Customer Service

This past week was an interesting one. Not only did I celebrate my birthday and anniversary in the same week, but I got the opportunity to spend some quality time with some old friends.

As you know, I ordered The Complete Idiot's Guide to Social Media Marketing about three weeks ago. The time I wait for the book to arrive in the mail really made one thing stand out in my mind: Customer Service.

There are a lot of little things that can make the difference between having a great customer experience or a poor one. Communication is important, you want the customer to know that you are on their side. Make them feel confident in the decision they have made to purchase your product or service. Be timely in your responses and especially in your delivery of goods and services. Make sure they understand your company policies, and do your best to make sure their questions and concerns are addressed.

Taking a little extra time to make sure everything is correct can pay off in the long run. When I used to work for the Walt Disney World Company, their number one priority in training was to "make every guest feel special." It is no coincidence that the Disney Company is one of the most successful in the world. When you make people feel good about themselves, they are more likely to feel good about you.

Now, to the book. I am about halfway through, and I must say I am quite impressed. The first couple of chapters give an outline of the book, then it divides each social network into a chapter of its own. The chapter on Facebook is quite comprehensive and goes step by step on what types of things to include in your profile, how to set up pages or groups for your business, and the most effective applications to add. Just in a couple of days I have already seen some positive results.

To be balanced, the chapter on Twitter was a little disappointing, as the majority of it was a listing of all the applications available to manage your account as opposed to giving any actual strategies on using it to effectively market your business. Despite that, so far I am pleased with my purchase. I look forward to finishing it up and seeing more positive results.

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