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Verizon's customer service secret: community super users

April 27, 2009 By Lois Kelly Leave a Comment

What motivates people to help other people in online communities?  Personal satisfaction, recognition, peer respect, and being treated as “insiders.”

Yesterday’s New York Times has a good article about Justin McMurry who volunteers 20 hours a week in Verizon’s online community, helping customers with technical questions. (“Customer Serivice? Ask a Volunteer”)

The secret to success, says Verizon’s director of e-commerce Mark Studness, is creating an online environment that attracts the “super-users” who are the people who so actively post and help other people, answering thousands of questions that Verizon would otherwise have to pay its people to answer. The right environment, says Studness, “is where the magic happens.”

Lyle Fong, founder of Lithium Technologies, a community technology platform, believes that super-users  in customer communities are like online gamers. This is why Lithium offers rating systems for the contributors with rankings, badges and ‘kudo counts.’

“That alone is addictive,” said Fong. “They are revered by their peers.”

In addition to reducing call center costs Verizon has found that the online customer communities have providing new product and service ideas and created a large searchable knowledge base.

Filed Under: Communities, Smart company stories, Social media strategy Tagged With: , , ,

Why can't I be blonde?

January 17, 2009 By Lois Kelly 1 Comment

For the last six months I have asked my hairdresser to make me blonde. Nothing drastic, just some highlights to put a little glow around a middle-something face. Like my favorite actress Emma Thompson.

But no dice.

Every month my hairdresser asks, “So how’s your color? What shall we do?” Every month I say I want to go blonde. I’ve brought her a great book, How Not To Look Old, that advises women to go blonde as they age, saying it’s more effective than a face lift.  I’ve brought in pictures of my mother, who went from brown to blonde at about my age, and is beautiful.  The hairdresser nods and then applies the same old color.

“Is it that you think I’ll look bad with lighter hair?” I press. I mean, just give me an answer so I know you’re hearing what I’m saying.

“No not really,” she says in a friendly yet dismissive way, adding a few highlights that don’t highlight at all.

So while I’ve really enjoyed this service provider for many years and in many ways hate to leave I think it’s over. She just won’t listen.

Driving out of business

Same goes for a local car service I use to use to drive me the 60 miles to Boston’s Logan Airport during rush hour. Using a  car service means I get  to go in the fast lane of Boston’s notoriously congested Southeast Expressway, which can save a good 30-40  minutes. Plus I don’t have to drive around in Logan’s massive Central Parking to find a parking space, saving another 20 minutes. That 50 – 60 minutes adds up for those early morning flights, making the difference between getting up at 4 a.m. vs. 5 a.m.

But the car service prices have gotten outrageous — $171 plus 20% tip for one way.  Add it up and the round-trip  car service costs more than most of my flights.  They’ve priced me out.

I like the owner and the drivers and would like to see their business make it so I’ve been offering all kinds of advice. One idea:  invest in some inexpensive technology to create a way  for clients with similar schedules to share rides to the airport.   If I could share a ride it would still be expensive but I could rationalize it.

The car service has done nothing. I don’t know if they even have looked into my idea. Needless to say,  I don’t use them anymore.

In any economy — but especially a bad economy when we really think about the money we spend on indulgences like hair color and car services — the customer expects the service provider to listen, to act on ideas, to show they care. This marketing 101 lesson goes for businesses of all sizes.

When I saw Emma Thompson on the Golden Globe Awards this week she was blonder and more gorgeous than ever.  I’m finding a new hairdresser.  Loyalty be damned.

PS — if anyone can recommend a great hair colorist and reasonably priced airport limo service in the Rhode Island area,  please drop me a line!

Filed Under: Musings Tagged With:

Congratulations

November 24, 2008 By Lois Kelly 1 Comment

“I can’t believe they said congratulations. This iMac must be really special. No one has ever congratulated me for buying something.”

These words from my 13-year-old son on Saturday morning after we bought an iMac. The store manager came out to the floor and introduced himself, handed my son the box, shook his hand and congratulated him. On the way out a young sales assistant said the same thing.  Talk about a shopping and customer service experience and making a lasting brand impression on a young consumer.

One word conveys a lot of meaning.

Filed Under: Communicating, Conversational Marketing, Smart company stories Tagged With: , , ,

Driving Hertz customer service crazy

August 23, 2007 By Lois Kelly 3 Comments

Yesterday I witnessed insanity at the Hertz Gold check-in counter in San Francisco. The businessman next to me wanted to change the credit card his car would be billed to. He handed the woman at the counter an American Express card. She quickly informed him that it had expired.

“Didn’t you hear me miss? I told you to put my account on that card. How many times to I need to explain it to you. I want the bill on my American Express and not my Visa. Got it? Or do I have to explain it again to you?”

“Yes, sir, I understand. But American Express is telling me that your card is not valid. So we can’t use it.”

“Lady, I don’t know what your problem is today. But put it on that card.

He finally gave her the Visa card and stormed out all indignant. The indignant part was astounding.

“Wow, you were the picture of calm with that guy,” I said. “Not sure I could have held my cool with someone like that.”

The man waiting on me said, “That’s nothing. We had a person in here this morning whose driver’s license had expired and he yelled at us for not reminding him that he had to renew it. I told him we weren’t the department of motor vehicles. But the guy continued on and said, ‘Don’t you people realize I’m a Gold Club member?’”

Like being a Gold Club member has anything to do with him taking responsibility to get his driver’s license renewed.

“How do you do it,” I asked the Hertz people at the counter. “How do you handled such crazy rants from insane people all the time?”

“It’s our job,” they said. “We stay calm and remember it’s just a job.”

Front line employees are the ones who most influence how we feel about brands. And on most days their jobs border on insanity. Maybe more of us marketers should work the front lines for even just a week a year. Seeing these unsung customer heroes at work at Hertz makes the “we try harder” tag line more meaningful than ever before.

P.S. — Oh Canada, thank you to the folks at Raincoast Books in Canada for such a nice review of Beyond Buzz. Canadians, some of the best people to have an interesting conversation with, seem to be liking what the book has to say. Merci and thanks again.

Filed Under: Smart company stories Tagged With: ,