Does your investment in social media help you keep customers and find new ones?
Do your social media initiatives drive customer loyalty and acquisition?
A 2011 Gallup research study of more than 17,000 social media users discovered that company or brand sponsored social media initiatives “have very little impact on B-to-B customer decision making. Nor do they drive prospective customers to consider trying a brand or recommending a brand to others in their social network.”
Most social media initiatives don’t stir a customer’s emotions or enable your substantial engagement with them. Engaging with prospects and customers in any significant way requires your investment to learn about their specific and unique needs via face-to-face personal dialogue. The most productive type of social networking is still analog – keeping your promises and building relationships one customer at a time. Customer relationships are not built with an app.
Social media can play a huge role in elevating your company’s visibility – for better or worse. The degree to which customers will work for or against your company or brand within their social networks is driven by their experience with your business.
The positive experience – producing strategic value for your customer, consistently delivering what was promised – creates the trust bond necessary for genuine relationship building. Using your product or service becomes part of your customer’s identity. Your company is a good match for them and they seek to continue doing business with you. They want to speak favorably about your company because it reflects on them. They will resist criticizing you for the same reason.
When your customer is not satisfied, then social media can become your nightmare.
How do you evaluate your level of customer engagement?
When was the last time you checked your customers’ satisfaction?
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