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Posts Tagged ‘Consumer reviews’

 iPhone Photo App Empowers Shoppers With A Mobile ‘Hotline’ this Holiday Season

Wednesday, December 8th, 2010

MeasuredUp.com free iPhone App allows shoppers to instantly and directly report long lines, poor customer service or incorrect prices with photos while actively shopping

NEW YORK, Dec. 8, 2010 /PRNewswire/ — Just in time for the Holiday Shopping Season MeasuredUp.com, the leading customer service resolution and online reputation social media website, is releasing its new, free photo shopping application named the “MeasuredUp Hotline” for the popular iPhone, available at MeasuredUp Hotline App and the iTunes Store or on your iPhone App Store. A picture is worth a thousand words and the new “Hotline” photo app allows consumers to instantly report shopping experiences and complaints like long lines, incorrect prices or messy stores directly to the businesses management with photos from the iPhone.

(Photo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20101208/NY14145LOGO )

The “Hotline” allows customers a new, immediate and effective way to report on the shopping experience so that business owners can respond to their customers and improve their customer service reputation, consumer loyalty and shopping experience.

“The Hotline App means consumers are ready for any shopping situation and can make sure they receive great Customer Service,” said MeasuredUp.com founder Marc Karasu. “No one should go shopping without this app.”

How The Hotline App Works

“The Hotline app allows shoppers to report a problem, complaint or issue in seconds by including a short title, rating, photo and optional review from their iPhone which is connected to the MeasuredUp.com website where it is seen by partner businesses. Thousands of National chain stores and small local businesses already use the MeasuredUp website Business Tools to track, fix and build their Customer Service and Online Reputation.

Whether it is alerting a Business owner to open more checkout lines, adjust an incorrect price on a product, clean up a messy aisle or any number of customer observations now a Business Owner can improve the store and shopping experience and keep their retail customers happy by replying directly to specific “Hotline” reports fast.

About MeasuredUp.com

MeasuredUp.com is the leading Customer Service Resolution social media website site where consumers rate and review their customer service experiences. Thousands of Partner Businesses use MeasuredUp everyday to reply to customers, build customer service brand and manage online reputation. Hundreds of thousands of consumers use MeasuredUp to make their voice heard and get answers directly from Businesses.

Read the article at http://finance.yahoo.com/news/iPhone-Photo-App-Empowers-prnews-3439669846.html?x=0&.v=1

 Leveraging customer review to manage your reputation online

Monday, October 11th, 2010

Undoubtedly, no single thing matters as much for increasing sales and engendering loyalty as building a great customer service brand. And considering the immediate and ubiquitous nature of the Internet—where details about a negative customer experience can spread like wildfire—it’s more important than ever for small business owners to join the conversation online and help to manage their company’s reputation.

Whether you like it or not, consumers are most likely talking about your business on the Internet. And if you’ve recently heard about a customer service problem at your business, it’s likely that you became aware of the situation in the same way that most consumers do: by finding a review about your company via a search engine.

So how can you be proactive about managing your reputation online? Let’s look at two ways:

1.

Increase the number of online reviews about your company. You can begin this process by asking your top customers to post a review about your business on customer review sites such as Yelp.com and MeasuredUp.com. By asking your top customers to post reviews, you’ll likely generate a number of complimentary reviews quickly and easily. These reviews will help to offset any existing negative reviews, help to increase your visibility on search engines, and help to attract potential customers who are searching for your products or services online.

When you come across a complimentary review about your business, you should add a quick “Thank You” in response, and mention that you appreciate the support of your customers.
2.

Respond to negative online reviews about your company. You can tackle this effort by having a staff member—who understands your company culture and brand—spend a few hours each week searching the Internet for unflattering reviews about your company. (Note: There are online tools available that can help you accomplish this.)

When there’s a comment field available in a review, the staff member should respond with some helpful and constructive content that shows that you care about providing good customer service. In addition, they should state that they are an employee of the company. The respondent should never pretend to be a consumer, because that deception will likely be discovered, and will likely produce even more uncomplimentary content.

The employee should also include a link to your website in the response, which can help to drive traffic back to your website.

The goal here is not to have only good reviews, because even some of the best companies have bad reviews written about them. The goal is to achieve an effective balance, and to make sure that you don’t allow uncontrolled rumors to spread online. You also want to demonstrate through association that your brand is focused on good customer service . . . and that you’ll take steps to improve it when you fall short.

By leveraging online reviews about your company in your favor, you can often have a greater impact on the purchasing intent of consumers—who are deciding what to buy and where to buy it—than even the best TV commercial or magazine ad can have.

Read the article here: www.web.com/blog/small-business-development/leveraging-customer-reviews-to-help-you-manage-your-reputation-online/

 The Value Of Real-Time Customer Care

Wednesday, August 12th, 2009

Allen Adamson08.11.09, 05:30 PM EDT

In a virtual marketplace, brands that add a personal touch will stand out–and win.

 

One of the best parts of vacationing in a small town is visiting the local video store, where the proprietor–a scruffy guy who loves everything related to movies–will recommend films that he thinks you’ll love. There’s no scientific algorithm to his suggestions, no data analysis or statistical assessment. The owner makes his recommendations based on bits and pieces of casual conversation with customers.

I was thinking about that video store as I read about the contest hosted by Netflix ( NFLX - news people ), which offered a $1 million prize to anyone who could significantly improve its recommendation system and ended in July. While digital technology has made our lives more convenient in many ways, especially in the way it helps people make buying decisions, smart companies realize that there are some things even the most sophisticated digital applications can’t do. Above all, they can’t replace the personal touch that often helps consumers distinguish one brand from another. In a tough economic climate, real customer care–not virtual–can be the differentiating factor between two competing brands.

 

Read the entire article at http://www.forbes.com/2009/08/11/allen-adamson-marketing-cmo-network-adamson.html?feed=rss_leadership_cmonetwork

 Survey: Web Generates Consumer Feedback

Thursday, April 24th, 2008

Read te entire article at http://www.adweek.com/aw/content_display/news/digital/e3if57cb0c541e56ebf990efc9c9949c2af

April 24, 2008

-By Eric Newman, Brandweek

NEW YORK Forget focus groups. Consumers are giving it straight to brands, and each other, via online social media in big numbers, according to a recent study by the Society for New Communications Research, Palo Alto, Calif.

“Exploring the Link Between Customer Care and Brand Reputation in the Age of Social Media” surveyed more than 300 active Internet users during February and March.

The study found that 74 percent of respondents choose companies or brands based on customer service experiences shared by other Web users on the Internet. Eighty-one percent of those polled said they believe blogs, online rating systems and discussion forums give consumers “a greater voice” in customer service. However, only 33 percent of respondents felt that companies take customers’ opinions seriously.

“This study indicates that there is a growing group of highly desirable consumers using social media to research companies,” said Ganim Nora Barnes, a senior fellow at SNCR, in a statement. This demo includes adults 25-55 with a college education, making over $100,000 a year. “These most savvy and sought-after consumers will not support companies with poor customer care reputations, and they will talk about all of this openly with others via multiple online vehicles. This research should serve as a wake-up call to companies: listen, respond, and improve.”

The study also found what marketers might find somewhat counterintuitive. While search engines were deemed the most valuable online tools for researching customer experience with a given brand, 39 percent of respondents rated blogging services like Twitter and Pownce as being of “no value” to such research. Similarly, 27 percent found YouTube useless, and 22 percent said the same of social networking sites like Facebook and MySpace.

Of those industries judged to be doing the best job in using social media to respond to customer service issues, technology, retail and travel companies took top honors. Dell and Amazon were noted most often as those companies doing the best job handling customer care problems via social media.

Utilities, healthcare and insurance firms fared the worst.

 Ten Ways to be a Better at Leveraging Customer Relationships

Wednesday, April 16th, 2008

Written by Martin Haworth from his website:

http://www.Coaching-Businesses-To-Success.com


  1. Be Open
    Start hearing what your customers are saying. Truly listen and realise you can benefit if you hear properly.
  2. Create Conversations
    Get out there with your customers. Ask questions, value their input and build great relationships for the future.
  3. Get Past Criticism
    It’s not about you, or your people. The negatives you get are fixable – and sometimes need a deeper consideration of what they mean. So be honest about causes (hint – it will be something to do with you!)
  4. Savour Feedback
    It is a gift for you – relish it! You may wish to let off a little whoop of delight every time you get feedback. It truly is a cause for celebration.
  5. Get Your Team Onboard
    And share your enthusiasm too. Get your people realising that they are not in the wrong – yet they can be a lot more in the right. Be happy about this!
  6. Keep in Touch
    When you have these open and honest conversations with your customers, remember to take contact details and get back to them with outcomes – they will love it! And become an ongoing advocate for you.
  7. See Opportunity
    In days where prices are squeezed,; product distribution is widespread; and services are being shipped overseas, this level of positive, constructive customer relationships is about all you’ve got – it can become your USP.
  8. Share Widely
    Let all of your people know the successes you are having. This creates an upward spiral of involvement – everyone will want their ‘customers’ to be the useful ones!
  9. Keep Smiling
    Hey – have fun with this – respect your customers and be prepared to get involved with them – share a different sort of relationship from the usual adversarial. Smile together:-).
  10. Give Back
    Treat your customers kindly. Encourage feedback and reward them with gifts – be different! They and what’s more you will love it!

 Hello, Houston… We Have A Customer Service Problem

Monday, March 31st, 2008

Mar. 31, 2008 (Investor’s Business Daily delivered by Newstex) –

A Verizon (NYSE:VZ) customer thought he was making a routine call this month by dialing toll-free to ask for a rebate. But he got an unexpected jolt when a recording directed him to another number that turned out to be a phone sex line.

Verizon Communications VZ quickly corrected the wrong number. But the damage was done. The customer blogged about the incident, which caused the wireless carrier to issue a public apology for the flub.

Such bizarre glitches are unusual. Yet the rise of blogs, camera phones and video Web sites means buyers today have a much larger megaphone to amplify their gripes.

In turn, companies that focus on consumers — including phone carriers, retail stores and banks — need clear policies to make customer service a top priority, says Bruce Temkin, an analyst at Forrester Research. (NASDAQ:FORR)

“Customer service comes at that point 14 time when customers are highly engaged in the problems they have,” Temkin said. “So it’s always a difficult and important moment of truth for the company.”

A new study from Accenture (NYSE:ACN) ACN found that 59% of people had actually stopped doing business with companies in the past year due to poor service. That’s based on a survey of 3,500 consumers on five continents. Just under half of those polled said their service expectations were met only sometimes, rarely or never.

Often the problem stems from cutting costs at the expense of customers, says Robert Wollan, global managing partner for Accenture’s service transformation business.

He says companies are misguided when they keep people on hold longer or slash store hours just to save money.

“There are still many gross examples of companies (encouraging) the wrong behaviors,” Wollan said. “You have to align the company’s goals through the eyes of the customer.”

Spotty Service

Everyone knows that customer service is vital, but lots of firms still address the task haphazardly. For instance, only 10% of retailers measure customer satisfaction on a weekly basis. Just 8% do so annually.

Even more surprising, 6% of retailers don’t have any set schedule at all in tracking customer satisfaction. That’s according to an annual survey of 137 retail firms by the National Retail Federation and IBM (NYSE:IBM) IBM.

One clear step to improving satisfaction involves appointing a high-level executive with real authority to enforce service levels. At some companies, this role is known as the chief customer officer.

Another tactic is to create programs which stress “the voice of the customer,” as Temkin puts it. For instance, this can involve assuring that all complaints get resolved on a single call, rather than being handed off to multiple reps.

“Companies have to look at every interaction from a customer point 15f view,” Temkin said. “This gets the whole company thinking about things from the outside in.”

He says all interactions should be judged by how well they help customers reach their end goals. Managers, moreover, need to focus on three key questions to get service levels right. They are: Who are your users? What are their goals? And how can you help them achieve those goals?

Companies should take responsibility for any problems, and communicate their message clearly. In addition to showing empathy for consumers, managers must find concrete ways to resolve problems. They also need a clear method to measure success, Temkin adds.

“The fact is that customer service is really, really hard,” he said.

ForeSee Results is a firm that measures online customer loyalty for retail Web sites. In 2007, its aggregate customer satisfaction rating fell by 1.3% to 74%. The rating declined for nearly half of 40 online retailers last year due to higher consumer expectations, ForeSee Results’ CEO, Larry Freed, said on a recent conference call.

Retailers whose scores improved last year included Barnes & Noble (NYSE:BKS) BKS, Wal-Mart (NYSE:WMT) WMT and Best Buy BBY, according to Mark Mahaney, a Citi (NYSE:C) Investment Research analyst who hosted the conference call.

Mahaney says there are essential elements that contribute to improved customer scores like this.

“Focusing on brand consistency, increasing product selection and enhancing the user experience are some of the best ways to gain ground in customer satisfaction,” he wrote in a note to investors.

Lower-priced stores can deliver strong customer service too, so long as consumer expectations are clearly defined and met. Ensuring that people know what they’ll get — not necessarily “wowing” the customer — is the key, says Temkin.

“What is the customer’s expectation for the brand, and how often do you meet that expectation? You need to line up to that mark every time you touch a customer,” he said.

Beware Of Churn

Intense competition in telecoms means even satisfied customers will drop their phone plans to get a still-better experience. Such turnover is known as customer churn.

Sprint Nextel S is battling a major churn problem due to weak service. Sprint (NYSE:FON) was ranked 106 of 112 companies for quality of service in a Forrester study last year. Sprint also finished dead last among the eight mobile service providers.

Sprint CEO Daniel Hesse blames his company’s sinking stock price on weak service. Many irate customers have dumped Sprint, pulling down its sales and shares. On a recent earnings call with analysts, Hesse said improving the customer experience has become “job one” for Sprint.

“Because of the customer experience we provided last year, churn is accelerating,” he said. “In conclusion, our business is not performing well right now, because we have not provided the right customer experience.”

Sprint isn’t alone. In a recent survey of 2,000 mobile phone users in the U.S., 96% said they wouldn’t hesitate to switch carriers to get a better experience. In fact, 72% had already made a switch due to a negative experience.

The Harris Interactive (NASDAQ:HPOL) survey was commissioned by Chordiant Software (NASDAQ:CHRD) CHRD, a maker of business software for customer service.

Another call center technology firm, Amdocs (NYSE:DOX) DOX, found similar results in its survey of more than 2,000 consumers in the U.S. and Britain. About four in five consumers were satisfied with their service levels. Yet one in three said they would switch to another carrier to get better services for mobile games, entertainment and ads.

Another customer service software firm, RightNow Technologies (NASDAQ:RNOW) RNOW, has developed new features to monitor consumer topics and emotions on service calls. In this way, call center agents can use the software to get more context about a caller’s specific concerns and service history.

 Using Customer Service as a Branding Opportunity

Friday, March 21st, 2008

Thanks to Web, Advertiser Can Engage in ‘Conversational’ Marketing With Customers

Published: March 20, 2008

NEW YORK (Adage.com) — Conversing with consumers and finding out what they think about their brands has become a whole lot easier for marketers because of the web. And whether it’s an actual customer-service call or inquiry or responding to a comment on the corporate blog, marketers need to start looking at each interaction as a marketing opportunity. That was one of the main themes that emerged during the “Listenomics: So you want to be a conversational marketer?” panel at the Ad Age Digital Conference.

 

The panel’s moderator, Pete Blackshaw, exec VP-strategic services at Nielsen Online, asked the three panelists, “Is this marketing or is it customer service? In the age of consumer control, is there an opportunity to really build consumer loyalty through that type of interaction?”

Interactions equal growth
Tony Hsieh, CEO and director, Zappos.com, said those interactions have been the force behind the company’s growth. “The way we have grown the company is focusing on customer service and not actually spending a lot of money on marketing or paid advertising,” Mr. Hsieh said. “We take the money we would have spent on advertising campaigns and instead put that back into the customer experience and grow through repeat customers and word of mouth. For the past nine years that’s been our primary source of growth.”

Mr. Hsieh said his company gets nearly 5,000 calls a day from customers and it views each of those interactions as a branding opportunity. “At that point you have the full attention of that customer,” he said. “That’s the time where you have a huge opportunity for you to shine.”

Linnea Johnson, director-consumer services, Unilever, who called her division the “Stitch and Bitch Club,” said the world’s second-largest consumer package-goods company should be doing more to take advantage of those types of interactions.

Talking ‘your ear off’
“We’re a little bit behind the momentum,” she said bluntly. “The consumer services department can talk your ear off about all of the information of the brand, tell you what brands to use and cross-sell you but what we’re not allowed to do is take ideas from you. So the minute someone calls up who has a really forward thinking way to promote Dove and Suave, we have to shut them down because that’s what legal tells us to do.”

 

She believes the consumer-services divisions, especially in the consumer package-goods space, could play a significant role in the development of marketing campaigns based on the interactions they have with consumers. “In the CPG industry [consumer services] are the people who are really entrenched in the company’s brands,” she said. “And there’s a lot of information we could help you with when you build your campaign or build your ads to deal with consumers.”

Rick Clancy, senior VP-corporate communications, Sony Electronics, and primary author of Sony’s first consumer-oriented blog, said Sony also had legal concerns about accepting unsolicited ideas from consumers. “But once you decide to dive into the pond of social media you have to do away with that,” Mr. Clancy said. “We get ideas on my blog that are shared throughout Sony and in fact a few of them have been incorporated.”

 Leveraging The Internet In The Recession

Tuesday, March 18th, 2008


Marc E. Babej and Tim Pollak

This will be the first recession in which the Internet will play a central role for the American consumer–and for marketers.

Of course, the Internet was around during the shallow recession of 2001, and almost 50% of Americans were using it. But it was not yet embedded in our way of life, largely because broadband penetration was, at the time, only about 20%. Today, more than 70% of the population is online, with more than 80% of these Internet users having high-speed access.

The Internet has empowered consumers as never before, providing previously unknown and unimagined opportunities to make informed decisions with detailed information, product ratings, expert and user-generated reviews and price comparisons on anything from computers to coffee beans to cat food.

In good times, when consumers feel cash-rich and time-poor, they can afford to be less diligent about their spending. But as economic pressures mount, sentiment changes. People feel cash-poor and are more willing to invest time and effort in getting the best deal.

What sets the current recession apart is that, for the first time, consumers have a tool that empowers them to subject everyday buying decisions to the kind of scrutiny formerly reserved for big-ticket items and large business-to-business transactions.

Marketers should anticipate this shift. They will not be able to rely on ads to pull the wool over consumers’ eyes–or on imagery to wow them.

Maybe even more important, it won’t be as easy for companies to control the expense line to make up for the loss of top-line revenues. In past downturns, cutting corners on quality has been a virtually foolproof way to cut costs and boost margins, at least in the short-run.

Not this time. Not when consumers can set the bar higher and easily find what they want at the lowest possible price. Not when any degradation of product quality or crummy service experience is subject to being instantly “outed” by the bloggers and reviewers on the myriad user-generated consumer review sites.

“Caveat emptor” now has a companion: “seller beware.” Even the slightest marketing chicanery is liable to be instantly pilloried on a global network, especially when consumers are fearful and on edge.

A confluence of factors has increased the likelihood of more consumers turning to the Internet to manage their way through their personal household recessions.

Let’s start with the price of gas. Shopping online is just less expensive than driving to a store. Depending on how and where you shop, you can find tax savings and shipping deals online.

And the downturn is dovetailing with a plethora of new, category-specific consumer review sites. Joining broad-based veterans like Epinions, BizRate and CNET are narrowly-focused comparison shopping sites specializing in coffee, beauty products or pet supplies.

There’s also been an explosion of online retailers: from Amazon and its brethren, to the online divisions of bricks-and-mortar retailers, to the many niche stores that exist only online. And then there are the Internet’s versions of “mom and pops,” “stores” that do business within the cozy confines of eBay (nasdaq: EBAY news people ) or Craigslist. It all adds up to a bonanza of choices for cash-strapped consumers–and a new set of challenges for those who sell to them.

Virtually anyone selling anything should be online, with as much sophistication as they can afford or muster. And they should follow two cardinal rules:

–Maintain quality and don’t over-promise. When anyone who uses your product or service can readily find an audience to whom to complain, the road from credibility to ruin is very short.

–Keep a close eye on pricing. The online dynamic is totally different than having customers in your store, where they might be willing to pay a premium because they’re there. Facing a page of pricing options online, shoppers can go to another “store” in a matter of seconds.

Online shopping–and the use of price-comparison engines and consumer-generated reviews to make buying decisions–has been growing steadily throughout the decade. The recession is going to supercharge that growth as current users find new categories in which to shop online and as millions of others jump in to manage their shrinking budgets.

As shoppers become increasingly comfortable with the process during this downturn, it is likely that the combination of convenience and easy-access to comparative information could cause enduring changes in consumer behavior.

Marc E. Babej and Tim Pollak are partners at Reason Inc., a marketing-strategy consulting firm that works with clients in a range of categories, including media and entertainment, financial and professional services, packaged goods and the public sector.

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