Social buying

I know there are some great online shopping sites where people can write up reviews and then even say how useful those reviews are. (reviewing the reviewer)  But I think we can use some social media to take this a step forward (at least I would love it)  I was walking through target yesterday and came across a series of computers. These computers were for gift registries.  You all know what that is, whether they are for bridal registry, or baby registry i am sure most of us have participated in some way.  But what if we used the very same concept but added in some cool social media.

Imagine this:

You go into your favorite store and walk up to the computer, punch in your favorite reviewers twitter name.  The computer spits back a list of that twitterers favorite or recommended purchases.  So i am going shopping for a new geeky gadget.  I know that @mattbremer  is very geeky and must have a good recommendation. I look him up on the computer and it spits out his favorites (much like it would a registry list).  I click on my product choice and print out some info. Run to the back and pick it up. 

Wouldn't that be cool?

We could even take this in a few different directions.  When i buy it it could auto tweet it. 

If i buy it, the system could give points to the recomender and then each store could keep track of the top recomenders.

There are literally thousands of options. All of them could work great. My point is that we have the ability to bring social media into the normal brick and mortar stores.  Especially in today's economy, stores need to think differently and improve the experience customers have in their shopping at their stores.  As much as i hate to use the old expression, it does fit.  “Think outside the box”

 

What do you think?  Would you use a system like this?

Your comments and suggestions are always welcome here. You can find me on Twitter, Facebook and Linkedin. Or you can email me directly chris dot geier at Gmail.com

The Star List

An old teacher of mine “Mr. Lester” who taught a writing class established a star list.  We were never allowed to break any of rules established on the Star List.  I thought this document was lost forever. But while cleaning out my old 3.5’ diskettes.  I found it, I thought it would share it

1. do not use contractions they are informal

2.do not use the word there

3. do not use it

4 do not use first person (i me my we our)

5 do not use second person (you your)

6 do not use the words good,bad nice,really,very a lot,thing,anything

7. do not underline to emphasize

8. do not use slang

9.do not use abbreviations

10. do not use like as a comparison use such as

11. do not use absolutes such as always,forever,never

12. do not use upon

13.do not use people, or person

14.do not use the word different alone you must use different from

15 use between when speaking of 2. Use among when speaking ok 3 or more

16 do not use !!!!!!!!!

17 do not use due to use BECAUSE OF or AS A RESULT OF

18 no numbers to organize

19 do not refer to your own writing such as in this paper as i mentioned etc

20 do not use big little or interesting

21 do not use ONE as a person

22 do not use off of

23 do not use () ( )

24 do not use fun

25 do not use healthy use healthful

26 do not use situation or issue

27 do not use type of person

28 do not use centered around

29 do not use ::::::

30 do not ask questions

31 do not use "the reason and because in the same sentence

32 do not use the words in conclusion

33 never use extremely

34 do not use mad

35 do not write what something is not write what it IS

36 do not use many

37 do not use located

38 do not bring up a negative in a comparison or argument

39 do not use obvious simply state the fact if it is obvious

40 never assume anything the reader knows or believes

Tips for good service

 

No this article is not about how to provide customers with good service, sorry but maybe I will cover my thoughts on that area in a later blog posts. This post is about how service in many forms affects your view and interaction with not only the provider but the overall product as a whole. For example, if you went to a restaurant that was renowned for its food, but the service was horrible. How likely are you to go back? How likely are you to choose that establishment regularly? On the opposite of that, what if you went to a restaurant were the food was average but the service was some of the best around. Which combination would you choose?

 

Another angle to this, do you tip your waitress solely on the basis of the service they provided you? Or do you let the cleanliness of the establishment, the speed the food was ready, and the quality of the food affect your decision on how much to tip?

Why am I talking about restaurants and tips on this blog? It dawned on me while eating at a local restaurant,   while I was sitting there waiting for a long time for my steak, regularly interacting with the waiter who appeared to be good. How much am I going to let the kitchens problems affect the tip I give my waiter? How often do others do the same? And how does a similar mentality affect other industries.

Do you own a product that is good at what it is supposed to do, but the level of support, consulting, training, or basic customer service you have gotten from the company or its affiliates negatively affect your ability to use it and does that  affect your level of satisfaction with it?  Based on that would you recomend the product to others?  Would you talk to others positively about the product?

I believe you might not actually realize (without really stopping and thinking about it) how you let it affect your thought process. I believe a lot of people have made good purchases in software, electronics, or other, however the level of "service" they are provided in the form of instruction manuals, documentation, training, implementation or install services may affect the end view/result in a negative way.

Is this a bad thing? Is it wrong? I don't think so, and I think more companies out there need to realize that the end all and be all is not just the product. Your product is only as good as the weakest link in the package that makes it up So if you make a simply fantastic product that in every respect is the best there is, but there is not enough information on how to use it "right" or not good enough support when you have questions, not good enough support where something goes wrong, or even not enough good people out there to help you put it to use. Is the company out there listening, trying to find ways to improve?

So I wonder (out loud sort of) how K2 is viewed. What kind of tip are we going to get? And will that tip be mainly because of the product (a.k.a food) or will it be influenced good or bad, by our support, our documentation, our partners, etc? 

Obviously you probably don't run a restaurant but the correlations can be the same. The food you serve is your primary business. For K2 this is BPM software. Our service, our restaurant facilities, bathrooms etc are our documentation, training, consulting etc. Thus rounding out the full K2 experience.

So what does your restaurant look like? Do you provide excellent service? Think about your customers' full experience, what does it look like? Correlate this to your next visit to your favorite eatery. Think about your experience and take notice of everything the cleanliness, the food, the service, the bathrooms, even how the tables are laid out. All of these can affect your overall experience and how you feel about going there.

Then think about how this correlates to your business, what is your table layout? What is your cleanliness? What kind of tips would you be getting?

I think social media and “community” are a fantastic way for companies to learn about what tips they are getting. Its a great way to get out there an listen. Great way to get out there and converse with your diners, see what they are saying, ask how the service is, listen in to how the experience is for them.

What do you think? Let me know what you think. Your comments and suggestions are always welcome here. You can find me on Twitter, Facebook and Linkedin. Or you can email me directly chris dot geier at Gmail.com

To back track or to not backtrack

I recently read another great blog post from one of my favorites @AmberCadabra called Its ok to backtrack  its about a company getting into social media in the not necessarily the best way.  A consultant that asks the hard questions and the resulting backtrack that is done to rethink how they use social media.  It is a great example of many things including a company that has to rethink their social media strategy.  I agree it is always ok to reanalyze your strategy (i believe re-thinking your strategy is a must at all times) but i ask you how far does this backtrack go?  Is there such a thing as getting to a place that is too far to backtrack from? 

Most of the examples given in the blog entry are not huge mistakes and can be gotten past with relatively small effort.  So what if the mistakes made are much larger and create more buzz just about the mistakes?  Lets look at an example.

A company lets call them XYZ widgets (i know not creative) This widgets company thinks they need to get into social media so they take all the steps they read about and jumped right in.  This company got out there, tries to build community talks about being open, and of course talks about being involved in the conversation.  However they forget that being out there and connecting with customers and potential customers is a 2 way street.  If people are taking the time to converse with you and give you feedback you don't necessarily have to do every suggestion,  but not following up and not doing ANYTHING with it can be disastrous.  

The old adage that bad news travels fast can be at play here.  If you get out there and are fake, your intent is not to be out there get feedback, converse and  help the community, then it will show through.  I think people can forgive a lot of mistakes and can see past a lot things.  But if you are not being authentic and are just out there to get links, get leads etc and not taking the feedback seriously people will rebel.  You will get all kinds of people talking about you, but it will be talking negatively.  People will be talking about how you say you are open, you say you want feedback, you say you are there for your customers.  If you get out there and you say these things you better be true to it, you better be authentic.  If you are not then the consequences will be worse than if you were not there in the first place.  Think about how many times a company or person could say they are going to follow up with you or send you something and they never do.  Think about about how many times you will put yourself out there looking for some kind of real response.

So i ask you.  If you are an user of XYZ widgets, and you are a regular participant in the community what are your expectations of that company. What if that company is regularly involved in the community and loves to talk about wanting your feedback, regularly talks about wanting to connect with you.  So in return you try to provide it.  You work to give constructive feedback, you are a supporter of the company and you stay involved.  What if now, you never see any result of your feedback, you never see any acknowledgement of your suggestions or the like.  Are you mad? or are you just glad they asked?  Do you begin to to see this company as not being really authentic?  Do you start to believe that they are just out there because they think they should be but that they really don't believe in it or truly WANT to be there?  If you start to believe that what will your view on this company start to be?  And will that start to be worse than if they were not out there in the community at all?

I contend that this lack of authenticity, this FAKE involvement in the community is actually worse than not being involved at all.  Think about a company that seems somewhat closed off, and that you don't know how you would give feedback to.  How strongly a positive feel do you have for them.  Vs your thoughts on a company that is out there, says they are open, and takes feedback but does nothing with it.  How positive a feeling do you have for them?

Let me know what you think. Your comments and suggestions are always welcome here. You can find me on Twitter, Facebook and Linkedin. Or you can email me directly chris dot geier at Gmail.com