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Customer Service In The Age Of Social Media

10.02.09

Yesterday I spoke with City News‘ Kris Reyes about the challenges businesses face in customer service in the age of social media. In Toronto we’ve seen numerous recent instances of “citizen journalism” highlighting problems at the TTC – a TwitPic of a TTC worker sleeping; a video of a bus driver’s unscheduled coffee break in the middle of a route and finally a perhaps ill-advised Facebook page set up by some TTC staff.

It’s a tough time to work in a customer-facing job. It just takes one slip-up and, if you’re unlucky, you can find yourself all over the news – online and offline. This is especially the case if you work for a publicly-funded organization.

I offered three tips for people and organizations to think about:

  1. Organizations need to prepare their employees to work in this kind of environment. Existing employee guidelines may offer boundaries for employees, but they only kick-in after the fact. Employers need to provide their staff with the knowledge and understanding of how quickly these situations can arise, and how to avoid them.
  2. Employees, meanwhile, need to remember that they now work in an environment where information is shared in real-time. That means you can make one mistake and seconds later evidence of that mistake can be online. This “always on” connectivity means you need to always be on, too.
  3. The toothpaste is out of the tube when it comes to customer advocacy. Cameras, video cameras and even Twitter aren’t going way any time soon. Instead of fighting a battle they can’t win by complaining about the use of smart phones by customers, organizations need to adjust and find a way to operate in this situation.

Posted in: customer service, social media

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Launching The Social Mediators Video Podcast

10.02.08

Social Mediators LogoToday we’re launching the Social Mediators video podcast.

Each week, Joe Thornley, Terry Fallis and I (three guys who, as Joe says, should never be on camera!) will chat about social media and its intersection with communications, organizations and society in general. As Joe put it on his site:

“We’re always on, always connected. How are we taking advantage of the new capablities that gives us? And how is that affecting the way we relate to one another and how we organize around common interests? Finally, what does that mean for traditional organizations – companies, cause-based groups and government?”

I couldn’t have said it better myself.

In our first episode this week, we talk about personal branding online. Each of us is serving as a mentor at the upcoming Personal Brand Camp 2, organized by Michael Cayley for students at Humber College. We give our thoughts on the advice we’ll give to attendees there, then get into the topic of the personal/professional divide – a hot topic for us right now as we fine-tune our own new online communications policy.

Check it out here, or head over to the Social Mediators website to subscribe directly.

Posted in: Social Mediators

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Use Social Media To Make Them Feel Special

10.02.05

80+ tweets, dozens and dozens of Facebook wall posts and numerous private messages. That’s all it took (along with some kind and hilarious antics from my co-workers) to make me feel truly special on my birthday yesterday.

Are you doing this kind of thing for your customers? Are you taking a few seconds (or minutes) to make them feel special? It really isn’t difficult – it just took a few seconds to post those messages, but the effect was disproportionate to the effort required. If you’re connected to customers in such a way (online or offline) that you know their birthday or any other special occasion, take the time to send them your best wishes. If something bad (or good) happens, send them flowers. Go that extra step.

A little thoughtfulness can do wonders to strengthen your relationship with someone – whether it’s a friend, a customer or a potential future customer.

Lastly, a big “thank you” to everyone who contacted me yesterday – I truly appreciate it.

Posted in: miscellaneous

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More Journalists Prefer Bulk Email Than Personalized? Huh?

10.02.03

Last week saw the launch of a campaign entitled “An Inconvenient PR Truth,” aimed at trying to weed-out some of the black sheep in the PR family.

Many of us in the profession have been arguing for similar practices to those advocated there for a while. While the campaign’s approach raised my hackles somewhat, the motives stated seem reasonable on the face of things.

This post isn’t about the broader campaign though.

Buried deep in a slide deck supporting the campaign was a slide about the way journalists prefer to receive “press release emails” (a term that has me tasting bile somewhat, but moving on…).

Preference for how press release emails are addressed

Let’s set aside for a second the advisability of using a sample of 100 respondents to generalize about an entire worldwide industry (although, with the ever-shrinking number of journalists out there nowadays, it might actually be representative…). I’d like to focus for a second on the specific assertion of this slide.

I quote:

“Three quarters of Recipients are happy to receive press release emails on a bulk email basis (or have no preference either way).”

This slide says that 75% of journalists are ok with receiving untailored bulk pitches.

Say whaaaaat?!

To me, this goes against every instinct I have when it comes to pitching. It essentially says that spam is ok. Note that while the first thing the “Inconvenient PR Truth” campaign asks for is for PR pros to ask permission to pitch journalists, that’s not tied in any way to this question in the survey. Without any mention of permission-based pitching, it offers data suggesting that three quarters of journalists are ok with spam pitches.

Time and time again, journalists and PR practitioners alike have railed against the prevalence of untailored spam pitches. I’ve written about spam pitches plenty of times here (in fact given the rapidly increasing number of pitches I receive, I have even posted tips for people pitching me). I have to call “BS” on any claim that only 25% of journalists want pitches tailored to them.

This data seems wrong to me. In fact, it’s even contrary to the goals of the campaign. It also makes me question the accuracy of other potentially useful data in the survey (for example the information on the types of releases journalists prefer not to receive).

Does this seem right to you?

Posted in: media relations, pr, public relations

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Charlie Brooker Shows Us How To Report The News

10.02.01

A little light viewing for you. You may have already seen this – if so, watch it again. Otherwise, take two minutes to watch it. It’s worth it.

Posted in: media, miscellaneous

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A Bittersweet Moment

10.01.29

When I joined Thornley Fallis Communications in 2008, I quickly found myself paired-up with an account coordinator as we began to build-out our social media practice. Over the following months we worked closely together on pretty much every project I touched, and despite both being extremely stubborn we found we worked well together. I also watched (with a little pride) as she learned and grew, and in September last year I had the pleasure of promoting her to “consultant.”

Unfortunately for us, all good things come to an end. Yesterday was Kerri Birtch’s last day at Thornley Fallis. She leaves behind her a hole that will be challenging to fill as she’s been a central part of our team over the last 18 months. I’m sad to see Kerri go, but proud of her for what she’s become and I wish her the best possible success in her new role (which I’ll let her announce in her own time).

On a related note, I’m pleased to announce (although she beat me to it… twice!) that Jessica Muhlbier will be joining our social media team as an account coordinator next week. While Kerri has left big shoes to fill, Jess has some great experience under her belt and her own distinct set of strengths. We think she’ll be a fantastic addition to the TFC/76design, and look forward to welcoming her to our team on Monday.

Posted in: Thornley Fallis Communications

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The World Won’t End Without Your Tweets

10.01.28

Social media can be a compulsive beast. It’s easy to feel a ‘need’ to keep putting out content through your various channels; no-where is this more true right now than on Twitter. I’ve written about that topic before, and I’ve also discovered the importance of unplugging occasionally.

So, what to do when a client feels like they can’t let their account lie dormant, even for a few days?

Todd Defren wrote a thought-provoking  post earlier this week, asking if people thought his company had done the right thing when a client asked them to take over his Twitter account and “tweet” on his behalf. Their reaction:

“Yes, we would tweet from his account, but with the following conditions:

— Prior to the event, he must tweet, “During the show some of my tweeting will be supplemented by our extended team.” We felt that the term “extended team” was appropriate, suggesting that that term covered both internal and 3rd party colleagues.

— A reminder to that effect would go out, regularly, throughout the conference, i.e., every 10th tweet would remind followers that someone besides the executive might be “at the controls” of his Twitter account.

—When character spaces permitted, we’d add a #team hashtag to denote that the tweet was not published by the exec — but honestly, this attribution fell away more often than not; we largely relied on the “every 10th tweet” approach to cover our ethical backsides.”

Todd asked us, “how would you have handled such a request?” My initial response, posted as a comment on Todd’s post, was that I might have considered disclosing more fully but that in general they seemed to have approached it the right way.

Then, once again, I had a conversation with a colleague that made me think differently.

In one of our social media team meetings, Kerri Birtch suggested that we should really be thinking about a different question: did the client really have to appear to be online all the time?

Why did they feel the need to be online – was it for ego-based reasons or a genuine business need? Could the CEO have simply tweeted that they’d be at a conference and would be paying less attention over the next few days? Could they have posted a heads-up on a company blog for people who missed their Twitter announcement? Why did they not feel it was ok to be less active for a few days?

I don’t know the answers to those questions as I don’t have the context, but Kerri’s thoughts really highlighted a question we all need to ask of ourselves and of clients more often:

Why?

Posted in: Twitter, ethics

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Win A Ticket To The Art Of Marketing Conference

10.01.27

We’re heading into conference season again soon, with a whole slew of events including Social Media Week (next week), PodCamp Toronto (Feb 20-21), SXSW Interactive (March 12-16) all coming up in the next six weeks or so.

One event that’s caught my attention several times is the upcoming Art of Marketing Conference in Toronto on March 2 at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre. With a great lineup of six bestselling authors, there’s something for anyone working in a communications role at this event:

The good folks at The Art of Productions, who are organizing this event, have offered me the chance to attend this event. What’s more, they’re also giving me one more ticket to offer to a lucky reader of this site.

I’ve seen a few other contests for tickets to this event, so I’ll change the format up a little and give some love to other blogs. For a chance to win the ticket, just leave a comment on this post and include a link to a recent blog post you recommend other people read, and say why you think it’s worth checking out. It doesn’t matter whose site it is; just make it a good one!

I’ll pick a winner on Feb 8, so make sure you enter before then (and make sure you include a real email address when you submit your comment or I won’t be able to contact you!).

For those who’d rather be sure of getting their ticket, readers of this site can use promo code SK23 to get their ticket at $50 off, for just $349.

In the meantime, check out the video for the event:

Posted in: events, miscellaneous

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31 Books To Live Your 2010 By

10.01.26

A couple of weeks ago I wrote about my 2010 reading challenge – reading 26 books over the next 52 weeks – and asked for your help in fleshing-out my reading list for the remainder of the year. I’ve now pulled together the suggestions of people who commented, to form my 2010 reading list.

On Monday I posted my review of Feeding Frenzy by John Harmon (in summary: read it!) – the first of those 26 books (I’ve almost finished the next book – The Whuffie Factor – too).

Here is my planned reading list for the rest of 2010. You’ll note that, with the two I already mentioned, there are way more than 26 here so I’ll either have to speed up or prioritise – there are just too many books I want to read!


Dave Fleet's to-read book recommendations, reviews, favorite quotes, book clubs, book trivia, book lists
  1. The Fall Of Advertising And The Rise Of PR – Al Ries and Laura Ries
  2. Influence: The Psychology Of Persuasion – Robert Cialdini
  3. In Search of Excellence – Tom Peters and Robert Waterman Jr
  4. Twitterville – Shel Israel
  5. Outliers: The Story of Success – Malcolm Gladwell
  6. Beyond Bullet Points – Cliff Atkinson
  7. What the Dog Saw: And Other Adventures – Malcolm Gladwell
  8. Predictably Irrational – Dan Ariely
  9. Drive – Daniel H. Pink
  10. The Design of Business: Why Design Thinking Is the Next Competitive Advantage – Roger Martin
  11. Chief Culture Officer: How to Create a Living, Breathing Corporation – Grant McCracken
  12. Connected: The Surprising Power of Our Social Networks and How They Shape Our Lives – Nicholas Cristakis
  13. Baked In: The Power Of Aligning Marketing and Product Innovation – Alex Bogusky
  14. Convergence Culture: Where Old and New Media Collide – Henry Jenkins
  15. The Age of the Unthinkable: Why the New World Disorder Constantly Surprises Us And What We Can Do About It – Joshua Ramo
  16. The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari: A Fable about Fulfilling Your Dreams and Reaching Your Destiny – Robin Sharma
  17. The Butterfly Hunter: Adventures of People Who Found Their True Calling Way Off the Beaten Path – Chris Ballard
  18. What Would Google Do? – Jeff Jarvis
  19. Love Is the Killer App: How to Win Business and Influence Friends – Tim Sanders
  20. The Starbucks Experience: 5 Principles for Turning Ordinary Into Extraordinary – Joseph Michelli
  21. The Ten Faces of Innovation: IDEO’s Strategies for Defeating the Devil’s Advocate and Driving Creativity Throughout Your Organization – Tom Kelley
  22. Less Is More – Jason Jennings
  23. Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die – Chip Heath and Dan Heath
  24. The High Road – Terry Fallis (not yet available)
  25. Groundswell – Josh Bernoff and Charlene Li
  26. Putting the Public Back in Public Relations – Brian Solis and Deirdie Breakenridge
  27. Superfreakonomics – Stephen D. Levitt and Steven J. Dubner
  28. Here Comes Everybody – Clay Shirky
  29. 1984 – George Orwell

I’m sure this list will change, especially given the increasing number of books I’m being pitched to review, so I’m using Goodreads to organize my reading for the year. Feel free to connect with me over there (thanks to Amy Mengel, Tamara Gruber and Amanda Laird for the tip on Goodreads).

What do you think of the list?

Posted in: books

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Book Review: Feeding Frenzy

10.01.25

Feeding FrenzyA couple of months ago I read a compelling post from Gerald Baron – aka the guy behind Crisisblogger, one of my must-read sites. The post described a book named Feeding Frenzy by Jon Harmon as “one of the best crisis management books out there.” That’s high praise from a man with his own book on the subject, and I ordered a copy of the book on the spot.

The Ford-Firestone crisis

As the book cover puts it, “the Ford-Firestone tire crisis was the biggest business story of 2000-2001. Deadly and mysterious rollover accidents of Ford Explorers with failing Firestone tires took a toll of more than 270 lives in the U.S. and at least 100 more in Venezuela and other hot-climate countries.” As the head of public relations for Ford Truck team during this crisis, Harmon gives an insider’s perspective on the team’s efforts to understand what was happening and to manage the fallout from media, trial lawyers, safety advocates and the U.S. Congress.

Having now read Harmon’s book, I have to agree with Baron that it’s a fantastic read. I recommend it for anyone remotely interested in crisis communications, or communications in general for that matter.

Easy to read

Feeding Frenzy is a page-turner. From start to finish, you’ll find yourself hooked on the tale Harmon weaves as the crisis escalates and the tension between Ford and Firestone increases. While this is a book about crisis communications, it’s written as a narrative and a compelling one at that.

A side benefit of Harmon’s narrative style is that the book is very easy to read. You’ll find yourself flipping back and forth to remind yourself of the roles of key players who re-emerge throughout the book, but with that set aside, the book is written in remarkably plain language given the technical subject.

You WILL learn from this book

Throughout the book, Harmon pauses and offers useful tips for communicators operating in crisis situations based on key moments in the Ford/Firestone crisis – a useful addition which adds great value and makes Feeding Frenzy a useful read as well as interesting read. It would have been good to have those pulled-out in a separate section at the end in addition to their placement throughout, as while the big themes stick out, some of the more nuanced tips can be hard to recall or to find again down the road. I was pleased to see, for example, pointers along these lines:\

  • While analytical thoroughness is essential in a complex story, you still need something compelling to break through to viewers and readers
  • Understand the subtleties of your story, and don’t let others get away with compromising the truth in the name of simplicity
  • Do not delay in doing the right thing; act quickly and decisively. Customer safety is the priority.
  • If a story attacking your company is flat-out wrong, push back immediately, and not just with the offending news outlet – take the story more broadly
  • Reputation management is PR’s job. We need to earn a seat at the decision-making table by providing useful analysis and advice in order to avoid unnecessary crises.
  • (This one is my favourite) “How many times have you heard a PR person say ‘Hey, I never was good at numbers. That’s why I went into PR.’ That cop-out is an insult to those of us in the PR profession who expect to be taken seriously…”

Knowing the background of the author, it’s hardly surprising that the book is highly biased towards favouring Ford throughout. Harmon doesn’t always shy away from pointing out Ford’s mistakes, but he invariably comes back to Ford’s side of things in pretty much every case. That doesn’t necessarily hurt the book, but it’s important to remember that there’s another side to this story – one which would be useful to hear in order to get a clear picture of what really happened.

Feeding Frenzy really is a must-read for anyone with crisis communications in their job description. It’s a fantastic read, with a side helping of educational pointers, and was the first book I’ve read in a while which was genuinely hard to put down. Working at the centre of an issue such as this is (hopefully) a once-in-a-lifetime experience and viewing it from the perspective of someone who’s ‘been there’ is invaluable for those of us who have yet to go through the wringer in this fashion.

Read it.

Posted in: books, crisis communications

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