Engagement example: AOL

     Will Morris, AOL's man in Silicon Valley, and Frank Gruber, who works out of the east coast HQ, vowed to help engage unhappy customers across the Web as well as critics of the company’s products to help shed new light to each

discussion, clarify confusion, and simply help in general.

     Will recently wrote about it as a way of inspiring his co-workers to do the same, “Don't let people say silly things about your company. Yes I mean it. Your

company.” Morris continued, “Frank Gruber set an example for me last year. When he spots these comments, he follows up with a comment and (if possible) contacts the person who wrote it. And the response is normally good. If Frank can do it (as busy as he is), so can we all do it.”

     Frank Gruber added to the discussion, “Will Morris has been a leader at the AOL Silicon Valley campus for over 9 years…he is making sure that employees realize that they can make a difference by taking pride in their work and by engaging directly with customers.”

     Examples from Frank:

• The moment TechCrunch announced myAOL, a new personalized startpage, it was met by critics that had not even looked at the product but saw it was from AOL and immediately took a negative stance. As the myAOL product lead, Gruber took this on as a challenge. He made sure to comment and contact individuals to get real feedback on the product.
• Gruber took the time to reach out through comments and emails. In one such case, Gruber contacted open critic, Matt Harwood. Harwood took a position that was very much against myAOL when the Sneak Preview video splashed onto pages of TechCrunch in June. In August, he had changed his mind and opted to share his new sentiment publicly.
• Gruber responded, “Matt’s open dialog says a lot about his character and I really appreciate it. It is feedback like his that helps improve a product.”

     Source: Customer service: the art of listening and engagement through Social Media (Brian Solis and Becky Carroll) e-book