You have probably heard lots about Web 2.0, but increasingly companies are using Web 2.0 to drive what is now being called “Customer Service 2.0”. Customer Service 2.0 is about using blogs, discussion boards, and all the latest social networking sites such as Twitter, Facebook, etc. to monitor and stay in touch with customers to help uncover and resolve their issues. No doubt, this will increase customer satisfaction in the short term, but more importantly, it will be something that is expected from any type of organization with “customers”, even including nonprofit organizations.
Last month, Comcast received a lot of press when they began monitoring and responding to anyone who tweeted about Comcast on Twitter.com. How do you engage with someone who is only known online as digitalkitty or oxjox? Well, by their preferred method of communication, of course, which in this case is Twitter. Comcast set up a Twitter account called comcastcares and began responding to complaints and problems within minutes of them being posted.
(BTW, Comcast probably should have checked with their marketing team before calling their effort Comcast Cares, since a Google search for “Comcast Cares” returns a lot more hits for “Comcast Cares Day” — another admirable initiative which is their employees’ day of caring in the community.)
In the past, Blackbaud has sometimes been hesitant to intrude upon posts about us on public forums, either because we felt our responses would be unwelcome or perhaps because we were afraid of publicly giving the wrong response. But this type of response is now welcomed and even expected, so we have really increased our online presence as of late with Blackbaud Labs, and better forums and blogs that are all publicly available. We attempt to participate in discussions about Blackbaud when it feels appropriate, all so our customers can understand how committed we are to understanding their issues and meeting their needs.
So what should your strategy be? Should your employees or volunteers be out there authoring blogs, tweets, and comments on news articles, message boards, and discussion forums? Or is your organization concerned, like many others we talk to, that this kind of activity will dilute your brand? It is definitely a scary proposition the first time you post something like this blog, take it from me. But I can also pretty much guarantee that as your organization grows and widens its impact, others will be discussing you online whether you prompt that discussion or not. So I encourage you to learn as much as you can and decide how your organization wants to participate in this media revolution.
And be sure to let me know how it’s going!