Archive for the ‘Public Relations’ Category
Monday, February 6th, 2012
Many companies make it difficult to reach them when you have a comment or problem. You often have to dig deep on a website to find a contact number or email address. Not Starbucks. I’ve always been impressed with how the company goes out of its way to solicit customer feedback and engage in conversations. I was in a Starbucks recently and noticed a small brochure that said, “Share your thoughts with us.” I liked its message: “It’s how we know we’re making your experience at Starbucks the best it can be. So please tell us what’s working, or if there’s anything we could be doing better. Don’t worry. We’ll take it personally.”
Beyond that, I was impressed that Starbucks creates custom feedback brochures for each district that gives customers many ways to provide feedback:
- Main customer service number
- http://www.starbucks.com/customer-service/contact (a number of ways to reach Starbucks online, through social media conversations, etc.)
- Mailing address
- The name of the district manager (yes – you read that right)
- The district manager’s phone number (yes, really!)
- The district manager’s email address (yes, really again!)
- The store number you visited.
Beyond that, Starbucks takes the whole customer feedback and conversation strategy to the next level. Have you heard of mystarbucksidea.com? It’s an online forum that allows customers to share ideas on products, experience and community. Customers can post their ideas, comment on ideas (Starbucks does, too) and vote on ideas to give them points. Starbucks lets you know which ideas are in action via blog posts written by actual Starbucks corporate employees.
Do you know of any companies using great techniques to solicit customer feedback?
See our related post on Costco’s approach to customer feedback.
Tags: Arizona, blogs, communication, costco, customer conversations, customer feedback, how to handle customer complaints, Phoenix, PR, Public Relations, Scottsdale, Social Media, Starbucks
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Thursday, February 2nd, 2012
When you read customer reviews, positive or negative, do you ever notice any comments from the company? It seems many companies are missing the boat to engage in these review dialogues on such sites like Amazon.com. If you take a few minutes to read the comments on a product review, you’ll notice the comments turn into discussions among users. But how often do you see a company join the discussions?
We noticed that QuickBooks Customer Care reps are engaged in product reviews on Amazon.com. In many cases, reps reached out to customers who left negative reviews by giving email addresses and asking the best way to contact the customers. Most Customer Care rep responses used these techniques:
- thanking the customers for their feedback
- writing responses in a compassionate tone
- acknowledging the customers’ concerns or frustrations
- offering to work with them to understand the situation from the customers’ points of view to find a solution
Instead of ignoring problems, QuickBooks worked quickly to try to fix them and address them directly with each customer. Have you noticed companies commenting on customer reviews? What else should companies do to address negative customer reviews?
Tags: amazon, Arizona, AZ, customer care, customer reviews, Phoenix, PR, PR agency, PR firm, pr issue, PR pro, pr problem, product reviews, Public Relations, Scottsdale, writing
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Tuesday, January 31st, 2012
Years ago I bought shoes from online retailer Zappos.com. The company recently sent me an email, saying there may have been illegal and unauthorized access to some of my account information. The company “expired” and reset my password, gave instructions on how to change it and recommended I change my password on other sites where I use a similar password.
The email began “First, the bad news.” That was good. Zappos.com did not tap dance around the problem. The company told me what happened and what steps to take. The CEO Tweeted about it. He has a big Twitter following. The company was not hiding the bad news. But Zappos didn’t dig in its heels there. It reached out and communicated in other ways:
- a company blog post which showed the internal email it sent to employees along with the information customers received
- a separate page on its website for customers about the incident
- a dedicated email address for employees with questions
- a dedicated email address for customers with questions
Communications and social media circles often discuss this company for its culture and empowering employees. Now Zappos.com’s latest email to customers is just the right fit. Other businesses should take a similar approach if the shoe is ever on the other foot.
Tags: Arizona, CNN, communication, empowering employees, Phoenix, PR, PR agency, PR firm, pr issue, PR pro, pr problem, Public Relations, Scottsdale, shoe company, Social Media, social media strategy, Twitter, Zappos.com
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Thursday, January 26th, 2012
In our first blog Public Relations: Handling Customer Emergencies, we explained our encounter with a bank after depositing cash into an ATM but getting no receipt. The money at first was not deposited into our account.
We have two updates. As promised, the temporarily lost money was credited to our account by the crack of dawn. And when we returned to the bank today for the first time since the incident, a bank teller in the drive thru said “Hi Keith.” We looked at each other in the car, taken aback a bank teller remembered us. We don’t remember a teller ever beginning one of our bank visits with a “Hi Keith.” She then asked if the ATM accident was resolved.
Now that’s personal service and a nice touch.
Tags: Arizona, communication, money, Phoenix, PR, PR agency, PR firm, PR pro, Public Relations, public relations agencies, public relations firms, Scottsdale
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Thursday, January 19th, 2012
I deposited cash in an ATM. The cash door closed and the ATM coughed out my card. That was it. The ATM never asked if I wanted a receipt or to complete another transaction. My money disappeared into the machine and I had no clue if the bank deposited the cash in my account.
I walked into the bank and explained what happened. Everybody was polite and apologized for the trouble. The bank allowed me to use one of its offices to call the “claims department,” which explained it would credit the money to my account by the next morning. As long as the money shows up in the morning, the bank overall handled my situation well.
When I first explained the situation to someone inside the bank, he gave me two options: I could talk to a personal banker or call the claims department. He explained the personal banker was busy and he couldn’t fit me in for several hours. That’s why I decided to call the claims department. I suggested calling from the bank. I feared the claims department might send me into a black hole. Leaving the bank and calling from home might diminish my chances of someone sympathizing with my situation and resolving it quickly.
When the man inside the bank told me the personal banker was not available to assist me with my matter for several hours, I could feel the tension and adrenaline within trying to convince me to break my promise of keeping calm. I almost blurted out “You need to fit me in considering your ATM just took my money!”
Telling a customer the problem your company caused can’t be resolved face-to-face for several hours is, in most cases, a big blunder. Most of us have watched other customers piercingly make clear in a store or business how they feel a company screwed up. Everyone listens and stares. When someone walks in still in “calm” mode and respectfully explains your company’s slip-up is costing him both time and money, solve it. At least try to resolve it. Telling customers they need to wait in line or call someone else sitting in a cubicle at an unknown place is asking for trouble. People, especially these days, live on short fuses, and you don’t want other happy customers Tweeting about the guy screaming in the lobby.
We all appreciate schedules. But you shouldn’t plan a trip so you arrive at that important business meeting with one minute to spare. You build in extra time. So you shouldn’t staff your office and schedule their hours in a way that prevents your business from handling unexpected issues. Customers often become your biggest fans when you handle tough situations fast and fairly. Don’t fail that test. The next guy who walks in worried his hard-earned cash just disappeared into the magic money machine may otherwise decide to address the situation with a few four-letter words no one really wants to hear.
Tags: Arizona, how to handle customer complaints, Phoenix, PR, PR agency, PR firm, PR pros, Public Relations, public relations agencies, public relations firms
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Tuesday, January 17th, 2012
When companies have a new product, they often spend a lot of time testing those products before they roll them out, especially when it comes to software and websites providing a service. They want to make sure everything functions properly and the end-user experience is the best possible one. So why not take the same approach with your communications – before you send them out?
You likely have some kind of review process for the materials you create. Your boss, your boss’ boss, your internal client, legal. What about your “end-user”? Whether you’re communicating a new company program or marketing a new product, someone from your target audience can provide invaluable feedback before they see the final email or the shiny new brochure along with everyone else. If you work in retail, for example, that target audience person can be a store manager, district manager or front-line associate. If you work in health care, that target audience reviewer can be a doctor, nurse, HR administrator or patient. If you are working on a marketing brochure, reach out to your network and find someone you know that fits the customer profile.
Giving your target audience a sneak peak of the product and how you plan to market and communicate it can save you a lot of time, energy and money. Because he or she is not as close to the project as you are, your target audience tester will think of questions you might not have thought about. He or she will hopefully be up front and let you know if something is unclear or sounds too salesy and not authentic enough.
Does your review process allow for testing your communications with target audience members? What works for you?
Tags: Arizona communication consulting, Arizona public relations, Arizona public relations agency, Arizona small business marketing, communication, content, employee communication, Internal Communications, marketing a new product, marketing strategy, personalized communications, Phoenix communications agency, Phoenix marketing firms, PR, public relations agencies, Scottsdale communication consulting, Scottsdale marketing agency, small business communication, small business marketing strategy, target audience, writing
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Thursday, January 12th, 2012
We called a company to request what the industry refers to as a “courtesy credit. ” We first navigated the phone system, which requires the talents of Indiana Jones minus the hat and whip. The feeling of finally finding a real person must be similar to Indiana’s relief when he’s defeated all obstacles and the treasure is safely in hand.
What we didn’t anticipate was a customer service representative who, intentionally or not, liked to lay down some verbal booby traps. He explained our account didn’t qualify for a courtesy credit. Why? He listed possible reasons. Which reason applied to us? He didn’t know.
We asked if we could speak to someone else who might further assist us with our request. He said yes, but our statement apparently wasn’t clear enough. After some silence, he asked whom we were interested in talking to. “Your mother! We would like to talk to your mother and explain you’re being difficult.” We actually asked for a supervisor, which we thought was obvious but clearly needed to spell out in more detail. After another pregnant pause, customer secret agent man double-checked if we wanted to speak to a supervisor now as if scheduling a call for next month might be an option. When agreeing to make the connection, he couldn’t help but point out moving up the chain might not help.
When the supervisor later joined us, she might as well been his mother. She was nice, sweet, professional and granted our courtesy credit as if she was handing us a batch of chocolate chip cookies with a glass of milk. Her son seemed more like Dennis The Menace or Mr. Mayhem we see in those insurance commercials laughing at us at the other end of the line. Yes, we got our courtesy credit but after how much frustration and time wasted?
Give your front line employees some authority to make simple decisions that require mostly a strong dose of common sense. If employees can’t give what customers want, give them the tools to specifically explain why. If customers want to speak to supervisors or someone’s mom, train employees not to treat the request like an act of Congress. And don’t encourage those on the customer service team to discourage customers from seeking a supervisor’s help. Employees often tell us supervisors may not offer us a different result but they almost always do.
We don’t have an Indiana Jones hat handy. But sometimes we desperately feel like we need one.
Tags: Arizona, customer service representative, how to handle customer complaints, Phoenix, PR, PR agency, PR firm, PR pros, Public Relations, public relations agencies, public relations firms, Scottsdale
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Tuesday, January 10th, 2012
We bought burgers at Costco but couldn’t find French fries. We asked but an employee explained the store didn’t sell that side dish. We didn’t think much more about our plates of lonely burgers until exiting and seeing people hover around a tall, red customer comment box.
A business placing out customer comment boxes is not unusual. But Costco’s is different. The box is not off to the side or tucked away in the corner. The box is not smaller than a breadbox. The comment box is big and bold and nearly impossible to miss at the very time you’re rolling your oversized cart out and wishing the store sold something it doesn’t.
And people appear to buy into Costco’s big red comment box. From what we witness, people don’t ignore it or assume it’s window dressing recommended by a marketing guru trying to score points at a corporate conference table. A nice older woman filled out her card while we filled out ours.
I began to wonder if the big red box fit into a bigger puzzle when I stopped by Costco’s gas station. I thought I was the only obsessive driver who felt he desperately needed a hand wipe or bucket of soap and water after filling up. After all, if you forgot to pack the sanitizer, your gas station hands then touch the steering wheel, radio and seats, meaning the whole car is … well, that’s a blog for Psychology Today.
Much like a kid ripping open the wrapping paper covering the latest, greatest new gadget, I was overwhelmed with appreciation when noticing for the first time that Costco placed near the gas tanks the largest hand sanitizer jugs I’ve seen. Somebody’s listening! Or somebody read my mind! Or Americans are simply obsessed with germs.
When speaking about responding to customers in real time, social media is often considered the Holy Grail. But Facebook and Twitter are new tools, not necessarily replacements. Perhaps the response time isn’t as rapid, but businesses can still use good ‘ole fashion techniques to prove they’re listening. Just be genuine. Make the comment box big, red and conveniently located. And respond. Stock those shelves with French fries or explain why you can’t. I’ll take a huge bottle of hand sanitizer any day. Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to wipe my keyboard clean.
Tags: communication, costco, Facebook, media, PR, Public Relations, Social Media, Twitter
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Monday, January 2nd, 2012
A mom says Target employees humiliated her while she breastfed her baby in the store. To support her, breastfeeding mothers then staged a nationwide “nurse-in” at Target stores. How did the company deal with the nurse-in and media attention? To borrow one of Target’s lines, we “expect more.”
Support Groups: If an advocacy group contacts your company about an event at your business, quickly answer questions. Post comments on their blogs explaining your position. Support groups frequently feel strongest about issues. They pass on concerns to the broader public that may not be paying close attention. Don’t underestimate the power of such groups. Work with them. Be sympathetic. Surprise them and support their concerns when possible. The groups will share the company’s goodwill with the public and explain how the business is turning a problem into a positive. A group describing its mission as “to change the cultural perception of breastfeeding” says it was tough communicating with Target about the breastfeeding incident. The group says someone from Target eventually called back and summarized the call by releasing a statement. Meanwhile advocates pointed to how Whole Foods handled things when facing a breastfeeding incident.
Facebook: Acknowledge the complaints. Stun the planet and ask people to share stories and post pictures. Respond to questions. Embrace your role in the discussion. Welcome shoppers who may usually favor the competition and prove your company is a different type of business. In the Target case, mothers used a Facebook page to organize. As we wrote this, the page included more than 7500 members. The day of the nurse-in, Target posted on its Facebook page “How long do you leave your holiday decorations up?” Some people used the comment section to discuss the breastfeeding issue.
Twitter: Target was more on target on Twitter. We read several examples of Target responding to people on Twitter about breastfeeding. Here are examples of the company’s posts to Twitter:
- We support breastfeeding too. We have a long-standing policy allowing breastfeeding in public areas of our stores.
- We continue to educate our team members on the policy, and ask guests to contact us if they don’t feel comfortable.
- Nursing mothers are welcome to breastfeed in our stores, including in public areas, wherever comfortable.
- We have a long standing policy that allows breastfeeding in our stores and have addressed the Team Member incident.
- We’re happy to support nursing mothers! Please let us know if you encounter any problems.
YouTube: Post a video. Make clear the services your company offers for, in this case, breastfeeding moms. Video puts a face on your company. A video helps you standout while engaging and educating viewers. Video may capture attention more than any press release. Target has a YouTube channel called Target Theater with more than six thousand subscribers. We didn’t see any videos about breastfeeding or the nurse-in. Watch a recent example of a FedEx video responding to a PR problem.
Pressroom: Provide news releases and links about the situation. Give phone, email and social media information for contacts specifically handling the situation. Give a timeline of what happened. Recognize what journalists want to see. Target’s pressroom states the “Target Public Relations team is always interested in hearing about how to serve the media better.” We searched but could not find news releases about the nurse-in and breastfeeding situation.
Media Relations: We read several statements Target released about breastfeeding. We didn’t see a lot of Target spokespeople on air. We saw a Target manager on ABC News saying “Target is a family-oriented company, so if a guest chooses to breastfeed in our store, Target supports it 100%.” Target’s pressroom lists four media contacts. The efforts of those contacts, management and support staff should expand way beyond news releases. Identify managers in geographical regions the company feels comfortable putting on TV. Fly key team members to areas needing help handing media questions. Consider allowing a “pool camera” in each TV market to shoot video of the breastfeeding moms.
A company might win the war of words by drawing up a conservative game plan, taking a few hits and assuming the PR problem will blow over and be forgotten. If you like to do things the way they’ve always been done, feel free to play prevent defense. But PR problems also open opportunities to establish your company as an industry leader while inspiring trust and growing your reputation. Drop the icy and impersonal company language for something thoughtful and sincere and watch the headlines change. Expect more.
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Tags: blogs, breastfeeding mothers, Facebook, FedEx, journalist, journalists, media, Media Relations, news release, PR, PR pro, press release, Public Relations, Social Media, target stores, Twitter, video, Whole Foods
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Monday, December 26th, 2011
YouTube user goobie55 entitled his video “FedEx Guy Throwing My Computer Monitor.” The video shows a man taking a package from the back of a FedEx truck, walking up to a gate, tossing the box over the gate and then walking back to the driver’s side door.
The YouTube user wrote: “Here is a video of my monitor being “delivered”. The sad part is that I was home at the time with the front door wide open. All he would have had to do was ring the bell on the gate. Now I have to return my monitor since it is broken.”
A customer would go through the normal hassle of returning the monitor and having a company replace it. But as of Christmas night, more than 6.6 million people watched the 21-second video. Companies want videos to go viral, but this is not what they have in mind.
Having this happen, with video and during a time of year most people relate to shipping important items, is a dream for any news producer looking to fill their rundowns with stories other than that the airport is once again busy during the holidays.
FedEx delivered more than a statement. It delivered its own YouTube video, which companies often don’t do. The FedEx video, entitled “FedEx Response to Customer Video,” shows a senior vice president. He begins by saying he saw the video and he apologizes. He appears genuinely upset and angry by what happened. He tries to address what happened to the employee and says the company will learn from this. His best line is “every single package is precious cargo to you, our customers.” The senior vice president wore a tie but no jacket, which makes him look professional but not like a stuffy executive many Americans love to hate. The video response was less than two minutes … short and, to me, sincere.
If you read some of the comments under stories about this incident, you’ll realize no amount of apology will satisfy everyone. But FedEx’s goal is to limit the damage from a public relations point of view. We can nitpick FedEx’s effort to say it’s sorry, but it delivered when so many other companies would have ducked back into the delivery truck and passed a lame, jargon-laden statement through a slightly cracked window. FedEx put a face on its apology. I’ve always believed most Americans are willing to forgive big mistakes as long as someone sincerely says “I’m sorry.” And FedEx understood it’s more powerful to do it with video.
Tags: Arizona, AZ, business video, business video production, communications consultant, communications consulting, corporate video production, FedEx, HR communications, HR companies, HR consulting, human resources, journalism, Keith Yaskin, make video, marketing agency, marketing consultant, marketing firms, media, Media Relations, media training, online video production, Phoenix, Public Relations, public relations agencies, public relations firms, Scottsdale, Social Media, social network, social networking, The Flip Side Communications, video, video email, video marketing, video production, video production companies, video production company, video production for the web, video production service, video production services, videographer, web video production, You Tube
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