Friday, October 19, 2012

Customer engagement online

     I have talked with many companies who tell me they aren’t sure if they want to start an online conversation with their customers. Cord Silverstein asks this question in his post Engage customers or die. He says, Is it a good thing for companies to try to engage their customers online? Does the good outweigh the possible repercussions that could come from it? And finally what are some of your ideas on how companies can engage online with their customers?
     Cord’s post and comments start a great discussion on this topic! I think part of the concern companies have about engaging their customers in conversation online is that they have not already been engaging in ANY conversations with customers. Rather, marketing and PR have often created one-way communication vehicles (advertisements, press releases, articles/white papers). Ongoing, two-way interaction with customers is how we build customer relationships. Social media, ideally, is just one more channel by which to reach out and build relationships with customers. It is a great channel to use because it enables immediate, two-way conversation! Therefore, if your customers are interacting online, you need to be out there talking with them and learning from them in the online space.

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

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