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Corporate Brands Get a Lift from Twitter

November 28, 2008

Has your company tried microblogging to give your brand a boost? 

Companies like Dell, JetBlue, Comcast, H&R Block and Whole Foods are just a few of the companies that are using the largest microblogging network, Twitter, to not just keep tabs on online conversations about their brands but also join those conversations.  For example, Comcast uses Twitter as a customer service portal.

There are three great things about Twitter: Read more

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Written by Susan Gunelius · Filed Under All industries, Brand | Leave a Comment 

Getting Satisfaction from Customer Complaints

November 28, 2008

How easy is it for customers to contact you if they have a problem with your product or service?

There are usually several routes available for a customer to make a complaint:

  • In person. This only works if you have a physical location that customers can visit – you’re probably a retailer. Some companies have built a solid reputation on their customer service (such as John Lewis) and this works well for them and is intrinsic to their brand. I imagine that their staff receive comprehensive training in how to handle difficult customers and defuse tricky situations. But it can be inconvenient for the customers, as they have to make a special trip.
  • By phone: but we’ve all had bad experiences at the hands of a call centre. So much so that it is a surprise to find one that works, with pleasant, helpful staff who pick up the phone quickly, and are empowered to solve problems. If your call centre works like this, congratulations! Please keep it up - and reward your staff, too, because they’re doing a great job at maintaining your brand. Famously good at this are Lakeland, who have built a special relationship with their customers. So much so, that when their customer service director died a few years ago, this was met with an astonishing outpouring of sympathy and distress from their customer base.
  • By email. This tends to be slow, despite the instant-response ‘We’ve received your email; our staff will be dealing with it as soon as possible’. (Does this remind you of ‘your call is important to us, please continue to hold’?). Again, some companies monitor emails in real time, and respond quickly with a resolution: this tends to be a surprise, and therefore, to use an old phrase, truly does delight the customer. You will all have your own favourites here: I’m going to nominate Grand Illusions (who responded to a complaint last week with speed and humour) and Nativespace (whose technical support is always timely). Both smaller companies – I wonder if this kind of response works better with the smaller companies, or those problems which need investigation before a response can be made?
  • By post. This is probably the slowest means of communication, but for companies that require documentary evidence of a problem, such as financial institutions, this may be a necessary route to go, possibly in conjunction with a preliminary phone contact system.

  • Twitter. For the vocal customer, particularly those with online influence and a large audience, this can be a very effective means of alerting companies to issues, and has had some successes, notably for Comcast. The companies concerned need to have someone monitoring what is said about them on Twitter – which can be timeconsuming – and that person needs to be able to resolve the issues – which may mean giving them power across corporate boundaries. This can be a problem for some companies. However, not having someone monitoring the Twitter stream can be dangerous, as it is a very public means of making a complaint, and bad news can spread virally. On the other hand, a public resolution of the issues can impress others and leave a positive impression of the brand.

  • Get Satisfaction. This is a tool that has been around for a while now, and I’ve been impressed by the concept every time I’ve come across it. They say:

    Get Satisfaction is a direct connection between people and companies that fosters problem-solving, promotes sharing, and builds up relationships. Thousands of companies use this neutral space to support customers, exchange ideas, and get feedback about their products and services. Get Satisfaction is open, transparent, and free. You’re free to ask, free to answer, and free to start a new conversation. Everyone is invited and encouraged to participate: companies, employees, customers — anyone with an opinion, an answer, or something to say.

    It is essentially a forum in which customers can raise issues which they are experiencing with a product or service. Other customers using the forum can add their voices to that issue, and staff from the company can interact with them to keep them updated on the resolution to the issues. Old issues remain on the system, so that if a customer has an issue that has arisen before, they can find the resolution. This is a great way of bringing together customers and companies to find a solution, and is used by such companies as Adobe, Dell and the BBC. Again, it does require staff from the company to use the forum regularly to deal with problems and keep customers updated.

So: which of these would work best for your company?

Each has its advantages and disadvantages, and it will depend on your customer base, but somewhere in there is the perfect combination of contact methods for you. Like John Lewis and Lakeland, though, you will need to have dedicated staff who can both solve problems and deal with customer relations whichever you choose. And that is the difficult part …

Written by Lucy · Filed Under Best Practices, Consumer goods, Consumer services, Customer | Leave a Comment 

IR Society Award Winners: Congratulations!

November 28, 2008

The Investor Relations Society announced the winners of the 2008 Investor Relations Best Practice Awards in London this week.

The winning companies include:

Congratulations to all these companies on winning these prestigious awards.

Written by Lucy · Filed Under All industries, Best Practices, Investor | Leave a Comment 

Investor Relations and Corporate Governance

November 26, 2008

When it comes to investing, knowing about what a company does, who its competitors are, and how its financials look are all critical factors.  But, there is another critical factor that any savvy investor will list right at the top, and that is the quality of management.

Judging managers on an individual basis is a process which must be handled by each individual investor.  There is no way to quantify the quality of a manager or executive in such a way that can be usefully published by the IR department.  However, there is something that Investor Relations can do to help investors determine how those managers can and should behave.

Corporate governance became a hot topic in the stock market meltdown following the bursting of the Internet bubble.  It is once again on the lips of many investors as revelations come to light about how many companies behaved during the recent sub-prime mortgage build up and how they reacted once it began to become clearer that there might be a problem.  Investors want to know: who is it that is running the company, how are they held responsible, and what rules guide their behavior.

The Qualcomm Investor Relations page contains the kind of information that investors are looking for these days.  Under the Corporate Governance section of the IR pages, there are several documents available for download and review by investors.  These documents include the Governance Principles and Practices of the company as well as the oft requested “Code of Ethics.”  Additionally, the same page also lists the membership, structure, and charter of important management committees.

Under the Audit Committee section, for example, an investor can learn exactly which board members are on the audit committee.  The investor can also read the mission of the audit committee (here as “Purpose”).  Even more detail is available such as the fact that the audit committee should meet at least four times per year.  If an investor feels this is too little, they can look elsewhere for their investment opportunities, but regardless of whether they choose to do so, no one will be able to later complain that they were unaware of just how often the audit committee was required to meet.

Then, the authority AND the responsibilities of the committee are laid out in full detail for the investor’s inspection.  Most companies have similar documents, but not all of them make them so easy for the prospective investor to find and view.  Such easy access to valuable information like this is a key goal for investor relations departments and websites.

It’s not just the Audit Committee.  The same information is also available for the Compensation Committee, the Finance Committee, the Governance Committee, and the Strategic Committee.  What is even better is that all of these documents are available in the investor’s choice of format.  Regular webpage (HTML) files are available as well as a PDF file download.

It is no wonder then that Qualcomm is able to boast of many awards related to its company and the Investor Relations department’s efforts to communicate openly and easily with its investors. 

Best Practices for Investor Relations

Look into getting similar information on your company website.  After all, most of the “mission” documents of these committees are already public information in some format in other locations. Putting them on your IR site shows your investors that you are serious about your communications with them and keeps them from having to dig all over the place to find these important documents.

Written by Brian · Filed Under Best Practices, Investor, Shareholders | Leave a Comment 

The Impact of Media Relations on Corporations

November 26, 2008

If the media says it’s so, is it?

Many corporations rely upon their marketing departments to use creative image branding in the minds of their customers. To get their customers to think the way they’d like them to, or at least ideally, marketing deparments will sometimes either slant news or possibly inflate news, just so things won’t sound quite as bad–or as good–as they would like it to. In theory, almost every company has at one time or another been “creative” in the media relations area and taken liberties to stretch realism. Even if it’s popular or second nature, companies must consider the ramifications of their “creative marketing” bubble stories being deflated and customers finding out the truth behind those marketing ploys. But even if all of the popular kids are doing it, does that make it right? Does that make it good to do, regardless of potential profit? Do companies suffer in the long run because of it?

For instance, politics has long been one of thos instances where media relations plays a huge part in what and how people perceive candidates and issues. If a media outlet can cover or slant a story with just enough seed of doubt, they have the potential honor of single-handedly changing the minds of voters everywhere.  

A corporation’s media relations efforts also have the potential power to change the thinking of its members as well. Just by employing strategic media elements and implementing a follow-through system, corporations have the potential to make a huge impact in the media relations world. One such example of this, and an example that I mention often on this blog, is the effects of social media through sites like Twitter. Corporations who take the time to develop their Twitter presence can make a difference to consumers. The American Corporation, Ford Motor Company, a part of The Big Three and in tough times right now, has developed a Twitter front that rivals any competitors and gives them an edge among consumers. Although financially they are in need of assistance, they also know that these tough times won’t last. They are turning to their customer base for answers, suggestions and discussions on giving the customer what they want.

Ford introduced multiple Twitter accounts based on what they talk about. You can follow @forddriveone, @fordtrucks, or @forddrivegreen depending on what you want. Link

They have also established a dedicated customer liasion department  who listen’s to customer’s complaints and do their best to satisfy the customer and possibly keep their business. New idea? Not so much, but it’s the implementation of the way Ford has chosen to do it. So, if the news media says that Ford is expected to go under, file bankrupt or not make any new cars, should we simply believe them? Should Ford get another chance with consumers? Or, should we look at valiant efforts like Ford’s Twitter presence, dedication to quality and loyalty to consumers and deduce that they are trying and they are making an effort, therefore we should at least give them another chance?

Just because the media says it so, just does not make it so.

Written by Bridget Wright · Filed Under Media | Leave a Comment 

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