Do you treat customers differently online? Why?
Riddle me this. What is the difference between a customer inquiring via social media channels and a customer asking a sales associate a question in a brick-and-mortar store?
I mean no disrespect here but I am so surprised with the number of companies/people/organizations that are still struggling with this question. Just this morning I saw tweets saying, “Corporate Social Media : Risky Business” and “Our company is trying to figure out how to tackle a real life social media customer”, Let me see if I can help clear this up a bit.
Social Media Pro’s and Con’s:
Pro: Activity in social media channels lasts forever and can be seen by more than just the single person you are interacting with.
Con: Activity in social media channels lasts forever and can be seen by more than just the single person you are interacting with.
Get it? You can stand firmly on either side of the fence if you want but I prefer to straddle this line. In a retail brick and mortar setting there is a high probability you are hiring teenagers to represent your brand to thousands or even millions of customers depending on the scale of your business. How many of these just collecting a check, couldn’t give a crap about your brand strategy, teenagers have you given media training to? Probably none. How many of these just collecting a check, couldn’t give a crap about your brand strategy, teenagers have you slapped a name tag on with maybe some rudimentary training and told to go sell some shoes? Probably most!
People! Wake Up! Your customers are on line. Their computers are not on line. These people on Twitter, Facebook, Pintrest and others……. YEA! Real humans. What would you do if you found your just collecting a check, couldn’t give a crap about your brand strategy, teenager brick and mortar employee ignoring a customer asking a question? You’d probably write them up or maybe even fire them if you saw this action repeated time over time.
Answer to the riddle: There is NO difference between a customer inquiring via social media and one asking a question in a brick and mortar store.
Both customers have the exact same goal; to get the information they need to make an informed decision. So if you, the CEO, the CMO, the CFO don’t begin embracing these customers online YOU SHOULD BE FIRED! It’s that simple!
Yea, there are challenges online but these certainly can be overcome with a well thought out strategy and some simple training. Seriously, stop ignoring people just because they are online. There is no excuse for it.
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