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As you’ve read in some of my posts here, I believe the return for business investment in social media is the deepening of relationships. As a CEO, I can appreciate how the challenge of calculating that ROI keeps some of my peers (not to mention CFOs, CMOs and COOs) awake at night. But a recent encounter at a small restaurant gave me even greater faith in my belief.

I walked in to the Yesterday Café looking for a light lunch as I passed through the small town of Greensboro, Georgia. As I settled into a booth, I noticed a journal on the table near the ketchup and other condiments. Thinking someone had left it by accident, I showed it to our waitress as she took my drink order.  To my very pleasant surprise, she said it was not there by accident, but by design—the café put them at all the tables to give customers a way to share their thoughts with the staff and other customers. Cool.

As I waited for my cold beer (it was your typical hot day in middle Georgia), I read about meals that went well, service that was less than sterling, how much management appreciated the suggestion for a new sandwich and how the buttermilk pie was the greatest dessert ever created.  Every entry was in each person’s hand writing giving me a sense of originality and authenticity I haven’t felt in quite a while.

When my beer arrived, I asked the waitress about the journal and she shared how customers, staff and management all loved them. Yes, there were the occasional stings—a bad meal, regretful service, an incorrect tab—but there were also inspiring jewels…like a sketch of a staff member or a crayon drawing by a child of chicken tenders.  She went on to say the owners took the information and feedback very seriously often taking the journals home so they could write a reply or digest the suggestions in a personal setting.  Cool.

I also noticed something else–there weren’t any “ads” in the journal. Nothing from the management telling me to try an entree or if I showed up on Tuesday, my kids could eat free. The journal was about customer thoughts and, where appropriate, management appreciation. Way cool.

There are a thousand reasons why today’s social media tools might be a better means for that customer-business connection and quite a few arguments for why a simple journal at a table might be as worthwhile as all our digital investments. But there is a very important commonality—a business connecting and looking to inspire and use customer generated content to build a powerful relationship.  As a CEO, that keeps me up more than the ROI of social media investment: are we connecting and actually building meaningful relationships.

My lunch at the Yesterday Café was super. And, I topped it off with what is arguably the best buttermilk pie in the universe. To see how much I gushed over the flaky crust and amazing filling, you can read my entry in the journal…it has a blue cover and I signed it ”Nunndog.”

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A recent study profiled by Research Brief provided some though-producing statistics. The study, done by American Express, found:

• 91% of Americans consider the level of customer service important when deciding to do business with a company, but only 24% believe companies value their business and will go the extra mile to keep it
• 81% of Consumers are far more likely to give a company repeat business after a good service experience, while 52% are unlikely to do business with a company again after a poor experience
• 48% feel companies are helpful but don’t do anything extra to keep their business

As I mentioned in my last piece, the objective of social media for business should be relationship building. The American Express study leads me to add a touch more to that opinion…social media for business should be about building a strong customer service relationship.

Think about it; isn’t social media—from social networking, to micro blogging, to chats—the perfect medium for helping a customer believe a company values their business? The investment by the company can be pretty small (it’s certainly less than a 30 second spot in prime time telling me you are all about customer service!) and the potential interaction with the customer powerfully intimate.

For example, say I buy a shiny new LCD TV from Best Buy. On check out, instead of asking me to go to Bestbuy.com to fill out an online survey on my experience today (you bet!), maybe the clerk gives me the address (or signs me up!) for a chat group where I can get real-time help during set up. Or, maybe she asks if “Sally” from Customer Service can contact me via Facebook, Twitter, Tick-it or some other forum to see how things are going. If I accept an invitation from “Sally,” the brand-customer relationship has now moved from the immeasurable to the measurable, the catalyst being my interest in customer service via digital means.  

As marketing staffs thrash about trying to create the perfect campaign for social media—one with a measurable ROI of course!—why not take a second to ask what your team might be able to accomplish with social media that shows current customers you value their business and demonstrates your customer service is tops among your competitors?

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A client in the financial services sector recently asked me for my thoughts on how trends in social media will affect the way their sales force engages and closes a deal with a new customer.  After pondering the question, I offered the following scenario:

It is just as likely the customer-agent meeting will take place at a local coffee house as a traditional office. The potential customer will have done some comparative shopping of products, looked at comments or recommendations your current customers or competitors have posted on the web, and will have searched the virtual fingerprint of the agent via LinkedIn, Facebook,  Google, etc.

Sitting down to a fully-personalized beverage (I get to have it exactly as I want it, all life should be that way!), the customer will be connected to the internet via a handheld device and able to confirm, refute or clarify their own info, and the inputs or comments from the agent, within moments of the need to do so. The customer may even provide a running commentary about the meeting live to friends and family—via Twitter, Foursquare or Facebook—or record it in a public forum like Yelp.

Bottom-line: the engagement will be on neutral turf; the customer will be armed with information that may or may not be your messaging; and, the customer’s take-aways from the encounter have the potential to be shared with an un-calculable audience in seconds. (more…)

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