Orange Slices

Social media remains one of the biggest buzzwords in marketing and public relations. And given the trends in audience growth and engagement that sites such as Facebook and Twitter are experiencing, that’s not likely to change anytime soon. Nonetheless, most businesses are still trying to figure what they’re supposed to do with social media.

“We know it’s important, but what should we be doing?” is a question we hear a lot. And my first answer is almost always the same: Look at your goals, look at your customers and your products and your competition, and then figure out what makes sense for your business. The answer should be a little different for everyone, because every business and organization is a little different.

Nonetheless, I understand the feeling of just not knowing where to begin. So, with that in mind, this post kicks off a series of pieces on different social media strategies that companies (possibly including your competitors) are using with success.  While I’m not suggesting cloning these examples is the right thing for you, thinking about them may give you some ideas that would make sense for you.

So, with the introduction out of the way, let’s kick it off with today’s social media strategy:

Social Media Strategy No. 1: Social media as a customer service tool.

Before social media, people were talking about your company and your products with their friends, family and co-workers. And sometimes, if they had a bad experience, they were complaining about it. There is no way, however, to listen in on all those conversations so you can fix the customer’s problem and perhaps turn a brand basher into a brand promoter. Well, that’s not true anymore.

Thanks to various free and paid monitoring tools, you can listen in on many of the conversations that happen in online discussion boards, on Twitter and Facebook, in blog comments and elsewhere. And because accounts for many of these sites are free, it can be pretty easy to respond when someone has a question or problem.

On my way to work a few weeks ago I decided to pull into Bojangles’ Famous Chicken & Biscuits for a tasty, but not so healthy breakfast. I “grew up” on Bojangles’ in college. It was the go-to place for my group of friends, whether it was a late breakfast after class or after a long night of socializing. I was and still am a huge Bojangles’ fan (and not just on Facebook).

When I stopped by Bojangles’ a few weeks ago,  I went with the ol’ faithful Cajun, egg and cheese biscuit with coffee and Bo Rounds.

What a surprise I got when I arrived at the office. I reached into the bag and noticed that my biscuit was wrapped differently from the distinctive red and yellow wax paper it is normally covered with. I unwrapped the biscuit only to find that they had given me the wrong order.

I didn’t know what to do; I wanted a deep-fried chicken biscuit, not a deep fried pork biscuit. I took a bite out of it and decided that I was going to vent my frustration to my 800+ followers on Twitter; they would want to hear about my devastating news.

I got a few replies before I received a message from @GottaWannaNeeda, the Bojangles’ Twitter account. It read: “Sorry to hear that. DM us and we’ll take care of ya.” I got in touch with @GottaWannaNeeda by sending a DM (or direct message for the non-Twitterati), and gave the company my home address.

About two weeks later, I arrived home to find a package sitting on my doorstep. Inside I found a yellow Bojangles t-shirt. I pulled it out and also noticed a little slip of paper with a handwritten note:

Hi Charlie

Sorry to hear about your experience with Bojangles’! Hopefully this will help.

Thanks for being a fan of @gottawannaneeda

Also included was a $5 dollar gift card to make up for the biscuit mix-up.

Bojangles’ went out of its way to please one customer who typed less than 140 characters about a negative experience. Now they have created a walking billboard out of me. Mistakes happen to every restaurant, every business and every organization, but handling a customer service complaint – no matter where the complaint shows up — really reflects the character of a company. I was impressed by Bojangles’ efforts to correct their mistake and I will be back soon for another Cajun filet biscuit.

RLF’s creative department recently contributed pro-bono design work to a client sponsored event in Orlando, Florida.

CNL Financial Group presented One Night, an annual fund-raising and awareness gala with Orlando Regional Healthcare to celebrate excellence in trauma care. In Central Florida there are 47 emergency rooms and only level one trauma center. This heartwarming event raises funds to build a new level one trauma center at Orlando Regional.

The highlight of the evening occurred when a 16-year-old boy shared his own trauma story. The aspiring baseball player was severely injured in a boating accident, but thanks to the trauma center and the work of some great medical staff, he survived.

Below are some photos of the event signage created by RLF.

Harris Teeter, a grocery chain with 168 stores in six southeastern states, knows good customer service. The company has empowered its managers to take charge to make customers happy. I’m one of them.

Through an electronic snafu, my loyalty card got linked to a relative’s, who was awarded my Aerobed. (You earn it by frequent shopping.) The manager that weekend happened to be bagging my groceries and when she heard me ask the cashier about the notice on my receipt, immediately took action. She offered to call customer service herself, followed through, and called me to report on what she had learned. Then, after the linking snafu was discovered, she put an Aerobed aside for me saying she knew I was a frequent shopper and would qualify for the prize.

I was already happy. But then she took the next step. She filled out a new application on my behalf so that I would have a new loyalty card in time for the store’s next promotion. She waited for it to come to the store and then mailed it to me personally with a nice note. Am I going to shop at Harris Teeter? Absolutely. Am I going to tell my friends and neighbors about my good experience? I have, and took it to the next level myself by posting it here.

I’m in the minority. Some happy customers might tell their family or friends and stop there. Others might tell no one. In fact, that’s the premise behind “Satisfied Customers Tell Three Friends, Angry Customers Tell 3,000″ by Pete Blackshaw.

The flip side of a happy customer is an unhappy customer, and those can do significant damage to your brand. Most customers who are unhappy with their treatment tell the story over and over. And with the power of the internet at everyone’s fingers, whether through email, blogs, social media or message boards, your company can’t afford to let an issue snowball out of control.

Companies like Dell learned that hard way. A 2005 blog post ignited a firestorm around Dell’s customer service when a prominent blogger posted his customer service experience. That same blogger recounts what happened, and how Dell fixed the problem and its reputation in this BusinessWeek article.

Empower your employees to satisfy your customers. How you behave towards your customers impacts your brand just as much, if not more than, any campaign you can run.