This visual is part of a series inspired by David Armano’s Six Social Media Trends for 2010.

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While researching a service online recently, I submitted contact forms to a couple of well known local businesses – I was frustrated by the fact that it took four days for one of the firms to contact me…and I’ve yet to hear from the other one.

More and more people are using online search to find products/services to meet their needs. As communication becomes more “instant” with the growth of tools like Twitter, are consumers expectations with respect to service delivery becoming more demanding?

Are some organizations failing to adjust to the new speed of communication? If so, what can companies do to bridge the gap between consumer expectation and service delivery?

Service Expectations

One prevailing notion about the web is that it has made consumers more impatient. Based on my experience, this could be true – I was expecting a response from my online inquiry within 24 hours. However, if this is the online service dynamic, shouldn’t businesses be prepared to deliver on the implied expectation?

William Howard, Owner of William Howard Marketing and Marketing Communications in Charlotte, North Carolina, has had similar online service experiences, often leaving him feeling frustrated and disappointed in the company he’s trying to connect with.

“In the fast paced technological environment we are in, people want a response to their inquiry and they want it within a reasonable time frame,” says Howard. “One of the worst things a company or individual can do is not respond to inquiries. If you solicit an inquiry and then ignore it, or take too long to acknowledge it, you are sending a powerful message – You just told (your customer) they are not important.”

Brent Vinthers, a Client Services Representative at Target Internet Development Corporation in St. Catharines Ontario, has experienced repeated service problems and has a hard time understanding how companies doing business online can be successful when they don’t get back to people in a reasonable amount of time.

“The maximum about of time to provide a good customer experience would be 24 hours,” say Vinthers. “Although…this is changing with twitter and online chat. I recently inquired about a Microsoft product and was able to chat with a rep online within 30 seconds – I was impressed to say the least”

Jennifer Nemes, a Marketing & Sales Associate at CB Apparel in Spokane Washington, feels it’s important to acknowledge customer requests and make a connection as soon as possible.

“We receive customer comments or questions daily and funnel them through a single customer service agent who receives them in email,” states Nemes. “Customer service email is checked throughout the day and responses are expected same day, 24hrs at the longest.”

Causes

Online service gaps seem to develop as a result of:

• systems issues
• unclear service delivery expectations
• insufficient training
• departmental/inter-departmental communication (for larger organizations)
• time management (for entrepreneurs/small businesses)

“The problem begins at the top,” says Howard. “Companies who put inquiry forms on their websites often fail to put a system in place to cover all inquiries. Those who respond need to be trained and motivated to respond within a specified period of time.”

Howard goes on to say that developing online touch points with the expectation that they will become self managed is mistake that can prove costly.

“Merely having a form on the web and advising customer service to respond to inquiries is not enough. Each and every solicitation for an inquiry must be backed by a solid plan of action on the part of the company and be monitored for effectiveness.”

Ashok Neelakanta, COO at i-Vista Digital Solutions Ltd in Bangalore India, believes that the fundamental problem (for mid-large organizations) is related to a culture of operational silos.

“The person who sets up various online mechanisms might not be responsible for addressing queries and, hence, causes the gap,” says Neelakanta. “In addition, marketers are chasing trends and setting up interfaces in every available online venue…perhaps not realizing the bandwidth required to service consumer needs (through multiple channels).”

Bridging the Service Gap

Gregg Van Voorhis, an Operations Manager at the Bureau of National Affairs Inc in Washington DC, runs a call centre that recently migrated from a customer service email system to web forms because clients complained of gaps in service. Gregg’s team had issues tracking who picked up each e-mail from a group mailbox, who responded and when. As a result it was difficult to improve customer satisfaction.

“Before jumping to web forms I had one key requirement,” said Van Voorhis. “Although it was easy to merely direct a web form to an e-mail address, the key factor was to instead direct it to a database with work flow
capabilities. Now the following takes place:

• The customers receives an immediate “Thank You!” e-mail to let them know their request was received
• The response also includes estimated response time, our hours of operation and a phone number in case they prefer to call
• The request is categorized based on where they found the form, what form they chose and various responses to fields on the form. It is then prioritized
• Based on the priority a notice is automatically sent to at least one staff member’s and at least one manager’s personal e-mail
• The inquiry is date/time stamped
• Each category has a threshold for responses. If the customer has not received a response by the threshold, the staff and manager(s) receives another e-mail.”

The technology to implement an effective online customer service system exists. Whether it’s a full scale enterprise solution or a simple system using PDAs – the challenge lies in understanding the service expectations of the online consumer and making the commitment to deliver on your service promise.

“The impact on customer satisfaction is immediate,” says Van Voorhis.

Image: http://www.flickr.com/photos/limaoscarjuliet/3305886294/

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Has the proliferation of social media tempered our desire to get out of the office and build face-to-face (F2F) relationships? Is social media actually making business people less social or simply modeling the new wave of digital communication?

Global Village

As global communication becomes second nature, are business people defaulting to social media to interact locally as well (at the expense of F2F communication)?

Jessica Routier, a Virtual Assistant with IAC Professionals, feels that the convenience of being able to build online relationships with prospects and clients outside your trading area hasn’t eroded the importance of personal networking.

“Social Media has provided a communication portal for online businesses that do a majority of their business with people so far away from them geographically that they will never see them face-to-face anyway,” says Routier. “But I don’t think that social media is taking away from face-to-face interactions – companies that have a majority of their clients in close proximity still realize the value of in-person contact.”

Lance Cordill, an experimental marketing and promotions specialist based in Fort Wayne, Indiana, believes that Social Media has its purpose but that the more time we spend communicating digitally, the less time we have in front of decision makers.

“For people in smaller markets who are ambitious and confident enough to compete with those in larger markets, using electronic social media may be the only practical way to go,” says Cordill. “But, when all is said and done, when it comes showtime…time to actually perform with your product or service, a digital image of such or text can’t replace the real deal.”

Catalyst or Crutch?

Social Media offers a great opportunity for professionals to develop business relationships online and can be a great tool to help initiate face-to-face interaction. On the other hand, it might be a crutch for some business people…making it easy to communicate without having to get out of their comfort zone and meet people face to face. Are businesses using Social Media to pave the way for F2F interaction or as a tool to help them avoid it?

Oscar Trelles, a Technology Director at Domani Studios, an New York based advertsing agency that is dedicated to digital media, feels that Social Media tools are effective and can be used to help build personal relationships online & act as a bridge for face-to-face interaction.

“Social media has enabled contact that wouldn’t be possible otherwise. Face-to-face interaction is important, both within a company and in reaching out to existing and potential clients and partners,” says Trelles. “In my own experience, social networks have allowed me to reach out to more people that I could have ever done in person, while making efficient use of my time. Deals are always closed in person, but social networking tools can help getting there faster and more efficiently.”

Liz Ingle, an Account Executive at MeadsDurket, a San Diego branding firm, believes Social Media has a purpose – to help connect people that would otherwise have a hard time meeting face-to-face – But also thinks that Social Media is reducing the number of F2F interactions between business people. She is concerned about some of the negative effects Social Media might be having on our ability to communicate F2F.

“If business people rely to heavily on social media and other forms of electronic communication, they’ll lose skills needed to build interpersonal relationships,” says Ingle. “Business people need to be cognitive of our actions and not allow our relationships to be primarily type based – We need to balance how we communicate and continue our efforts to build relationships through personal experience with our contacts.”

Resistance

Are some industries more apt to engage in Social Media than others? Do certain organizational cultures resist Social Media because they embrace F2F as being more effective or because they are intimidated by the technology or fear of change?

Casey Rhodes, a Senior Communication Specialist, is part of a team that is facing some interesting challenges implementing Social Media at their insurance/financial sector firm.

“Based on my experience and research within this particular culture, I’ve found that employees are actually less receptive to engagement with peers and managers by means of new social media tools,” says Rhodes. “The surveys we’ve conducted (after implementation) show that employees are resistant, or don’t see the value in it, and would much rather communicate and interact face to face.”

Communication Skill Set

Generation Y (b.1980-1995) are the Social Media pioneers. What are the effects of growing up in the midst of a technological renaissance? Is Social Media improving or eroding the communication skill set of the next generation of business people?

Kaitlyn Smeland, an Account Manager at Search Mojo, a SEO/PPC management firm in Charlottesville, VA, wrote a great blog post questioning whether social media is making us anti-social and effecting our communication skills. Here are few excepts:

Oxford neuroscientist Susan Greenfield believes that social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter may negatively affect children’s attention spans and social skills: “I often wonder whether real conversation in real time may eventually give way to these sanitized and easier screen dialogues”. Greenfield believes young people are no longer as well acquainted with the more direct work involved in face-to-face relationship building; instead they are more comfortable in the faceless, removed world of tweets.

A recent UCLA study at the Memory and Aging Research Center also concludes that “digital natives” (younger people who spend 8.5+ hours per day online) generally display poorer people skills and empathy.

Engagement

Engaging with your target audience is critical whether you use Social Media as a primary form of business communication or as a tool to facilitate F2F interaction.

Deanna Vincent, owner of Boston based Web Content, feels that Social Media, if manged properly, can act as a bridge to more meaningful F2F interactions – but professionals need to get engaged online and invest the time to learn how to use Social Media tools effectively.

“I’m surprised how many successful businesspeople I’ve met recently can’t translate simple social graces into social media, says Vincent. “In order for social media to be engaging, one must BE engaging.”

Vincent suggests Social Media uses try to incorporate some of the following practices into their online interactions in order to try to become “engaging business posters”:

• link out to resources on the web that help solve problems or help people discover new ideas
• add some personal tidbits that tie-in to a business mission – this will allow you to get to know the person even better than F2F would typically allow
• recommend real world events that you will be attending to help convert social-media followers to F2F

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There is a phenomenal amount of technology available to small business owners today – tools and software applications that can help you with every facet of your operation. I’ve listed some of my favourite technology – the stuff I use to empower my ventures. I hope it inspires some new ideas for your small business. This is just a small cross-section of what I use and what’s out there, so please feel free to add to the list by posting a comment.

Basecamp – This web-based project management tool is great for tracking tasks/milestones across multiple projects and for facilitating virtual collaboration. I use it to brainstorm and communicate complex ideas with clients. It has a cool feature that allows clients access to specific projects or project sections. I also use Basecamp to conduct virtual interviews for my blog. The application is very affordable (around $25 per month to manage up to 15 projects) and has a free version for managing single projects.

EchoQuote – This automated quotation tool allows prospects visiting your site to request pricing and receive an instant quote by email. Websites don’t generally offer a “low touch” way for prospects to research costs – I use EchoQuote to encourage potential clients to reach out and request pricing…for certain types of small businesses, it’s a unique way to differentiate your brand.

iContact – This web based marketing application makes it easy to create, send, and track email newsletters and surveys. I use iContact to manage my e-newsletter campaigns as well as those of my clients. At around $10.00 per month to manage 500 email subscribers, iContact is an affordable way to start implementing an email marketing strategy.

PR Log – This free online press release service lets you create releases for distribution across the internet including search and news sites such as Google, Yahoo!, etc. The releases are search engine optimized and offer the ability to add clickable links and images such as product photos or company logos.

PR Form – Not sure how to write a press release? This free online tool from Duct Tape Marketing is a great resource – it walks you through the whole press release, section by section and will email you the completed release.

Delicious – This bookmarking service allows users to tag, save, manage and share web pages from a
centralized source. Delicious is a great tool for tracking, remembering and sorting web pages. I use it to file important web pages as well as a research tool…if you come across an interesting web page you can tag it and categorize it for later use – it’s also great for archiving all of your favourite pages.

iStockPhoto – A great online stock photo service that lets you research, sort and download royalty-free photos, illustrations or videos. I like iStock because of their pay-as-you-go credit system…no need to sign up for monthly subscriptions, just buy credits as you need them. I use the “lightbox” feature to sort images I research by client, project or category…you can even share and email your lightboxes to clients or colleagues – this is a great feature if you need to facilitate quick turnarounds on approvals. The free account includes storage of all the images you’ve research for easy reference down the road.

RSS – This technology (RSS stands for “Really Simple Sysndication”) lets you subscribe to the “feeds” of your favourite website and blogs, using a “reader” to collect and aggregate any new content into one location. There are a number of different readers available for free – I use Google Reader. Most sites have an RSS icon that you can click to subscribe to that feed – from there the RSS reader checks the site regularly for new content, downloads any updates that it finds, and inserts them into your reader. This is a great tool because it allows me to consolidate all of the online reading I do into one location – without having to worry about missing new content or having to subscribe to a million newsletters to get the information I need.

Google Analytics – Free website analysis that helps you find out where your website visitors are coming from and what they do on your site. Be warned – if you thrive on stats this tool is addictive!

My Blackberry – I couldn’t leave this off the list – this technology has transformed the way I do business and is awesome for helping to facilitate exceptional customer service. The pitfalls with this tool are ever-present: obsessive email checking, always being connected, bad blackberry etiquette…the list goes on-and-on. My advice – try to balance the empowerment the technology gives your small business with some common sense…staying connected is great for business…but being disconnected is sometimes more important…especially for your family!

Note: Thanks to Chris Brogan for inspiring this blog topic