The Lesser-Known Social Media Sites

On the Wikipedia list of the most popular websites, here, there’s a common trend.  A lot of these websites are search or social media.  Advice on how to interact, leverage, and use social media is easily accessible nearly anywhere.  However, there are at least a few often-neglected channels that we’ll talk about here.

The list below is regarding social networks with the membership and the power to jump in on causes, make or break products and services, or, when properly motivated, launch crusades.  Here’s a brief rundown of what the websites are, what they are known for, and some notable actions they have been involved in.

Imgur

Originally built as a photo-hosting sister site to the web message board, Reddit, Imgur is now the 49th most popular website, bringing in more unique visitors than Craigslist.  The format is simple: images, captions, and comments that users can up-vote or down-vote.  Visitors can view images chronologically as they are submitted or view a collection of the most popular images on Imgur and Reddit at a given time.

The reason why this should matter to brands and businesses is simple, as the following example illustrates.  The 2nd most popular image of all time is this post, “25 Killer Websites that Make You Cleverer.”  This post has been viewed more than 3/4 of a million times, been “favorited” by 48,000+ people, and been commented on almost 1000 times.  The post itself pitches websites like Duolingo, Lumosity, Khan Academy, and Nerd Fitness.  This kind of viral reputation is inexpensive, effective, and productive for those brands that make an impression on this community.

Reddit 

Clocking in a few spaces below its offspring, Reddit is a powerful online message board system based on a similar format of posts, comments, votes, and a measure of popularity.  Users can post text, links, or media and other users will up-vote or down-vote the content.  Using an algorithm that combines this point rating with recency, Reddit creates a real-time picture of what is most important to its users.  Unlike Imgur, Reddit is structured with a number of “sub-reddits,” which are accessed by adding /r/”name of subreddit” into the url.  Sub-reddits are categories that allow posters to put their content in places it is most relevant.

Some notable sub-reddits:

/r/mildlyinterested – picutres of things that are, in fact, only mildly interesting

/r/natureporn – definitely SFW, this are is used for beautiful, epic, or otherwise noteworthy images of natural settings

/r/iama – AMA’s, or Ask Me Anything’s, are hosted here.  People with interesting jobs, stories, or other notable attributes post here to allow the general public to ask them questions.

One of the main reasons Reddit matters?  Their ability to collectively organize.  In 2013, a 2-year-old cancer patient put a message on her window that said “Send Pizza: Room 4112.”  Let’s just say they delivered (story here).  Similarly, after a plea from his nephew, Reddit users sent thousands of pieces of mail to a terminally ill man with Down syndrome (story here).

4chan

Don’t be fooled by the .org, this probably isn’t the site you want to spend all your time on, but I bring it up for a very important reason.  4chan is an online message board, similar to the ones listed above.  However, instead of points, it just facilitates a running conversation and all the users are anonymous.  Once again, anonymous – to each other and any outsiders.  This makes is a very interesting place for mischief and important place to keep in mind.

Notably, the pranksters at 4chan like to hijack marketing plans.

When Pitbull and Walmart teamed up in a promotion, they started an internet poll and promised a live Pitbull show in the Walmart with the most votes.  After a post in one of their message boards, 4chan users swamped the poll and sent him to Kodiak, Alaska, a town of 6,500 people.

In 2012, Mountain Dew put it to the people to name it’s new flavor.  Unfortunately, after seeing the potential of user-submitted and support names, 4chan took over and shot several unsavory titles to the top of the list, including “Diabeetus” and “Hitler Did Nothing Wrong.”

Also in 2012, Taylor Swift and her team held an online vote for a free concert and a $10,000 donation to the most popular school.  4chan’s response?  They flooded the site with votes to have her musical act perform at a school for the deaf.

The moral of the story – If you’re paying attention to the dialogue on social media, don’t forget that there is more out there than just Facebook, Twitter, and Google.

 

How to Start a Customer Service Team (from scratch)

So you’ve sold some product.  Well, you’ve sold a lot of product.  Now people have questions.  Where’s my order?  How do I make it work? It’s broken – how do I replace it?  Now, you see the value in a good customer experience – in fact you feel it’s going to be a big reason you’re going to bring it to the competition.  You know it’s time to hire some people to help you handle this volume.  Here’s how to start.

Open email as a channel first

Here’s a nasty fact about call centers.  You always have either too many people for how much volume is coming in or too much volume for how many people you have staffed.  You will be able to handle more contacts with fewer people at less cost (a savings you can pass along to your customer or invest in growth) if you are able to spread customer contacts out throughout the day.  If one fully time CS person can handle 50 contacts per day, they will not be able to handle 50 phone calls, as those calls will come in randomly and inevitably stack up so you get 3, 4, or more at a time.  These people will wait on hold and will view this as you going back on your promise to support them by phone (the one you make when you list a customer service phone number).  You can still engage customers through phone without publishing a line – it’s as easy as responding to an email with a request for their number.  The best customer service comes from having the right people in the right place at the right time with the right tools.  When you are small, this is going to mean not being caught off-guard by a rush of calls mid-day.  Set up an email address and a ticketing system first, which we’ll cover next.

Set up a CRM tool

Thank your lucky stars it’s 2014, this part is going to be pretty easy.  There are a lot of low-cost options out there, including FreshDesk, ZenDesk, and Desk.com, which are all customizable ticketing solutions with a pay-per-seat pricing model.  These will allow you to manage customer tickets, recognize trends, and will lay the foundation for what your CS desk may grow into.  Oh, here’s the other benefit of not launching phone right away – no expensive telephony solutions.  All you have to do is talk to a few companies with 20 or so customer support folks to realize that finding a quality vendor at a reasonable price can be a total time-suck.

Build a knowledge base and training NOW

One of the biggest challenges I see with growing companies is when they grow to the point that they need a formalized training program and haven’t even started to think about building one.  At the very least, build out that searchable wiki (a function of most CRM tools) and keep a robust list of FAQs and common procedures that you can use to get someone new up to speed in a short time, if needed.  Also, determine what gets escalated to whom.  Maybe on day 1 you can have your customer-facing team call out escalations verbally, but as volume grows, this can result in unnecessary work disruptions.  Know where credit card questions, usage feedback, and order questions need to go and write it down.

Don’t overreach

I’ve already written a post about not lying to your customers.  This falls right in line with that concept.  If you promise 24/7 support you will be answering your cell phone in the middle of the night.  You can (theoretically) cover 5 8-hour days with one CS rep.  You can (theoretically) cover 5 12-hour days with 2.  To simply cover 24/7 you need at least 5 and that’s a stretch.  Make promises you can deliver on.  Kickstarter campaigns get away with murder by communicating clearly to their backers why they are behind on their targets.  This is a similar concept.  If you say you will respond to emails in 24 hours and can manage 4, that is great!  Don’t get cocky and shorten your timelines until you have the funds to back it with personnel or a strong track record of meeting that SLA.

Actually deliver quality customer service

Customer service is not measured by average handle time (AHT) average speed of answer (ASA) or number of tickets answered per day.  Short handle times might increase how quickly you get to new tickets/calls, but might result in customers reaching out again because their issue wasn’t completely solved.  If you’re just increasing your total volume, maybe you should be focusing on first call resolution (FCR), instead.  There are a few great ways to measure the impact of your customer service team.  My favorite is NPS (Net Promoter Score), which is a popular model rigth now that measures not just whether or not your customers had a good experience, but if they will recommend you, creating a cheap stream of new customers.

 

 

Let’s Talk about Tech Fashion

I swear I’m not talking about button-ups under hoodies or cargo shorts.  Technology is changing the way we’re able to dress ourselves and I’m not complaining.  By now everyone’s heard of Gilt and Hautelook, the flash sale sites that give you a discount on designer wear (check out Modnique, too, if you need another one of these).

 

What I’m talking about this time is fashion that is delivering a brand new type of product to people using technology to streamline processes that used to require big names, big stores, and big budgets.  Let’s start with a favorite and work through a couple examples.

Bonobos (sound of choir singing).  Founded as a company that would provide the best fitting chinos a man could buy, using the same manufacturing methods and materials that churned out pairs of wool pants worth hundreds of dollars in the two-figure price range.  Not only have they absolutely excelled in this area, now selling these pants in 3 different fits (all adorned with the telltale patterns inside the back pockets), but they’re absolutely killing it with their polos (like this yarn-spun one) and their shirts (take this one, for example) that fit like one you’d find at a boutique, but at ecommerce prices.

Trunk Club.  Do you like going shopping?  If you don’t, these guys will ship you a trunk of clothes that match the style you’ve helped them define each month.  Try them on in the privacy of your own home, sans judgement, and buy only what you want to keep.  No parking, no traffic, no shipping costs, AND the feedback you give to a real stylist helps you make sure each box is better than the last.

Indochino.  Custom suiting.  Just like those SPAM emails you get about Hong Kong Tailors.  Unless you feel you are unable to take the measurements required in order to have this done, anyone can make this happen.  Grab a buddy if you need to.  Once you start wearing custom-made clothing (especially something like a suit, where you often only need a few in your closet at any given time), you will not be able to go back to the loose back fabric, too-low collars, and short arms of off-the-rack.  Oh, did I mention they are custom-made for under $1000 dollars?  Take a look here.

As far as I’m concerned, the more I can circumvent billion-dollar businesses while putting stylish clothes on my back, the better.  Now, if only we can create a Ditto for clothing, I’ll really be on board.

Taylor

What’s the harm in deceptive customer service?

I logged into a website today to buy something.  After spending a few minutes on the site and looking for the best way to contact them about their services, a chat window popped up, announcing that Amy was ready to help me with any questions and asking me my name.

I told her who I was and what I was looking for and she asked me for my contact information in case we got disconnected.  Then it happened.  She said she would pass my info along and I should call to discuss the details.  After following the near-hidden link announcing the company that provided this “chat software,” I was redirected to their site.  Apparently they sell a software that imitates a real chat agent, designed to gather contact info and pass it along as a sales lead – a prospect ripe for the funnel.

I cannot emphasize this enough – do not lie to your customers.  In any business, in any sales process, in any customer interaction, a little bit of trust is required.  Trust that the person on the other end of the line will provide an adequate solution, that they are doing whatever they can to find a resolution, that they are being honest.  The absolute worst way you can kick off an interaction with a customer is by lying to them.

At the end of the day, your customers would rather have an advocate who comes up a bit short than an enemy with a solution.

Taylor

26 and a part of a growing, innovative organization

Here’s a brief intro in to why I started this and what you can expect:

I arrived today to the completed build-out of one of my company’s growing facilities.  We’ve added space for another 100 employees (bringing the total capacity to about 1,300), bringing jobs to a town that needs them by selling great services to innovative companies.  My experience in finding, working with, and, yes, closing technology companies, start-ups, and industry disruptors while a part of a company that has quadrupled in size during my time here has given me some unique insight into business, innovation, and customer service and you will find many of the lessons I have picked up in these pages.

Whether you are a young professional looking for information about potential career paths, a fellow customer service professional keeping up on best practices, or a technology buff interested in finding new products, services, and trends, the content of this blog should bring some new information across your desk.

What you can expect to see in this blog:

• Profiles of hot, rising companies that are pushing the limits in their industry
• Strategies for new customer acquisition and customer retention
• Information about outsourcing, co-sourcing, rural-sourcing and other business models enabled by the continued flattening of the world

Feel free to send me feedback or question at any time: taylor.worth@gmail.com

Taylor