I’ve been extremely lucky in my time at Visible to work with some of the savviest Customer Relations professionals from some of the world’s largest companies as they developed and implemented social programs. One conversation I had with the team at Kraft Foods has stuck out in my mind and kept me thinking ever since.
With nearly 200,000 different products in their lineup today and over 40 brands that have hit the 100 year mark, they’ve got a lot of experience dealing with customer complaints and getting feedback. But hearing from the customers hasn’t always been easy. In our early conversations they explained how they viewed social media as more than a passing marketing fad. They were preparing for it to revolutionize their relationship with the customer the way toll free numbers changed it in the late 1960’s.
Nowadays you expect to flip a box over and find an email address, toll-free number and sometimes even a dedicated website printed on the package for “questions or comments”. But that wasn’t always the case. Back in the day if you bought a jar of mayonnaise and it was bad or had some other problem, you had two options. Take time out of your day and pay the postage to write a letter to the company or return it to the store. Letters were a rarity and most retail managers found it easier to write off the loss and give a replacement jar than take the time to contact the manufacturer for a dollar item. The manufacturers rarely heard from the customer and common issues took years to surface.
That all changed with the toll-free revolution. Suddenly consumers had a fast, convenient and free way to be heard directly. Entire customer service departments and call centers were established to handle customer complaints, feedback, ideas and questions. Product and packaging innovations sky rocketed with all of this new input. Ever called the turkey hotline at Thanksgiving?
Social media is providing a new means of consumer feedback. Some companies are stepping up and investing their own resources to provide online forums to help further this new customer servicing revolution and create more manageable spaces to have a positive impact. Others are scouring the social universe to seek out consumers talking about their product to listen, learn, engage, assist and enrich experiences.
What will be the next revolution? How will social media further refine itself to enable better customer servicing? Will there be centralization with entire sites dedicated to consumer complaints and feedback not specific to a company but to an industry or demographic? Sites where consumers expect companies will seek them out and fix their problems? Forums fill this to some extent now for many product types and industries. I would love to hear your thoughts on where we are headed!
