I recently returned (Twitter followers might already be aware), from a trip to New York City - definitely one of the World's most exciting and vibrant places to visit. And a City that (as you'd expect) has embraced the digital revolution with gusto; which is great when you're trying to figure out the Subway map, book a restaurant in SoHo, find tickets for a bus tour or check times for a show on Broadway. WiFi is as popular as the Yellow Taxi, and it’s just what you need if you want to advise others of good and bad service provided by hotels, restaurants, shops... etc
Start spreading the news and monitoring it
When, before the growth in social media was the tourism industry so afraid of bad press? Or fearful of what customers might say if the service provided didn't live up to expectations. It's sooo liberating to know that finally the consumer has the upper hand. No longer does the fact that they have already had your money, (months ago in some cases) give them the upper hand. The consumer is now in total control (As Mr Branson is well aware - see Ruth's Blog). And I have used this to my advantage over the past few days; tweeting, commenting, recommending and complaining...
To turn this on its head, as a marketer, we need to be mindful of the power of Social Media, as does any business in the public domain. Not only do we (as we should) provide excellent customer service, but we must also be mindful (and prepared) for likely reputation damage that Social Media can produce.
We need to monitor our social world and have plans in place to react to negative comments/posts/articles in an appropriate manner. However, if you turn the concept on its head again, it’s also an opportunity to monitor your competitors so that you can take advantage of their social reputation or lack of it, as well.
I want to be a part of it, but how?
We use a tool called Radian 6. This social media monitoring tool allows us to ‘see’ the reputation of our clients and their competitors, view ‘influencing’ networks and enable us to react/be proactive in enhancing our clients online value. The platform enables us to monitor brand mentions, while the engagement console offers that end-to-end management tool.
Radian 6 is a tool with huge reach, covering millions of blogs, the whole of Twitter, the public Facebook API, online comments as well as mainstream news and news aggregators. All of this gives confidence in the fact that the real-time reporting that takes place is the most comprehensive. It also has the added benefit of integrating with other analytics applications such as Omniture and Google Analytics.
The customer is always right and he has proof
Today, our experience of customer service now extends well beyond the written word. For example, when we were particularly unhappy with a certain service received on our New York trip, we took pictures and video footage of our ‘concerns’ – and if we don’t get the appropriate compensation for our treatment, we will use our social communities to highlight our interpretation of events, mentioning names, details...
And for once, as a consumer, I will have the last laugh.
Watch this space.
