My blog | How To Reach People | An Exploration of Communication

Why I’m Not Going to Be Lifting African Elephants This Year And Other Such Stories About Customer Service

September 27, 2014 9:09 pm \ Leave a Comment \ by Heather

They’re awesome aren’t they? (Photo credit: me)

My last post was about what makes customer service experiences great. In short, it says: The service you provide your customers or supporters represents your business. These people tell your story — in-person and online.

(Just in case you’re still not convinced about how important your friends’ opinions are compared to other advertising, check out the chart in this article, Lessons in Customer Service From the World’s Most Beloved Companies by Gregory Ciotti).

And then I give examples of great customer service. Examples are important because even though many of us know that customer service is crucial to our organization (and can lead to super fans), it is too often neglected. These examples can open your mind to different ways of treating your customers or supporters, even when you’re busy with other things.

(Again, how crucial? In one of Paul Jarvis’ recent Sunday Dispatches, he talks about a vegan cheese company and his experience with them. Definitely going to be ordering that, thank you! Or check out the stories on Help Scout by Gregory Ciotti, including the one about the three-and-a-half-year-old re-naming bread for Sainsbury’s, and United Airlines holding a flight so that a son could say goodbye to his dying mom.)

It’s harder to find these great stories than the bad stories. Bad stories are everywhere. And yes, bad stories are going to dominate this post. But only because I want to make certain points about each one.

And all these points seem simple to me, but organizations are not doing them. When you read this post, [Tweet “Take time to think about your customer service. Is it working, or have you been neglecting it? “]

Here we go.

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Posted in: communication, social media, story \ Tagged: barrier of entry, conversation, customer service, easy, elephants, marketing, signup, story, super fan, supporters

Brands and Customer Service, and Being Nice is Underrated

August 23, 2014 12:30 pm \ Leave a Comment \ by Heather

(Photo credit: YDubel)

I’m not sure when it happened, but I started to become really obsessed with brands and customer service. (And I when I say brands, I don’t just mean businesses, but nonprofits and individuals too). I have this inkling it might be because I’m getting older, but I really just don’t want to deal with poor customer service anymore.

[Tweet “I also believe the story of an organization can be partly told by its customers or supporters. “]I just finished a series on how you, as a representative for your organization, can report and write your story. But in terms of customer service, we can only guide this conversation by providing the best service possible.

I’m a big fan of Bernadette Jiwa and her blog. She sums up what I’m talking about in her post, What If Your Customers Could Talk? “We still think that marketing is how we talk to people about ourselves. Marketing is giving people something to talk about.” (She also writes a great deal about “customer experience,” “everything that happens when people encounter your brand.” For instance, see The Business Case For Creating Great Customer Experiences, Why This And Not That? and Pick One Thing.

I’m also reading The Passion Conversation by Robbin Phillips, Greg Cordell, Geno Church, and John Moore from Brains on Fire. In chapter two, the authors write:

“No passion, no conversation.
No conversation, no word of mouth [marketing].
No word of mouth,
no successful business.”

Wow! That sums it up perfectly too. What goes along with this is providing awesome customer service because that’s a huge part of what people are going to talk about — whether it’s passion from being awesome or passion from being really terrible.

Specifically, the authors say,”there are three motivations that spark conversations about brands and organizations:” Functional, Social, and Emotional. Customer service fits under emotional motivation. “People are more likely to talk about brands and organizations when they evoke strong, polarizing emotions on the edges of love and hate, or shock and awe.”

So I have some short stories for you, and they are about customer service.

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Posted in: communication, social media, story \ Tagged: attitude, brands, conversation, customer service, listen, marketing, mistake, nice, super fan

The Power of Written Storytelling

July 31, 2014 7:39 pm \ 2 Comments \ by Heather

Being able to tell your organization’s stories is vital to connecting with your audience. (Again, when I use the word story, I’m talking about a true tale, nonfiction).

How you tell your stories will determine who will be moved by them. You can find inspiring stories, whether you’re at a nonprofit or a business, by spending time with the people you are helping. I understand this can be difficult, especially if it’s not part of your regular job description. It’s often easy to get bogged down with daily duties.

In other instances, public relations managers focus their attention on getting the organization’s message out to the traditional news media. That used to be the most important way to reach a large audience. And while good media coverage still matters, someone in your organization should also be aware that a big part of what you should be doing is telling stories to your audience directly. This allows your audience to feel a greater connection to you.

Once you find a story to tell, it’s also important to craft it in a way that immediately grabs the reader’s attention. It’s essential that you identify what part of your story will do this, as well as how to structure it. The following series will walk you through how to write the beginning, middle, and end of a story.

1. The Power of Written Storytelling: The Beginning (Part 1)

2. The Power of Written Storytelling: The Middle: Why Does Your Story Matter? (Part 2)

3. The Power of Written Storytelling: The Middle: Setting the Scene by Reporting the Story to Death (Part 3)

4. The Power of Written Storytelling: The Middle: Adding Flavor (Part 4)

5. The Power of Written Storytelling: The End: Why Write Awesome Endings? (Part 5)

Also, check out: Nonprofits Telling Awesome Stories: charity: water (Part 1) and Tyler Riewer’s Adventures With charity: water

Plus, Serial Storytelling on Social Media.