This is a blog entry by guest blogger, Reena Kapoor of Conifer Consulting.  Reena is a pre-eminent marketing strategist and this entry shows some of her key values in the work she does with clients.

Many companies fear social media.  But the good ones have less to worry about than they might fear. While SM can be intimidating (especially with all those lawyers out there chomping at the bit in our sue-happy America), the truly good companies will find that social media is a friend.  In fact it is their key ally. Why? Because Social Media may expose your vulnerabilities but it also amplifies the good.  GREATLY! Here’s why.

Four companies in the past month have so impressed me with their service that after just this one experience with each of them I am probably a customer for life!  So what did these companies do?  Simply put they:

  • indulged in good old fashioned customer service
  • delighted me, the customer, especially when I was down /stressed
  • simply kept the promises they made in all their ads and promotional materials when they signed me up or attracted me to their business.

 

Sidenote; If you know my philosophy of marketing then you know I simply call this marketing.  Everything else especially when people say “yeah it’s all just marketing…” is very simply, lies.

So how did this good get amplified?

  1. I am a customer for life. And what’s my life time value compared to what they gave me in terms of goods and service?
  2. I am so impressed that the competitors can quit calling or writing me. No matter how good their marketing they are wasting their time — not until there are exaggerated instances of bad service from my current companies in the future — highly unlikely! A good culture, like a bad culture, sticks!
  3. I am telling everyone – on Yelp, Twitter, on my blog here, everywhere… And where I used to tell 10 friends I am telling all my followers in Twitter, I have told everyone on Yelp and this blog post even shows up on LinkedIn since my posts on this multiple through all my networks.

 

Some old fashioned stuff is not a fashion after all; it’s a classic.  Know how to recognize it, preserve it, cultivate it with great care AND let social media amplify it for you!!

In case you’re wondering, those companies are:  Geico, America’s Tire, Enterprise Rent A Car and Zappos.

Reena Kapoor, of Conifer Consulting, (www.ConiferInc.com) helps organizations with new product & marketing strategy.  She brings over 18 years of new products & brand management experience from Fortune 100 CPG companies and venture-backed Silicon Valley companies.   Reena has deep consumer brand, product management and marketing leadership experience and brings this background to her work in helping organizations define their businesses based on a strong marketing/customer focus.