I wrote this blog last month for Reaching New Heights …..
How easy do you make it for your customers to get hold of you?
I decided to buy a portable hard drive today, I had a look around online and an advert popped up for a Samsung 1TB that was coming in at a few pond cheaper than elsewhere. So I clicked to their website, liked what I saw and decided to buy. I clicked on Buy Now and …..Nothing happened! I tried again, the same thing. I minimized the page and came back to it an hour later …..and the same again.
Being pretty tenacious I thought I’d give them a ring, order and report their fault at the same time. Got through straight away, yeah! and had the pleasure of listening to plinky plonky music for 4 minutes before I gave up and hung up.
Now I know that some times that is going to happen when trying to get through to customer services (it shouldn’t but it does), but sales, what are they thinking?
Ok, so they only lost a £67 sale, not the end of the world, but what if 10 potential customers tried them today? and what if this has been happening all week? That’s a lot of lost income. And who knows what else I might of bought from them had I been able to get through.
In the end I paid a few pound extra but got what I wanted.
So today take 10 minutes to think …… How hard do you make it for your customers to get hold of you?
After writing this I was talking to a local trader about her social media stress. She was encouraged to set up a twitter account but doesn’t get time to check it and so it has become just another chore that makes her feel bad and out of control, as she is aware that people are communicating with her via twitter but she is not replying.
It made me think again about why people use social media. People know about Twitter and Facebook, LinkedIn and YouTube, and know that they should be ‘out there’, but don’t necessarily know why for it might be right for them, or how to use it.
I have written a number of blogs about the main social media platforms and the message I want to emphasise is that social media is a great communication tool but if it is for your business or organisation, before jumping in, you should take the time to think about why. what, who and how. Any decision made about your business or organisation should be part of a development strategy.
Don’t make social media just another chore on your to do list. If you recognise that social media has the potential to be a valuable asset to your business then take the time to look at how it will work….. Which platforms will work best for you? Do you just want to try out 1 or 2 first? Or will you go for a full on strategy? Who will be in charge of it? How often will you post on the various platforms and how often will you check if people are communicating with you? Do you have someone in house with those skills, or will you invest in a social media manager? If the latter how much of your marketing budget can you allocate to this?
If you want a hand with this then it is well worth investing a little time and money, with someone like me, who can come out, get to know your organisation and help you develop that strategy.
Whichever route you take…
Don’t make social media just another way to ignore your customers!
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