Todd Lyden

photo © 2008 Peter Gorges | more info (via: Wylio ) I've seen some posts lately about the expectations that people have about social media online usage. This started in part with @ambercadabra's post on reciprocity.  She rightly points out that the expectation of a follow or friend through Twitter or Facebook is not warranted. This is about expectation right? I responded to Amber 's idea here initially  but I've been seeing more and more talk about how to interact online. A recent great example is @webby2001 post on social media non-natives "not getting it."  The gist was users of  social media and everything that it entails need to see the divide or gap and acknowledge that just because the luddites aren't online isn't a reason to "educate" them. I think this still comes down to expectations. You really need to know why you are using social media, because your goal isn't always going to jibe with people you know online or ...

Ok, you've probably seen the story about the New York online eyeglass retailer who uses negative sentiment online to increase his Google ranking. If not, jump over here really quick . Pretty lame right? Google has a response:  http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/12/being-bad-to-your-customers-is-bad-for.html Here is the meat of it: Instead, in the last few days we developed an algorithmic solution which detects the merchant from the Times article along with hundreds of other merchants that, in our opinion, provide an extremely poor user experience. The algorithm we incorporated into our search rankings represents an initial solution to this issue, and Google users are now getting a better experience as a result. Apparently, they do sentiment analysis , but somehow can't find a way to use that for online business? REALLY? Elsewhere, they are guessing that they will be using the merchant reviews that Google has already amassed as part of the algorithm. ...

I focused much on customer service two weeks ago and I really can't escape it. I was on a call yesterday making a large order for lunch coming up. The woman on the other end was insanely pleasant as she tried to walk me through a new menu and my inability to be more quickly decisive. She did have to put me on hold an inordinate amount of times and each time was PROFUSELY apologetic. I was prepared and thankfully not in a hurry. I can quickly imagine someone else taking conversation and turning it into a complaint (unjustified, but I can see it). Amber Naslund has a related piece back last month that I liked discussing our aptitude to taking complaints online. I agree with Amber that #FAIL is overused, but also we need to be aware that failure or BAD customer service is in the eye of the beholder. For companies, SMALL mistakes can be huge to a customer. Like I said with my example, I could easily see someone taking it out of hand and quickly getting annoyed. I knew ...

Seemed like my past week was about criticism and customer service. It so happened one of my favorite examples of great customer service needed a calling this week and I thought I would share the experience. This is going sound oh-so testimonial, but I'm really just trying to illustrate a point- really! Swanson Vitamins has been around for over 40 years.And I've been ordering from them for the last 10. Why do I love their customer service? No Wait on the Phone Seriously, I've called and within one ring gotten a rep who knew it was me because of caller ID. I actually chatted with an online rep and ordered over the phone. It appears that they use Mitel for their overall system and it works! They have immediate access to your previous orders and are ready to take the next one. Unlimited Shipping They want you to order as much as you can from them at once. How can you tell? They ship as much as you want to the 48 states for only $4.99. Wow. It pays you to o...

"Responding to online complaints is a tax that companies pay because of the chronic mismatch between what consumers expect from brands and what they ultimately get. An individualized response might momentarily bridge the gap, but it won't fix it. Never will." I am coming back to Baskin's piece on the Twitter Tax .  The quote above defines that tax as the cost that is being paid by companies that are not particularly forthcoming or effective about what they are going to provide their consumers. He suggests that not everyone is that savvy with the technology and the basic implication (I think) is that there needs to be a better job with addressing the expectations and providing what customers want. He also suggests ... disconnects can't be overcome by novel new technologies or brilliantly creative marketing (at least not often, and certainly not consistently).  But then in the next paragraph states For every tweet we catch, there are likely dozen...