comment

If you have been getting friendly with the likes of Klout Perks, Yelp and BzzAgent then you’ve likely noticed that there is some serious swag you can get your hands on these days (and I don’t just mean landing a job). But is this just internet’s way of saying “I Love You” or is there a less touching force at play?

BzzAgent describes their process as the chance to try “cool new products, share deals with friends and influence top brands.” But actually it’s your network that is being influence by your promotional efforts, not the brand. Facebook has made a pretty good business from your influence with their “Sponsored Stories” advertising program.

From Facebook Sponsored Stories

Your Facebook activity and corresponding influence is a hot commodity. But as most of us have heard at this point, if you’re not paying for the product then you are the product! And that is certainly true with the content you publish online.

Free is good, right?

Privacy issues aside, if you’re being rewarded with a free product or service then surely it’s you’re the one getting the most benefit out of the transaction, right? Sadly no. Peer recommendations are the most effective form of marketing*, far more effective than print, TV or online marketing. And harnessing peer recommendations, likes, pluses and shares on social sites is big business. Though the majority of marketing budgets are still being spent on TV and print, there is a noticeable shift towards platforms with social integration. Trust in traditional marketing has fallen so drastically in the last decade that it only a matter of time until marketers figured out what to replace it with. Ever notice how keen Starbucks is to give you access to free wifi while they’re “rewarding” you for being such a lovely customer?

I like giving reviews!

If you like giving your opinion but would like to maintain more control over your influence then stick to sites like Yelp and Trip Advisor where you have plenty of space to give your what for and the reviews can remain as anonymous as you would like.

*Ninety-two percent of consumers around the world say they trust earned media, such as word-of-mouth and recommendations from friends and family, above all other forms of advertising (SOURCE: Nielson “Global Consumers’ Trust in ‘Earned’ Advertising Grows in Importance” 

Image credit – www.bzzagent.co.uk/

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Filed Under: Consumer Opinion, Klout, Social Media Influence, Social Media Marketing Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Pinterest – Are You Buying Via It? [SURVEY]

March 28, 2012 By 7 Comments

Pinterest is the current darling of the social media world. Many reports have stated it is driving more traffic to sites than the likes of Google Plus and Facebook combined. Traffic is all well and good, but what is happening when a user lands on the product page for the image they’ve just clicked on Pinterest? Are people just virtually window shopping? At this point we turn to you, the wonderful readers of The Social Penguin Blog to give us all some insight into the world of Pinterest. Please answer the following questions in the comments section below this post. These questions are just a guide, please feel free to answer in whatever way you feel appropriate!

1 – Do you regularly click on an image on Pinterest in order to be taken through to the original site?
2 – Have you made a purchase once clicking? If so, did you do it within that initial visit?
3 – Is Pinterest really a route to buying for you or is it just a way of sending some time looking at cool pictures?
4 – Is Pinterest something you see as being a long term feature of your online time?

We await your views and are sure they will be very Pinteresting. Oh dear lord. For more reader opinion, see our popular post on the merits of Klout.

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Filed Under: Consumer Opinion, Surveys Tagged With: , ,

Friday Freak Out – The Stupidity of Brands Like Claire’s

February 24, 2012 By 2 Comments

As larger brands and business get more involved with social media marketing, I’m starting to notice a theme: big names making some big PR mistakes.

The latest example of poor social behaviour is Claire’s Accessories. The fashion accessories chain was recently called out by Tatty Devine for its blatant plagiarism of several of their designs. So far, Claire’s has yet to officially respond to the accusation but that hasn’t stopped scores of tweeters, facebookers and the like to unleash a swarm of unfriendly comments on the matter. So much so, that Claire’s is now a trending topic. So, how has Claire’s reacted to the sudden attention of consumers everywhere? By deleting all negative comments and burying their head in the sand. Big mistake, Claire’s!

Word to the wise – social media is a two-way medium, so either get with it or get off it!

This comment was deleted a few minutes later

Do brands and businesses really think that they can receive all the benefit of social media marketing without needing to be held accountable? Social media is an amazing forum for staying in tune with your customers but it also gives those customers significantly more involvement in the way your business is viewed. Brands that ignore this really need to get a grip! All plagiarism issues aside, here is what Claire’s need to do today:

Be honest

There is a problem. They know it; we know it, so there’s no point in pretending it doesn’t exist. Be honest and at least say that you’re looking into it.

Speak up

Instead of trying to silence your customers, use your voice to address their concerns.

Say you’re sorry!

You were wrong to rip off the designs. You were wrong to not immediately respond to the issue. You were wrong to try and control negative comments on public forums. I think at this point, an apology is more than appropriate.

Save face

Now that we’re clear there is problem, you’re talking about it and you’ve apologised, tell me what you’re going to do to fix it. This is your chance to recover your public image. Make the most of it!

Do you have a take on Claire’s response? How would you handle this situation? Please add your comments and get in on the debate!

Stay tuned for more Friday Freak Outs!

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Filed Under: Consumer Opinion, Friday Freak Outs, Social Media Customer Service, Social Media Influence, Social Media Marketing Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

Is BeepTreat a Truly Useful Use of Location Based Tech?

February 20, 2012 By 1 Comment

We posed a few questions to Peter Kay from BeepTreat - a location-based mobile application that allows users to access deals from retailers near them. Peter tells us how the concept came about and how the app has been received so far…

Photo credit - beeptreat.com

Give us the elevator pitch for Beep Treat

BeepTreat is a marketing system designed specifically to drive qualified footfall into the businesses that are using it. It’s that simple. We are doing some really clever stuff combining on and offline to make this happen but ultimately it is about delivering tangible business benefits with treats.

How did you come up with the concept?

We came up with the concept as a result of some work the development team were doing in near field communication. They had been involved in creating an information delivery system and began thinking about how it could be applied elsewhere and were drawn to the high street as it was an environment that clearly has a need. The developers came to me to explore their concept and from that initial meeting BeepTreat was born.

Are retailers excited about the opportunity? 

Yes, the retailers we are speaking to are really excited about the system. We are seeing great levels of uptake in the areas of the UK we have been focusing on and we are constantly getting introduced from one business into another as they really see the value of what we have produced.

How has user feedback been so far?

Feedback so far has been great, we are working very closely with the businesses that are using the system to find out how we can improve it and they are keen to support us which is a great result.

Beep Treat uses QR codes, what uses of QR have caught your eye recently?

There are a couple of QR code uses that have caught my attention recently. The first is this, a use of QR code in a CV and I love this too – AXA uses QR code in TV ad

Do you think BeepTreat is an app you are likely to use? What else would you like to see High Street retailers do to get and keep your business? Leave a comment and share your thoughts.

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Filed Under: Consumer Opinion, Interviews, Mobile Web, Social Media Marketing, Technology Tagged With: , , , , , ,

How did Eurovision 2011 Unfold on Twitter? [INFOGRAPHIC]

May 18, 2011 By 3 Comments

 

The Eurovision song contest is the spreadable yeast extract of all singing competitions. Those that do like it certainly go the whole distance of committing to the cause of EuroPop. Eurovision parties, drinking games and sweepstakes are just some of the rituals that accompany the competition.

Another recent addition to the habit of humankind is tweeting along to television events. Some say it is the death of real conversation and others believe it breathes new life into television and adds a layer of interactivity.

Eurovision is a great event to monitor social media conversations around because of the sheer volume of chatter and the timeline of the broadcast from build-up, performance, reaction through to voting closing and the results coming through. Using Alterian SM2 <www.socialmedia.alterian.com> and some help from our Insights team, we have this piece of research to share.

Great Eurovision stats. Click to expand.

We decided to take a look at the social chatter around all 25 entries and see which of the above stages saw the most conversation take place. This is also illustrated in the infographic too. Let us examine what this actually means. What insight and value can we gain from the social data?

[Read more...]

Filed Under: Consumer Opinion, Digital Marketing, Twitter Marketing Tagged With: , ,

How Beneficial is Bad Press on Social Media? – Marcus Taylor

May 3, 2011 By 5 Comments

Over the past few years there have been many near monumental social media cock-ups from well-known brands who have been caught red handed doing all sorts of bad stuff – sometimes innocently, sometimes ignorantly, and sometimes deliberately. But the question I ask my self is – does the bad press caused by poor social media etiquette actually affect these brand’s bottom lines?

Bad press got you down?

Did an offensive tweet from Vodafone improve their reputation?

Take Vodafone for example, whose Twitter account was essentially ‘fraped’ (someone posted an offensive message on Vodafone’s Twitter accountthinking Twitter was logged into a personal account) – it may have come across as incredibly negative and unprofessional, yet due to the disaster being handled very well by Vodafone, it produced millions of impressions and mentions of the Vodafone brand on popular blogs as well as generating heaps of links to the Vodafone website. At the end of the day, it’s hard to imagine a single accidental offensive tweet having an impact on your buying decision when choosing a phone.Take another example – when DiscountVouchers.com launched their Pakistan Flood infographic, which was clearly distasteful and quite inappropriate but got them a lot of attention in the blogosphere. They were originally criticised for the lack of acknowledgment of the charities involved in supporting the flood victims.

In my opinion, the key lesson to learn from both of these examples is that it’s all about how you handle the aftermath of a social media disaster. In Vodafone’s case, they turned bad press into good press by using the opportunity to come across as a transparent brand who admitted that they make mistakes. The overall perception that this produced was that Vodafone are human – they make mistakes, they listen to their customers, and they understand the importance of their reputation and relationships online.

In the case of Discount Vouchers, they responded to the bad press by acknowledging the charity and adding a donation link to help support the Pakistan flood victims. Although this didn’t entirely solve their reputation crisis, it certainly came across as a positive gesture and reduced further negative online discussions about them.

[Read more...]

Filed Under: Consumer Opinion, Digital Marketing, Social Media Marketing Tagged With: , , ,

The state of Corporate Social Media in 2011 [Stats]

April 8, 2011 By 1 Comment

 

Never before has the term ‘theatre of public opinion’ been so applicable – with the growth of social media, companies are constantly in the spotlight.  Twitter, Facebook and other platforms have changed the way that businesses communicate, market their brand messages and engage with their consumers – this is old hat now, we are already (or should be) socially aware!

It’s common to see brands with hundreds of thousands of followers and friends – clearly the chance for interaction has never been greater. Yet in a recent Twitter survey, 53% of corporate accounts did not ‘humanise’ their brand, 68% had less than 1,000 followers, and 15% were completely inactive – hardly an example of social media best practice!

Social media has many powers – to engage, alienate, create mistrust and make us customers for life who will continue to be brand ambassadors for as long as companies value our relationship. A pretty empowering marketing tool then……and therefore it’s rather unsurprising that corporate take-up has been so significant!

  • 79 out of the Fortune 100 are using social media as major channel for their marketing and communications
  • 88% of surveyed US companies say that their budget will increase for social media in 2011

But is there more to come from corporate social media adoption? Will 2011 show us new, innovative ways companies can leverage its power to improve their business? Will brands continue to take social media seriously?

In my opinion the answer to all of the above questions is an emphatic ‘yes’ – and I would expect you share that view. It’s a view backed up by a recent survey carried out by the team here at Useful Social Media. Of US companies surveyed in 2011, 100% said that they were placing an increasing importance on social media as a marketing tool.

And social media as simply a marketing tool is only the start. The survey results indicate 2011 will be an interesting year! Although we can’t predict the future, we have been able to make some educated guesses on how corporate social media will change and evolve over the next twelve months.

The briefing written about our survey results is called ‘The State of Corporate Social Media in 2011’.  Our aim in producing the document was to put together solid facts and statistics on corporate social media adoption; along with information on how this adoption will evolve. The briefing covers:

• How large business organises social media expertise within their organisation

• Current and predicted budget levels for social media

• The development from social media as a marketing tool to its broader role within business

• An investigation into the differences in corporate social media between Europe and the USA

To get your copy of the briefing click here.

Is your corporate business making best use of the social media channel? What challenges are you facing, tell us in the comments below and let’s see if we can all help.

Thanks to Harry Rollason from usefulsocialmedia.com for this guest post and great stats. Check their site for further insight and data.

 

Filed Under: Consumer Opinion, Digital Marketing, Social Media Stats Tagged With:
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