MackCollier.com

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This is Exactly Why You Should Ask Your Customers For Online Reviews

EnterpriseEmailConsider these customer service/satisfaction facts:

Americans tell an average of 9 people about a good experience with a company, and 16 people about a bad experience.

Roughly 80% of all tweets related to a customer service issue with a company, are negative.

But think about how this applies to you: Are you more likely to praise a company or complain?  Personally, I am more likely to share a negative experience, or rather I am more likely to be motivated to share a negative experience.  Especially when I think the company just completely screwed up.

Yet when it comes to a positive experience, I am less likely/motivated to share that experience.  Case in point, for over a year now I’ve been renting cars (quite often) from a particular Enterprise location locally.  So much so that the employees that work there recognize me and know which vehicle I prefer in the class I rent.  I always get a good experience, and a couple of times it’s been exceptional.  So when I received an email (screenshot above) encouraging me to review them online, it was a no-brainer.  In fact my first thought was ‘Of course, I should have already done this!’

The reason why?  We complain because we want to get the company’s attention so they will fix our problem.  That’s typically our motivation when we complain online.  With a positive experience, we aren’t trying to get the company’s attention, so our motivation to share good news is typically less.

The takeaway is this: A lot of companies are very reluctant to send an email like the one Enterprise did.  “We’re just encouraging our customers to leave negative reviews online!” I can see many CEOs lamenting.  But most of those unsatisfied customers have already left a negative review online.  Asking for reviews would typically encourage more positive reviews than negative.

We are more motivated and likely to share negative experiences with a company than positive ones.  So by asking for reviews, you are evening the scales because you are making it easier for customers that had a positive experience to share that.

Do you agree with this?  Are you more likely to share a very positive or negative experience online?

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Sprint: 20% of Employee Bonuses Are Tied to Net Promoter Score

14325498366_f041d5d541_zSprint has rolled out a new bonus structure for all its employees, including executives.  Moving forward, 20% of employee bonuses will depend on how effectively its current customers promote Sprint to new customers.  In short, Sprint is betting on the power of the Net Promoter Score, and will pay its employees big bucks for raising its score.

Here’s how it works: Surveyors ask Sprint customers to rate — from zero to 10 — how willing they are to recommend the company to others. Only nines and 10s count as promoters. Sevens and eights are considered neutral, and anything less comes out as a detractor.

The key for Sprint employees and execs is that 20 percent of their incentive pay is now tied to improving that score.

On paper, this sounds like a good idea.  The rationale is that if more of Sprint’s current customers are generating positive Word of Mouth, it will lead to new customers.  So Sprint wants to reward employees when its NPS increases.

Here’s the potential problem I see:  By paying employees for raising its NPS, it gives employees an incentive to raise its NPS instead of creating an environment where happy customers promote the brand.  What gets measured gets managed.  The goal shouldn’t be improving your NPS, that should be a by-product of doing a better job of understanding your customers.  The goal should be to better understand and connect with your existing customers.  A by-product of this will be an increased NPS.

Here’s another example:  Telstra, Australia’s largest telecommunications company, is also betting big on the power of its brand advocates.  But instead of focusing on raising its NPS, Telstra has focused on its call centers, on giving customers a better and more efficient experience.  Additionally, the company sends out over 11 million customer surveys a year, including 30,000 a day.  The feedback from these surveys as well as call centers is then mined and applied to Telstra’s existing marketing efforts.

As a result, Telstra’s NPS has increased by 3 points in 2014.

Whenever I talk to a company about launching a brand ambassador program, we talk about the reasons why they feel they need such a program.  Then I ask them to tell me what in it for their customers.  Many companies can tell me exactly how they want to benefit, but when it comes to discussing the value created for the customer, they typically haven’t given that as much consideration.  The goal shouldn’t be to raise your NPS, it should be to give your customers a reason to rave about you.  If you do that, then your NPS will take care of itself.

Whenever you considering launching any initiative that’s dependent on your customers performing some action for you, always carefully outline what’s in it for the customer.  Be able to spell out how you benefit, and how the customer will benefit.

The goal is a win-win, not a win for your brand.

Pic via Flickr user Mike Mozart

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Jay Baer Joins #Blogchat Tonight: How to Make Your Blog a YouTility

JayBaer

UPDATE: Here’s the transcript from tonight’s #Blogchat with Jay!

I’m thrilled to announce that Jay Baer will be joining #Blogchat tonight (10-5-2014)!  Jay is one of the true thought leaders in digital marketing and a New York Times Bestselling author thanks to his hit YouTility!  Jay will talk to us tonight about how to leverage our blogs to create useful marketing for our customers, starting at 8pm Central!

Here’s what we’ll be discussing:

8:00-8:20 PM Central – How do you determine what type of content is most useful for your particular audience?

8:20-8:40PM – Does the helpful content you create have to be directly related to the products you sell?

8:40-9:00PM – Is a blog the best way to create and distribute content that provides YouTility for customers?

 

Hope you can join us starting at 8pm Central on Twitter!  And EVERYONE is welcome to join, just follow the hashtag on Twitter and jump right in!  If you will be joining us make sure you are following Jay on Twitter and reading his blog, Convince and Convert.

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Ann Handley Co-Hosts #Blogchat Tonight on Weaving Storytelling Into Your Blog!

Yeah, it was a party! Here’s the transcript from tonight’s #Blogchat with Ann!

AnnHandley

Tonight I’m thrilled to welcome for the second time, Ann Handley as co-host of #Blogchat!  Ann is going to teach us how to be better writers PLUS tonight kicks off LAUNCH WEEK for her second book, Everybody Writes!  Everybody Writes is doing AMAZINGLY well in pre-sales and will no doubt be an instant bestseller.  You can order your copy here on Amazon.

Here’s what we’ll be discussing with Ann:

8:00-8:20pm Central, we’ll discuss What are some tips for telling interesting stories on a blog? How do you keep the reader’s attention?

8:20-8:40pm, What are some of the common writing mistakes bloggers make that can be easily corrected?

8:40-9:00pm, How does Ann Handley write?  What tools does Ann use to help her writing and how does she find ideas to write about?

 

Ann will be joining us with her @AnnHandley name on Twitter, so please make sure you are following her on Twitter!  See you on Twitter at 8pm Central, everyone is welcome!

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Sprinklr Acquires Brand/Influencer Advocacy Company Branderati

SprinklrBranderatiSprinklr today announced that it has acquired brand/influencer company Branderati.  Sprinklr is a social media management platform aimed at the enterprise and Branderati is a platform that allows brands to recruit new and connect with existing advocates and influencers.  The acquisition seems to complement what Sprinklr can offer so I decided to talk to Branderati’s Ekaterina Walter (who will transition to become the Global Evangelism Lead at Sprinklr), and Sprinklr’s VP of Marketing Jeremy Epstein about what this move means for Sprinklr and how companies will connect with and engage its advocates in the future:

Mack: Why did Sprinklr want to acquire Branderati?  What does Branderati’s platform allow Sprinklr to do that it couldn’t without it?

Ekaterina: Sprinklr bought us because Ragy (Sprinklr CEO and Founder Ragy Thomas) understood that advocacy has moved from hype to real business driver. Sprinklr’s charter is to provide end-to-end social media infrastructure. To fulfill this mission the company needed to add advocacy marketing as a core, integrated module that acts as a seamless extension of the social stack.

Branderati technology and expertise brings several things to the equation.

First, our screening technology captures API and self-reported data to align potential advocates with predefined profiles of ideal ambassadors. This technology is critical for any brand looking to create highly vetted advocacy networks at scale. By combining this screening process with the ability to identify candidates across moderation, social listening and CRM, we will deliver the most complete advocacy recruitment solution in the marketplace.

Second, from an engagement standpoint we bring the ability to create entire members-only programs that are highly targeted and personalized to each ambassador. By combing this engagement platform with the larger campaign management and scheduling functions in Sprinklr, the platform becomes a unified command center for activation of both advocates and the broader community.

Third, from a measurement standpoint there are very specific types of tracking data we provide in order to track ambassadors’ true impact. By bringing deep views of this insight into the main reporting suite of Sprinklr we provide a single source for nearly your entire paid owned and earned social impact.

Lastly, Sprinklr acquired focused expertise. We have been managing sustained advocacy programs since 2010. The experience and best practices will be a huge benefit to future Sprinklr product development and to their clients.

Jeremy: Think of it in terms that are near and dear to our heart.

Yesterday: we could find passionate advocates (listening), we could nurture them (engagement), and we could reach them en masse (owned and paid).

Today: we can do all of them, but we give brands the ability to say to these people “hey, you’re a fan, can we work with you in a special capacity and notify you of offers/campaigns/etc. in a permission-based way” and then do ALL of that from within the same platform AND measure the impact of owned, paid, and earned media on a given campaign across all channels.

Your community becomes a balance sheet asset.

No one else in the world offers this.

 

Mack: Does this acquisition signal a growing desire by brands to connect with and manage advocates at scale?

Ekaterina: No doubt. Now that companies have built enormous communities, the question becomes “How do we focus on those members of our communities that are crazy about our brand and will help us ignite brand love and passionate conversations around our brand?” It isn’t about vanity numbers any more, it is about the influence that drives action (conversion, purchase, etc.). And sheer fan numbers on social networks can’t do that. Yes, they can help drive awareness. But only advocacy and word-of-mouth will drive current and future customers to buy.

Brands have been struggling with this for a while now while trying to recruit and engage advocates both internally (employee advocacy) and externally (customer advocacy). Branderati platform at a minimum eliminates the headache of manual management and reporting, as well as sustainable creative engagement.

 

Mack: Along with the previous question, over the next 6-12 months do you feel there should be more interest from brands in ‘activating’ fans, or in simply collecting better feedback from them to apply to existing marketing and business processes?  A sort of ‘feedback loop’ if you will?  

Ekaterina: It’s a must. If you look at how Ragy built Sprinklr and evolved his roadmap, for example, you will see that it was primarily done through customer feedback. The customer needed something, Ragy listened. He consistently asked: “What can I do to help? Or perfect the product?” He brought clean “feedback loop” into Sprinklr’s product development and that was one of the key reasons why he continues to succeed.

You see, in the social economy it is all about relationship capital. That should be the true beacon of any business. And bringing customer into this process is essential for company’s success. Especially if your customer is already an advocate of your brand. These relationships impact your bottom line the most. Hence, we will continue to see more and more brands shift there mentality from “views and fan numbers” to “influence through advocacy.”

 

I appreciated Ekaterina’s last answer as I think this is the missing ingredient in the quest to ‘activate’ fans.  I think it’s a great fit for a social media management platform like Sprinklr to acquire a company like Branderati.  The rise of social media has made it much easier for companies to directly connect with its customers via these tools, and its fans as well.  I just hope that companies don’t focus on trying to ‘activate’ fans because they want new salespeople, but instead focus on the enormous value that could be created by leveraging fans as a feedback channel to improve all businesses processes.  The opportunity to ‘activate’ fans and increase sales generated from these fans is very real, but brands shouldn’t overlook the incredible amount of insights that fans possess into who their customers are and how to reach them effectively.

Very exciting times and I am thrilled to see the added focus that many brands are placing on connecting with their fans and it sounds like the Sprinklr acquisition of Branderati will make that process a lot easier.

 

UPDATE: Here’s the press release on the acquisition.

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Bring Your Blog to the Next Level with Expert Interviews

ann-smarty-print-01Note from Mack: This is a sponsored post from Ann Smarty for MyBlogU, who is the sponsor of #Blogchat in August.  You can learn more about them by clicking here. 

Last week I was lucky enough to co-host #blogchat talking about being featured in the expert interviews for brand awareness and influence building, so today I thought I’d follow up with tips on how to benefit from publishing expert interviews as well (there’s truly a win-win concept there)!

Attracting real people to your blog is not an easy task… especially nowadays that the web is so much overloaded with content. Building a micro-community around your blog is so essential for its success: You need people who will help you get your word out.

That’s where the concept of group interviews comes in handy. If someone is willing to provide a quote for your article, that accomplishes so many goals at a time:

  • Your content suddenly becomes more trust-worthy (With readers seeing possibly familiar names contributing);
  • You get people on board who are willing to promote and share your article (the basics of ego-bait) with the huge long-term potential benefit of turning those contributors into your blog community champions.
  • Your article becomes more in-depth and unique (thanks to the variety of first-hand experiences or personal takes shared in it)
  • You can engage your community by inviting them to feature their answers on your blog (and thus build better relationships with your readers)
  • You may discover lots of new angles of the topic you thought you knew quite well (and thus stand out)…

The Draw Of The Expert Interview: Examples

While there are many reasons for conducting expert interviews, there are two primary reasons that they work so effectively. First, they are leaning on the brand of those contributors’ namse, which holds a lot of clout on both the social web and the entire industry. Second, you are giving your own followers/readers/fans something valuable that they can use, learn from and be entertained by.

Interviews are a great vessel for well received content. Here’s an example of how one email to a prominent blogger with a single question can be turned into a useful article of its own. Here’s a more traditional q&a-style expert round-up, with each contributor telling a personal story. Here’s another approach: A group expert interview which was packaged into a huge all-in-one tutorial filled with actionable advice. Here’s another type of the group interview that doesn’t have “question-answer” format but still delivers a powerful message with first-hand examples.

There are also whole business models based solely on featuring expert interviews. Here’s a good example shared by my fellow @MyBlogU ambassador @YoavEzer: A site filled with lots of personal stories of how people embraced freedom for the sake of becoming entrepreneurs. Or this one turning interviews into a powerful course! There’s also a great example I came across at #blogchat:

I’ve experimented a lot with various types of expert interviews and I’ve seen great results, especially if I get consistent: Our weekly #vcbuzz interviews with experts (turned into on-site interviews as well) attracted some of the biggest industry names to our site: Most of them have become our site users and / or chat regulars.

The Power is in Connections

Creating awesome content is often not enough to get heard. You need eager people who will be happy to call your blog “a home” and will talk back to you. Otherwise, it’s tough to keep on. Adding expert interviews to your blog editorial calendar (and possibly approaching the task with some creativity) is a great way to get some discussion going and spread your reach!

Do you have any creative examples of blogging utilizing expert interviews? Please share them in the comments!

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The Fan-Damn-Tastic Marketing Show Episode 8: Building Loyalty To Your Brand, Not Your Offer

Hey y’all!  In this 8th episode of #FanDamnShow I talk about loyalty programs and why most companies completely mess them up.  For a good background on what we’ll be discussing, check out this post.

Show notes:

1:09 – Discussion of Loyalty Programs (that are more interesting than Andy Griffith re-runs), and why these are typically structured incorrectly

1:52 – Punch cards as an example of building loyalty to the offer versus the brand

3:40 – How to build a smart loyalty program by rewarding the behavior you want to encourage (think rewards for past behavior not incentives for future behavior)

5:02 – Wal-Mart vs Publix and why I love Publix and hate Wal-Mart based on the experience that each provides

6:50 – When you ask fans/customers to engage in an offer, make sure you reward them for doing so and an example I ran into recently where this didn’t happen for me

13:45 – Recap and how to know that your company is structuring its loyalty program correctly in order to build loyalty toward your brand

 

You can listen to all 8 episodes of The Fan-Damn-Tastic Marketing Show on iTunes, please subscribe!

 

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Bloggers, Learn How to Get More Interviews With Ann Smarty!

myblogu-01

UPDATE: Here’s the transcript from our #Blogchat with Ann!

This Sunday (8-24-2014) we’ll welcome Ann Smarty to #Blogchat!  Ann will be helping us learn how as bloggers we can get more interview requests from other bloggers and sites.  Ann’s MyBlogU is the #Blogchat sponsor for August, you can learn more about MyBlogU by clicking here.

Here’s what we’ll be discussing on Sunday starting at 8PM Central:

8:00-8:20 PM – How does a blogger position themselves as an expert worth interviewing?

8:20-8:40 PM – How to get interviewed (find expert interviews to participate in)?

8:40-9:00 PM – How does a blogger make the best impression in an interview? Ann will help us understand the best way to answer questions, the best type of interview (email, phone, video) and what areas of our expertise to highlight so we put our best foot forward!

 

Getting interviews is a wonderful tool for helping a blogger build awareness and establish their level of expertise.  Think about it, you are getting the same exposure that you would from a guest post on another blog, but the added benefit is that other blogger or site is also interviewing you as an expert!  So it’s the best of both worlds!  We’ll chat about this with Ann tomorrow night and if you have any questions about how to be interviewed more often by other bloggers and sites, Ann can help!  Make sure you are following her on Twitter.

See y’all tomorrow night on Twitter!

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Upcoming Marketing Events I’ll Be Keynoting

Hey y’all, just a quick note to let you know about some of the events I’ll be speaking at over the next month.

MarketingProfs Pro Webinar – How to Create Amazing Blog Content That Gets Seen and Shared

This is tomorrow(8-20-2014) at 12pm Eastern time and available for free to MarketingProfs PRO members, or $129 for everyone else.  I’ll walk you through how to create blog content that’s optimized for search and social, as well as primers on creating amazing post headlines and writing more compelling content.  The webinar will run 90 mins total, with about 30 of that for Q&A.

Type A Parent Conference Opening Keynote – Think Like a Rock Star, Atlanta, Georgia, September 19-21.

TypeA

I’m thrilled to be kicking off the Type A Parent Conference on Friday, September 19th with an updated version of my Think Like a Rock Star talk as the Opening Keynote.  I’ll also be on site for Friday and probably most of Saturday as well, so I’m really looking forward to spending a lot of time with everyone as I’ve heard amazing things about Type A.  You can register here.

The BIG Event: PR & Marketing – Lunch Keynote & Workshop on Creating a Social Media Strategy, Huntsville, Alabama, September 26th

I always love speaking in Alabama, especially in Huntsville.  At The BIG Event I’ll be doing the lunch keynote as well as a 3-hour whiteboard workshop on creating a social media strategy.  We’ll go through all the steps on the fly for creating an amazing social media strategy and audience participation will be big as the session will be very interactive.  The cost to attend The BIG Event is a complete steal at only $99.

 

So if you are in the Atlanta or Huntsville area I’d love to see you next month!

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The Fan-Damn-Tastic Marketing Show Episode 7 – Turning Your Personal Social Media Wins Into Business Success

9653414876_c3ea279383_zHey y’all!  Welcome to the 7th episode of The Fan-Damn-Tastic Marketing Show!  In this 14+ minute episode I discuss:

  • The upcoming college football season, Roll Tide!
  • Using your personal social media efforts to help get buy-in from the boss for larger projects
  • How Scott Monty used what he learned early on from I Hear of Sherlock Everywhere in his professional work
  • Advice from Billboard Magazine’s Katie Morse on how to get ‘small wins’ in your brand advocacy battles that lead to bigger budgets.

Interview with Billboard’s Katie Morse

Transcript from #Blogchat with Scott Monty

Hope you enjoy it!  And if you do please subscribe to #FanDannShow on iTunes!

Direct download for this episode.

Pic via Flickr user Nina Matthews Photography