Now I know why I have been drawn into the world of blogs and social media. It is like customer service, my specialty! Incorporating (or inculturating) customer service techniques into a social media campaign.
Now I know why I have been drawn into the world of blogs and social media. It is like customer service, my specialty! I was just lead back to an article that Andy Sernovitz wrote for iMedia in January. In the article he states, "Customer service is the secret of blog relations: Customer service people find dealing with bloggers familiar. It's working with a vocal group of individuals who each have their own particular concerns and needs. It's looking at situations, addressing them, and getting them fixed however you can."
I am not a public relations specialist. I seem to have always been at odds with my fellow team members regarding the PR approach. I am a customer service person. I am a Granite State Ambassador. We don't push the news, we pull the news. We don't make the news, we report the "news" to others. That is what I am comfortable with. We have mega influence over where people go, what they do and see while visiting. (GSAs are information specialists who staff visitor centers in New Hampshire). GSA, Inc. influences tourism officials, residents, and industry members. -- we are real, live, bloggers!
Last August, when I started my journey into the underworld of social media (oxymoron), my quest was simple (or so I thought). I wanted to understand why people (at a tourism conference) were so hesitant to use Twitter, Facebook, and other social media outlets to enhance their already refined marketing attempts. It seemed so reasonable to me. The economy was slowing, gas prices were high, tourism was beginning to feel the pain of the complicated airline industry... why not try something new? Their answer (or at least the answer of the speakers and panels at the conference)? -- They couldn't figure out how to track the ROI"... The ROI? There must have been a lot of civil servants (state workers) in the room! Anyway.... off of my rant....
What is the ROI of customer service? Do we (in the tourism industry) track the ROI of customer service? If so, how is it tracked? By referrals, by numbers of questions, how? At the very same conference I met one of the keynote speakers, Dennis Snow (Snow & Associates). A customer service guru, brought up and trained at Disney. -- If we apply Dennis' theories to blogging, to Facebook, to Twitter, we have an awesome public relations campaign! Dennis talks about "inculturating" service excellence. His framework--1.) The Lens of the Customer - 2.) The Service Environment, everything speaks (every detail of a physical environment says something about the organization, product, or person). - 3.The Service Delivery (Dennis even has maps for this). - and finally, 4. Process. Dennis states that the process element surrounds all of the other elements. Processes are the magic key for inculturating service excellence. Which brings me back to social media and blogging (process). I will begin to incorporate these elements into a social media training program over the next several months... If anyone had any ideas, comments, or helpful tips, please let me know at judiwindow@gmail.com.