This weekend I watched Biography of Home Depot on CNBC. It was a fascinating look at a company and the founders that created a new concept that would become a category killer in the home improvement industry. What struck me was not the success of the brand, but really the founders that created the concept. The TV special concentrated on Bernie Marcus, Arthur Blank, Pat Farrah, and investment banker Ken Langone. The story goes like this:

Bernie Marcus was born in Newark, New Jersey  who worked with his father to pay for college.  He received a degree in pharmaceutical studies.  He later worked in a pharmacy but found his true love to be in the store with the Customers (this is why I really connected to the Bernie).  Art Blank grew up in Flushing, New York and graduated from Babson college

Well once there was a retailer named Handy Dan, where Bernie Marcus was eventually hired as a senior executive.  Art Blank worked at the same retailer just outside of college, working his way up through the ranks.  Bernie promoted Art to his staff .  Later, after Daylin corporation, the owner of Handy Dan, filed for bankruptcy, Bernie and Art fought to maintain the success for Handy Dan.  They continued to grow the company, but a dislike grew between Bernie and Sandy Sigoloff, the CEO for Daylin.  One day Sandy brought Bernie into a conference room with many suits and a stenographer.  This was the end for Bernie, Art, and Ron Brill (the first Home Depot employee).  There were many accusations, but I think it is safe to say false ones.  Anyway, I am not judging that.  After this Bernie started making phone calls to contacts he made, one of them being Ken Langone.  Ken convinced him this was the best thing to happen and he should follow his dreams.  They found a strong merchandiser named Pat Farrah, and the group set their sights on Atlanta.  That is where Home Depot was born.

Many of you may not know, but my background when I was younger was in retail management.  I have always had love affair with the direct Customer contact environment that retailing has.  I have long watched what worked, and what was a failure.  In my lifetime I have seen this changing environment, great management choices, very poor ones and many going out of business.  I remember working in the home improvement business when Home Depot was entering the area I live.  You could easily see why it was a category killer.  The same was true regarding the expansion of Walmart.  I have seen many that simply could not keep up.  Of course through this expansion other companies built themselves up as strong competitors to both Walmart and Home Depot.  I also think the time will come where another company changes the game and places these companies at risk.  But who and how?

Many have said the future of retailing is Amazon.  I agree Amazon has been a killer of many products, especially books and DVD’s, but I think for many other products people want more.  This post was inspired by the Home Depot founders, but I know I will not have my Ken Langone to help secure the large amount of financing necessary to recreate the retail landscape, so I thought it might be fun to throw it out here.  As I have watched retailing for years, I know there are certain keys to success.  The first key is amazing Customer Service, which I am not too sure many retailers currently do well.  Second is convenience, which the web has made much easier.  Third is atmosphere, which some retailers do very well  by reducing clutter and making it easy to shop, but most fail here too.  Fourth is a strong dedicated team that understand the products and how best to utilize them.  The original Home Depot did all of these well, but as time went on some of these things drifted away for them.

So what can we learn from the past? Well the internet boom for online retailers is not as new as you think.  We have seen this before, but instead of the net, it was the catalog.  The internet may have killed off the paper catalog but it still created the same category, just instead of dominance by Sears or J.C. Penny, the dominating force is Amazon.  During the catalog boom, a new style of retailing emerged with names like Best, Basco, Service Merchandise and many others.  They were known as Catalog Showrooms.  In these stores you could see the merchandise, and if you wanted to buy you would fill out a slip (seems silly today) and it would magically come through the belt.  This allowed for Customers to touch and feel the merchandise prior to buying.  A key for many purchasing items, especially higher end merchandise.  I can easily make the case that Circuity City was also a catalog showroom, just without much of a catalog.  The original, successful Circuity City was a showroom with various merchandise with excellent sales people to help you out.  Customer Service was the name of their game and they did this very well in the early days.  Later, as they faltered in other areas, Circuit City also did this concept well with their web business and picking up your order within 30 minutes.  Unfortunately for Circuity City, and many of these other retailers they tried to shift there model to something they were not.  I saw the end when Circuit City left the appliance business and tried to build a self service area in their stores for software and other computer products.  This, just like similar changes made at other retailers, caused them to alienate employees and their own Customer base.  Questioning what you are as a business will alway set you up for failure.  As these companies made changes to their model, instead of setting themselves up for a boom during the early years of the internet retailing, they simply went bust.  Many of their names may still be around, but they were purchased by companies that simply wanted to build websites using the name, nothing more.

So what would the future of retailing look like?  The concept would not be very different than what you see at Amazon.com for the web.  The only major differences would be the showrooms.  These would be placed at strategic population centers, similar to the placement of Ikea stores.  These centers would have showrooms to play with the merchandise, high tech transmitters for purchasing and service personnel to truly help those that want it, when they wanted it.  While in the store you would have full access to reviews of Customers from the website, as well as competitive information.  These centers would have easy pick up of merchandise for those that order over the web and would like quick gratification.  Merchandise ordered in the store would be delivered in the same manner.  These facilities would also serve as the mail distribution centers for items purchased on the net to be shipped.  To maintain lower shipping costs, items would ship from the nearest facility to the Customer.   A key learning from successful online retailers, like Zappos, they must offer an easy to understand and fair return policy.  Thanks to companies like Amazon, there is amazing technology for picking merchandise in a fast and efficient manner.  This structure also helps reduce shortages and theft, creating a better retail investemnt.  The showroom would be a clean, very friendly place to browse.  It would not have the typical brick and mortar retailer mentality of ‘pile it high and let it fly.’  This would be a place Customers would love to shop.  Sales people when requested, but not the car shopping experience of running over the moment the prospective Customer is in your sight.

This is not a revolutionary idea, in fact you do not need to look far to find similar concepts.  The Apple Stores have revolutionized retailing for Apple products.  Apple had a problem, no retailer sold their merchandise well.  They also did not wield the power to change the model at existing retailers, so they went one step further, they build a model that would work.  They utilize high tech equipment to make the experience great for everyone that visits, yet they do not try to oversell the Customer.  You know if you visit, help is there if you need it, but if you just want to play with the computers you can do that.  Of course I know when I play with the latest and greatest Macs, I almost always want to leave with one.

For those that believe internet shopping is the future, I agree, but it is only part of the equation.  Many brick and mortar retailers have tried to incorporate web sales into their existing business , but, in my opinion, not very successfully.  Best Buy offers it, but someone has to go out on the floor to try to pick the items.  Walmart will ship items to the store, but you have to wait for them to get there.

Retailing is not very difficult, as the founders for Home Depot proved.  Find out what people want, and deliver it in the way they would like to receive it.  Retailing is just like social media for business, there is no reason to over think it.

It is time for someone to build the new way of shopping from the ground up, but, even before looking at the present, review what you can learn from the history of retailers long gone!

This is probably way too deep of a post leading into the holidays, but it is on my mind, so here it goes.  I have been thinking about my own perceptions of service at various companies, and it has caused me to wonder what causes me to think that way and do others with these similar thoughts cause ratings to be high or low for other organizations?

This time of year is filled with shopping, and I have always had an interest in the Customer experience for retailers.  One of the places I like to shop is Target.  I like the assortment of products and the atmosphere.  If someone were to ask me I would rate Target service on the higher end.  But as I think about the Target experience, I do not like their restrictive return policies and I have never had a “wow” type of experience.  I compare this to Walmart, which I do not shop at as much.  I have never had a problem, I like the prices I have received (I have even saved over Target), yet I would rate them lower than Target.  Why would that be?  The experience is not much different and I would save money.

The same holds true when I compare Lowes to Home Depot.  Both have similar policies, I do prefer Lowes store layout and the brightness of the stores, but I have found I have had to wait longer at Lowes, because at Home Depot I can do self checkout which I like.  I have never had trouble with Home Depot, but I have with Lowes (which was fairly handled but should not have happened).  Yet with all of this I would rate Lowes higher than I would Home Depot.

Costco is typically seen as a leader in service in the club warehouse space, and it is a place I love to shop.  It is funny, but a few years ago we switched to BJ’s due to a membership offer we received.  Within a few weeks we shifted back to Costco because we missed the product assortment and the “wow” items they have in the store.  I will say Costco is great with returns, but I have seen the same handling at Sam’s and BJ’s.  I find the lines longer at Costco, which can be annoying.  I also have to show my receipt as I am leaving, which is another annoyance to me.  It would not be as much of an annoyance if they actually reviewed what I purchased by I find they just put a line on the receipt and I walk out the door.  I remember when I first joined Costco they had a sign that said “Why do we check the receipt.”  The answer was to ensure you received everything you paid for.  I would laugh every time I saw it, but they eventually took it down.  I understand the benefit of checking at the door, which is to reduce and discourage theft, which ultimately helps keep costs low.  If I were asked which store had the best service I would say Costco, yet is it really that much different?

So what does influence Customer Service ratings?  I think it is a multitude of things, and it varies by industry and even company.  Here are a few thoughts:

Brand Perception – This is a huge influencer in many Customer Service surveys.  Apple is a great example.  They are always highest ranked in service, and I would rate them high too.  Yet I have had many computers and the only time I ever had to call the manufacturer was for the first computer I purchased.  It was an IBM and they were great but they could not help fix it, so I had to return it to the store.  I have had many manufacturers, including Sony, HP, Toshiba, Apple and IBM.  I would rate Apple number 1, yet for really no reason from a Customer Service viewpoint.

Long Memories – As consumers we do have long memories and at times this will influence how we rate a company.  Using the computers listed above, I would rate HP and Toshiba very low, even though I have not had recent interactions.  Toshiba simply because I owned 2 laptops and both went right after the warranty expired (one was a 1 year warranty and the other was a 3 year extended warranty).  HP I have had a great experiences with my recent netbook and as well as the many HP printers I have owned, yet I would go back to trouble with a Compaq Pocket PC device that had a screen broken.  After numerous calls, I had to go to the executive office, and the person helped rectify but they were very rude in the process.

Customer Passions – Certain products create passion within the Customer base.  Apple can be a good example, but you can look at other products, such as TV, Internet or Cell Phone.  All of which we have learned that it would be difficult to live without.  What is interesting is this can create very divergent view based on the brand or the product.  TV and internet service providers typically rank very low is satisfaction, but I believe this is because we love to watch TV and we feel the need to be connected to the internet at all times.  In some cases we feel we do not have a choice and the costs keep going up.  Sometimes when people find an alternative there is excitement and they switch for that reason.  They then rank the others higher.  For me, I have had every provider across the board over the past 10 years, and with each I had good experiences, and some very bad ones.  In fact one popular highly ranked provider, I had some very bad experiences, and so have many others I know, yet they still rank high.  I think it is due to the passion for the product offering, and the fact that people feel they have a choice.  I also believe in many cases it is more of Customers trying to demand companies do better.  As an example, I have and love the iPhone.  I have never had a poor experience with AT&T, yet people sometime rank them lower in service.  A lot has been made recently about their network and maps.  This is a 2 sided issue that I do not want to get in the middle of, but I have never really had trouble. In fact I think the one time I did it was more associated with the operating system then the network.  It was later fixed with an update.  I do think people simply want AT&T to do better and are cheering them on to do just that.  I think the same can be said about the company I work for, and we are trying to do that.

Marketing – We like to think that marketing does not have an influence on us, but in many cases it does.  Verizon as an example spends something close to $3 billion a year to share their message.  As we saw with the map example, it has been highly effective.  We have also seen it with other products they have, yet if you dig into some of the experiences you will find just as negative example as any of their competitors, and in many cases more.  Of course some will say I am bias here, but I have had both good and bad experiences with this company, like so many others.  I would have their wireless service and AT&T through work.  I have not had a bad experience with either, but I would rank Verizon higher, is that due to their marketing efforts?  Another interesting example from a marketing side is Southwest airlines.  They have ranked high in Customer Service rankings, and I know many people that rave about their experience.  Is it really that much different?  I have found a few cool employees but I have had other flights where they were not that great.  For me I tend to rank them 4, behind Jet Blue, Air Tran (I love wifi on planes), and Continental.  Out of all each of these the only ones I have would say were influenced by actual Customer Service interactions are Jet Blue and Continental, but even with both of them, I loved live TV on the planes.

Price – This is part of the equation but probably not as large as we think.  Just using a few examples from above, my Walmart example it was not.  Apple is many times the highest price, yet people love them.

Company Culture and Employees – I think this is a very important aspect that is often overlooked.  I mentioned Southwest above, they have personalized their brand in many advertisement and the way they interact.  This culture has a high influence on Customer Service scores.  It is hard for me to rate a company low after I just got to know one of their employees.  The best example of this is of course Zappos and how open they are in sharing the spirit of their employees.  This personalization by the brand is extremely influential.  The same holds true on the other end of the spectrum.  General Electric is a company that has many influences on our lives.  I am not sure how there Customer Service ratings would be, but I would bet there is an influence in the rating due to the cold nature Jack Welch, former CEO, sometimes created or the amount of layoffs they have had in the past.  I like the company a lot as an investor and I think Jeff Immelt has tried to change some of those perception, but that is something that has impacted many families and will influence the brand for years, even though they do bring “Good things to life!”

In the spirit of this post, I would like to share this Comcast Customer Guarantee ad.  The reason is how it fits into the conversation.  All of the Comcast people you see in this ad are actual employees who were recognized for providing outstanding service.

What are some other influencers to Customer Service ratings?  What do companies need to do to win over the hearts and minds of Customers?  This will lead to an upcoming post on the Customer joining the C-Suite.

I hope everyone is have a great holiday season!

During the past 2 years I have not taken a true vacation with my family.  During that time our daughter Robyn was born, and I have been busy with work.  Most vacation days were spent at home with sick children and in many cases working too.  I have realized that it is important for all of us to take breaks at times and re-energize ourselves.  We have good friends from England vacationing in Florida during the month of December.  We couldn’t wait to see them!  A car trip to Florida, seemed like an excellent alternative to traveling to Europe.  Hey, we could even visit Disney!  This was a last minute trip, but the stars seemed to align for a great vacation.  I needed a break and with all the travel recently it was good to spend time with the family.

Like a good father, I prepared for the vacation.  Since we were driving down, I picked up a DVD player for the car.  I also purchased a new GPS map system as ours was stolen from my car in a Philadelphia parking garage not long ago.  For my sanity, I also invested in satellite radio.  Unlike the movie Vacation, I did not pick up a new car, but our Volvo wagon, which we affectionately call the Family Truckster, seemed to be in good shape.  On Friday evening I took the dog to my parents and started to pack the car.  This was not our first drive to Florida, so we knew what we needed.  Early Saturday morning we finished packing the car and loaded the kids.  Now it was time for a nice relaxing 1024 mile journey to Orlando.  Our first stop was to the Christiana Mall Disney store to purchase tickets (we were told purchasing tickets at the Disney store was best approach and this store was in Delaware so it would be tax free).  This first leg of the trip was smooth as can be.  We went into the Disney store and found that we could only purchase tickets for 3 days or more.  We only planned on spending 2 days in the parks since we have a 1 year old (almost 2) and a 3 year old.  If they were older we may have planned more.  So that was a waste of a trip, but it was a quick bathroom break and a snack.  The journey continued!

Driving with a potty trained 3 year old is so much fun!  At first she did not want to use potties on the road, but as the drive continued she started a quest to visit every McDonald’s bathroom along the east coast.  Every 50 miles or less I would hear “I HAVE TO GO POTTY!”  This was getting old really fast.  I could not wait for everyone to fall asleep.  We stopped at a Cracker Barrel along the way for dinner, then they started to sleep.  Actually it was funny Lily yelled the infamous “I have to go potty,” and by the time I turned around she was asleep.  I was not waking a 3 year old, so the trip continued.

I drove through Georgia, with everyone asleep most of the time.  At one point I had to pull over to give my eyes a rest.  There is a large construction zone on interstate 95 that has a lot of these yellow squares lining the way.  They should have chosen another color, because after driving since 8:30 in the morning (now it was around 11:00 PM), it was very psychedelic.  I felt like I was in a weird late 60’s movie.  I finally made it through that, and began looking for a place to spend the night.  It was at that time it started to pour rain.  So instead I kept driving until it slowed down a bit and I would not have to carry the girls in the rain.  Finally, just over the Florida border, I pulled over to a hotel.  At this time it was around 1:00 AM and kids were sleeping for about 4 hours.  In retrospect, it was probably not the best idea to stop at a hotel and wake them.  This was their first stay in a hotel.  It was also late so I did not ask for a crib for the 1 year old.  We decided it was best to separate them and have Carolyn sleep with Lily and I slept with Robyn.  Neither of them were tired anymore.  In fact they were wide awake and kept each other energized.  I did not get much sleep that night.  The next morning we had breakfast at the hotel and then we were off to Jacksonville Beach to visit Carolyn’s sister.

We had a nice visit with Carolyn’s sister and seeing her new house.  It was great because it was 2 blocks from the beach and the work they have done was starting to show.  We walked down to the beach, which the kid’s loved.  Lily was having fun digging in the sand.  At one point she dug up a dead bird that was buried in the sand.  It was at that point we realized it was time to continue our journey to Orlando.  After a piece of homemade cake and a drink of Gatorade we were on the road again!

The trip to Orlando was uneventful.  We stopped for a much needed Starbucks fix for me and everyone else napped the whole way.  We arrived at our hotel, which was a Marriott Springhill Suites.  I was not expecting much, but it was free stay using the Marriott rewards I have earned over the years.  It turns out it was the perfect place for us.  They had a crib for Robyn, Lily was able to stay on the sofa that pulled out to a bed, and there was a king size bed for us.  The best part for traveling with a family is the room had a kitchenette, which was very useful.  The people were great too, but more on that later.  After we were settled in, we went to visit our friends from England.  They had a house nearby so we decided to get “Takeaway” (that is the term for takeout in England).   Steve and I went to search out a place to get takeout.  This required some driving around, but we found Outback Steakhouse, a place they liked when they visited us a few years ago.  While we were driving around the engine light came on.

We ate our meal and enjoyed conversation while the kids ran around.  Then one of the English boys came running out from the bedroom yelling that Robyn did a pooh in his bed.  We all looked a little stunned, then the other kids yelled “not pooh, sick!”  Well this was a way to close out the night.  Thankfully they had a washer and dryer in the home, so easily dealt with.  We then went back to our hotel.  The entire ride back was a discussion about the engine light, and if we should delay plans for the Disney park and have it fixed, or let it go until we went home.  The car seemed to be running fine.  We decided that I would take the family truckster to the nearest Volvo dealer in the morning to have them check it out.

I woke up on Monday morning and went to a Volvo dealer about 5 miles away.  They were accommodating and were willing to check it out.  Of course there is $100 fee just to check out the service engine light.  They did it while I waited, so I asked them to also do a oil, lube and filter, since it was due anyway.  It is boring waiting for a car to be done, so I was checking out new and used Volvo wagons.  I could not believe the cost, but we do like the safety.  In fact our truckster was hit when it was new, and it held up like no other car.  I debated the cost of buying a used one if the cost of repair was to much, but I can not seeing paying that much for a car, and now was not the time.  Anyway it turns out the light came on because the gas cap went bad.  Total bill $182, for oil change and gas cap.  So much for the cheap vacation.

After that we went to Magic Kingdom for a fun filled day.  We pulled up to the booth to pay for parking.  The booth was on the passenger side, so Carolyn lowered her window.  This is when we saw the strangest thing!  The window flipped side ways and went down on the right side with the left side sticking straight up in the air.  Ugh!  A car with a lot of electronics, we had to decide what to do.  I decided to park and see what can be done.  With the help of another visitor to Disney, we were able to get the window back up.  It was cracked in 6 places but did not appear to be all the way through.  So we carefully shut the door and went into the park for the day.

This was my second time to Disney, but nothing could compare to the trip we had with our Angel Gia (more about that here).  I did not realize how hard it was to see some of the characters.  Everyone we went up to was closed.  The worst was when we went to see Princess Tiana, the handler said nothing that she was going in (he was busy chatting with a girl) and the line area was not gated off.  We were waiting for a number of minutes with another family.  He then asked if we were together, and when we said no, he then said she is done.  It was very odd, and probably would have been better to ask us to be quick or start off with she was done (of course doing that after waiting about 10 minutes was wrong).  It is hard to explain to a 3 year old that the characters have to go in.  Lily was not bad, she was just sad.  Anyway it still turned out to be an a good day in the park.  The kids really enjoyed the rides (although we did get stuck due to mechanical difficulties on “It’s a Small World” – the song is still stuck in my head).  The best part for Lily was the parades.  It was her chance to see the characters.  We learned that she really liked the Princesses and not so much the ones with masks.

The next day we woke up and I immediately started my phone calls to Safelite auto glass to try to get the next repair done.  It turns out the Volvo has “special” glass and has to be special ordered through the dealer.  I called the dealer we were at the day before, but they did not have the part in stock.  So I decided we would drive home with the cracks and I contacted our local dealer to order the part and schedule an appointment for later in the week when we returned.  Of course the jingling of the glass made for an interesting ride, but the reason it was a special order part is because it is laminated, similar to the windshield, so the glass stayed together.  Now to the parks for day 2.

This time we went to Disney Studios.  The kids had a fun day.  They really liked the Ariel show as well as Beauty and the Beast.  In fact up until then, neither loved Beauty and the Beast, which was Gia’s favorite.  After that show I think it is theirs too.  The parade in Disney Studios was more of a block party and with the exception of Potato Head coming up too close to Lily they had a phenomenal time.  Lily and Robyn even went into the street to dance with the performers!  After the block party we headed over to Epcot.  This turned out to be a great decision.  There was no wait for any of the rides for the kids, so they enjoyed Figment, Nemo and a few others.  We enjoyed walking through the international pavilions.  We did continue to have trouble seeing the characters, but they did get to see Pooh and Tigger.  They were still scared of the big characters!  And thanks to the handler for a Princess Jasmine, who did say she was going in, but if you hurry you can catch Snow White.  We hurried and did just catch her.  Now it was 7:30 and we had 2 hungry and tired kids.  We decided to try to find a place in the park to eat.  As we reviewed the brochure we found a place in Norway where they had a Princess story time.  We went over to see if they had space.  The woman was nice and said if you come back at 8:35 they can see if they can fit us in.  At this point I really felt like Clark W. Griswold, and I was going to do whatever I could to get them in.  I went back at 8:10 and was told we would have to check in at 8:35.  This time I decided to campout and wait for the time to get it.

Well, like in the movie Vacation, we did get in.  The meal was simply magical and it made the trip.  Lily had a number of pictures with the Princesses and they experienced the similar Disney magic that Angel Gia had years before.

The next day we met our friends for lunch and then we began the trek home.  We drove the 17 hours straight, arriving the next morning by 8:00 AM.  In the end it was a great trip with a few unexpected car expenses.  The car went in on Friday and it needed the $500 window, another $500 part for the window, and while it was there it was inspected.  Add on brakes and routers, gas door hinge, wiper for one of the lights (not sure why they even have that) and the total bill was about $1800.  Add the $182 gas cap and we could have had a good down payment on a new or used Volvo.  But now we can plan on keeping our family truckster for a few more years.

Today is the end of our vacation and I had to dig out from the snowstorm, much different than the 80 degree weather in Florida.  The plan is a quiet day and maybe watching the Vacation movies.

Next up will be the Christmas Vacation!  Actually no more vacation time, and I do not see myself trying to track down a bonus, when my company does not do that this time of year.  So maybe instead we can enjoy a quiet holiday with no more unexpected expenses.  Happy holidays everyone!

There has always been a lot of conversation about  Comcast and Twitter, including varying opinions of what we do right and what some perceive as wrong.  While I was on vacation there was a blog post by Ari Herzog comparing Comcast social media efforts with Walmart, LA Times and Whole Foods.   Overall it was a fair comparison, although for some reason no one realizes how active my team is within blogs, Facebook, forums, You Tube, and other social spaces.  That is a post for another day!  One of the comments is something I am very passionate about and I thought is would be helpful to share my thoughts here for some discussion.  At the end of the case study on Comcast it states “good luck finding Twitter link or icon” on Comcast.com.  Fair point and true, but lets get into why.

Not only has this discussion happened within social media, we have the discussion at work all the time.  There are many who have suggested we add a Twitter link as another method to contact us.  Believe it or not, I am the one that is resistant to this.  Let’s start with our goal within social media: “To meet Customer’s where they already are, listen and help when we can.”  I have always been passionate that the key to social media for businesses is listening first.  An area that I think companies can continually work on.

Many companies have used Twitter and other social media spaces very successfully to market products.  When you are doing this, placing a link on your website can work well.  Dell is the perfect example of this:

We have never sought to publicize our efforts or seek recognition for listening and helping, but needless to say it has happened.  I still find a lot of that discussion to be weird, because all we have ever done is what I refer to as Customer Service 101.  One of the things I realized is that publicity causes is many people that have never been on Twitter stop by.  I love Twitter, and I am excited when new people find it, but it is not always the right experience if you do not know how to use it.  One story occurred after I appeared on NPR Marketplace.  A woman needed assistance and went to Twitter for help.  It was her first time to Twitter.  She signed up and tweeted a few times.  She then when back to the the show and stated she never heard from Comcast.  We did reply to each of her tweets, but, as it turns out, she did not know to go to the “replies” tab to see responses.  This did not meet her expectations or ours, but that is what can happen when someone goes to a new space and does not fully understand how it works.  This takes me back to our overall goal, “Meet Customer’s where they already are, listen and help when we can.”  I do not see a need to generate business for Twitter but make it one of many places we listen.

Of course this would lead to the argument that we are not providing the same efforts to Customers not in social media.  Well, that is not true either.  Even before we were active in social media, my team developed a process for Customers to share feedback with Rick Germano, Senior VP of Customer Service for Comcast.  This is another process I have managed over the past few years.  This is prominently displayed on our website, and all feedback is reviewed and we assist Customers in the same manner.  We listen to every piece of feedback they provide, and help when we can.  I think in this age of Customer Service, providing as many means for Customers to share feedback is extremely important.  We also provide links throughout our website to our help forums, which are also managed by my team.  This does not mean we do not share links to our efforts on Twitter, but we do so in places where we find Customers that are already on Twitter tend to be, such as Comcast Voices blog.

I love the evolution Twitter has brought to companies, especially related to Customer Service and support.  I am proud to have played a small part, but this will continually evolve and time will create new best practices that all companies can share to create the best possible experience for Customers and prospective Customers.  The moral of this story is Twitter is great for those that fully understand it and like to be in the space.  Places like Facebook are better for others, and some individuals will prefer not to be a part of any of these social spaces, and there is nothing wrong with that.

This year has been filled with mixed emotions for many of us.  The poor economy has really brought a sense of reality to many of us this past year.  As I look back I see many great things too and today is the time to remember them.  If life has shown me anything, everything is relative, and you can always find the bright side if you look hard enough.  For me the bright side has been how much closer I feel today to many old and new friends that I have connected with through places like Facebook and Twitter.  The world has become smaller and I love the ability to connect with these friends.

I am so thankful for my supportive family that has put up with me traveling and spending way too much time on the computer.  I am also thankful for all the supportive people that I have had the opportunity to work with, including the Customers that make my job even possible.  My team has been extremely incredible at creating a new way of interacting and learning from Customers, I love the opportunity to work with them every day.  I am still in shock over some of the attention we have received, and we will do everything we can to live up to our Customers who bestowed that one us.  I look forward to furthering the cause of Customers to all companies I interact with.

I want to wish all you and your families and incredible Thanksgiving!  Today is a day to spend with family and friends and celebrate all we have to be thankful for.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Brian Solis always has thought provoking posts, and today “The Twitter Star: Nova or SuperNova” was no different.  It really provoked some thoughts from me regarding Twitter.  In the post Brian points out some of the declines in visitors to Twitter.com over the past 3 months.  He also points to an April study by Nielsen Online that shows 60 percent of new users do not return.

I know many will point out that these measures do not include all the Twitter tools and the open API, and I will concede this point.  Of course Nielsen did not concede that point and in this post they took the study a step further and proved the decline, even when you consider applications.

Over the past few months I have noticed less conversations and a lot more noise which makes it very difficult for new users, and I am sure frustrating to users that have been in the space for a long time.  Twitter has been making strides to make things easier, including creating lists which make it easier to follow people that are important to you.  They also make a great entry point for people to start following groups of people.  Many users have been doing this via tools like peoplebrowsr for a long time.  It is great that Twitter is catching up, but is it enough?

I like looking at things as a Customer eyes, even in situations like this.  So first lets look at the new Customer experience for Twitter.  They hear about Twitter on a news story or from a friend.  Based on this info they go to Twitter.com.  The new home page has search front and center.  I think this is a great step, but as a new user, I am not sure they would know what they want to search for and why.  One thing that comes to mind is they may search the word ‘Twitter’ and this is what it looks like:

For a long time we have all seen the benefits of Twitter trending.  This has been a tool that has told us news from happenings in Iran to natural disasters to the death of famous people.  Today most of the trending topics tend to be filled with spam messages that really do not add value to any of our lives.  Here is the top ten as I am writing this (click on any to view the tweets):

Trending Topics:

#classicmoviequotes
Thanksgiving
Google Wave
New Moon
#aintnothinglike
Jedward
Adam Lambert
Christmas
Goodmorning
Black Friday

The most exciting part for a new user is the first people that follow them.  Of course they immediate follow back and most likely get an odd DM welcome message.  I auto follow back, which causes me to get a lot of spam, but a new user would not know this and will receive similar.  Here is a look at DM’s I have received over the past few hours (names and links have been removed since some are caused by malicious code):

• Do you get paid for your tweets? 2 minutes ago
• Hi and thank u! about 1 hour ago
• Hey Frank, I just took “Which Lady GaGa song r u?” and got: Paparazzi ! Try it: about 3 hours ago
• Hey Frank, I just took “Are you really team edward or team jacob? well you may know who you wa…” and got: You love Jake! Try it: about 3 hours ago
• Hey Frank, I just took “How Funny Are You?” and got: Not Bad! Try it: about 3 hours ago
• Hey Frank, I just took “Are you stupid?” and got: Ur ok! Try it: about 3 hours ago
• Hey Cap’n – “Thanks for following!” Don’t fret, you can get all your (Google) Wave news and info at - check it out! about 5 hours ago
• I appreciate your interest in following me. I hope to remain a Twitter friend for a long time. Here is to many pleasant tweets ! about 5 hours ago
• Just for you! $5 off 2 T-Shirts or more! Use code: SALEJUSTFORU at about 7 hours ago
• Lieb von dir, dass du mir folgst – das freut mich riesig. Auf bald, deine Andrea about 8 hours ago
• As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another. God bless! about 8 hours ago
• Hello and thanks for the follow. It would be a BLAST to connect on Facebook?(Check it out and tell me what you think) about 9 hours ago
• Just take a moment and see that you can make money with this. A lot of people are doing it now.

I have said for a long time this is a community, and in many ways the community must define what the future of Twitter looks like.  If we want it to be relevant long into the future, what would you do?  Have you noticed a change in Twitter?

Sometimes people will challenge the thought of Customer Service in social media.  The belief is if Customer Service was excellent there would be no need for Customer Service involvement in social media.  I think these beliefs are shortsighted, but for a few different reasons.  Let me start off with stating that I believe Customer Service must improve for all companies, and a big cause is social media.  The Customer is gaining the upper hand, and I think that is great.  As a Customer Service person I love that this is becoming more of a focus for companies and their Customers.

Many argue that companies should take money being invested in social media and invest the same into traditional Customer Service functions.  I think this is a misconception since overall cost to listening in social media is negligible.  How much does it cost to do a Twitter search or Google blogsearch?  I have been doing similar searches for every company I have worked for over the past 15 years.  As a service person it provided me the pulse for the Customer thoughts on the companies I worked for.  This argument is made many times by social media “experts.”  Many of these experts have an understanding of social spaces, but not always of the Customer or Customer Service operations.  I wanted to take a moment to share thoughts on each of the spaces Customers may be in and how they may be used:

• Blogs, You Tube, Live Journal, Facebook pages (not status updates) – These spaces, and others like it, are Customers stories of things that already happened. Great way to learn from Customer from the good to the bad and even the ugly.
• Technical Forums (for Comcast these would include our help forums, Broadband Reports, AVS Forums, High Def Forums and many others) – These are spaces that can help enhance existing knowledge databases for Customer Service since they often discuss highly technical issues and find resolutions.  The resolution can then be used to be added to internal resources for Customer Service representatives to be used.  There are other issues that can only be fixed by the company but in many cases the Customer turned to the forum first.  We can then offer assistance where they already are, bypassing the need to call
• Twitter, Facebook status updates (when made public) and other microblogs – These are great spaces to learn things before any other means of communication.  On Twitter people are answering “What’s Happening?”  The answer may be I am calling XYZ company because…”  So now you know reason for the call before they even connect to an agent.  This information in a centralized space can add tremendous value because as a business leader I can know more before things are identified through calls or other forms of contact.  This can save companies tremendous money and provide great cost savings leading to a better experience because sometime we can even use Twitter to find the answer and supply to agents before the call came in.

I can see tremendous value for all interactions by listening in every one of these spaces.  Using the crowd sourced information, such as what can be found in forums, will lead to cost benefits and a great way to engage your most passionate Customers.  In many businesses, such as the cable industry, so many variable impact performance and technical forums can help find solutions to the most difficult of problems.  So if someone is having trouble with XYZ router, the call center may not have the answer since it is impossible to know every router ever created, but the answer may be quickly found in a forum.  It is crowd sourcing at its best.  Now that can lead to huge cost benefits!

The other notion that is implied in many of these conversations is excellent service will lead to positive information in social media.  This is incorrect.  There are a number of companies that I follow because of how much I love the service they provide to their Customers.  These companies encounter many negative conversations, in fact I even did a blog post regarding one of them.  I still feel guilty, since the vast majority of my interactions with the company were perfect.

In the end, I think listening to your Customer anywhere will lead to improved Customer experience and cost benefits for the entire company.  Social media is not the holy grail in any way, but it is one piece of a listening strategy.  There are great tools that can help you listen to calls, or other communications with Customers.  I also recommend providing your Customer an easy way to share their feedback through other channels that may not be as public.  It is all part of a cohesive listening plan that, in my opinion, all companies should be looking at.

The key is remembering the Customer is part of the solution, and social media is a great way to involve them!

Pangaea Image Courtesy of Solstation.com

I am in Las Vegas right now attenting the WOMMA Summit.  Last night I had dinner with a good friend, Pete Blackshaw.  Much of the conversation was about a piece that was in USA Today on Wednesday titled ”Social Media, like Twitter, Change Customer Service.”  Needless to say when I read the opening discussing a missed opportunity for my team I was a little upset.  But this really started me thinking about Twitter and businesses that use it.  Expectations have been high as this new engagement tool has been developed for businesses.  I am proud to be one of the people that have really shown how it can be done.  At the same time I think there is a divergence between the expectations and the realities.

USA Today Picture Taken By Eileen Blass

I have heard businesses and individuals discuss the space as nirvana for communications.  I do not believe it has achieved, or will ever achieve that level for anyone.  Nirvana is way too high of a threshold for a tool to such as this to achieve.  There are faults, like most means of communication, such as a fail whale once in a while (although much improved) or a tweet not coming through to the many tools that use the Twitter API.  Besides the technical things that can happen,  let’s face facts, we are human and at times we make mistakes. 

So if this space is not nirvana, what is it and how can companies use it?  Well have you ever heard of the theory of Pangaea (sometime spelled Pangea)?  This is the theory that at one time all the world’s continents were together as one; the continent of Pangea.  Twitter has proven to bring the world together for numerous events around the world, the most discussed probably the protests in Iran.  I have always seen the benefit to Twitter as a way of meeting new friends (Facebook being the space for the friends I already know).  Through Twitter search we can learn almost anything and connect with people that  have the knowledge we are looking for or the thoughts we want to connect with.  For businesses, it is not the space to force one sided conversations, as many people have sought.  First and foremost it is a space that is worth listening to in an effort to learn and obtain information faster.  Search is the key.  Through this your organization will transform into a smaller place because you are connected directly to the Customers thoughts.  In business it is impossible for every executive to review every interaction, but reviewing 140 characters will provide you the same information in a much easier manner to digest.  One of the keys to this is this is not a metric or number, but instead the Customer’s view in their own words.  Nothing is more powerful than that.

It can also be used to have actual dialogue with your Customers allowing them to be part of business solutions. Customers and employees of all levels have wanted a say in business operations for years, but there were no easy ways to do this, and in many cases it was not welcomed by individual leaders.  The dictator style of leadership. Well social media has killed that syle and today it is involving others.  It is a great way to do it because it creates immediate buy in.  Those involved also have a vested interest in success.  Twiter is an easy tool to involve your Customers.  As you build a following, you can ask questions, even provide business problems and the crowd will help provide answers.  This to me is probably the most enjoyable aspect to Twitter.  I know some will say not every Customer is on Twitter, and that is a fair statement.  At the same time there is no cost effective means to do this like in the same manner to all Customers. 

Twitter is bringing the world together, even in business.  Embrace this fact and strive to do the right things and your business will be successful.

So I just got home from the New Tee Vee Live conference in San Francisco.  I had a great time meeting friends that I have spoken with many times via Twitter.  This was not my typical conference, since normally I have the opportunity to go to conferences more centered on social media or Customer service.  I did not have the opportunity to stay in San Francisco long (just about 30 hours), but even though it was quick I did leave with a reinvigorated spirit and deeper friendships.  One of those friendships is with Om Malik, who I found to be simply a nice guy.  It is funny, because I have seen the fear he can instill in so many people based on his frank and honest writing style.  Instead I found a honest, quiet man that is open to laughing at himself.

I enjoyed the dinner the evening before the event.   At dinners like this there is always a few speeches and toasts, this was no different.   When Om Malik got up he thanked many that contribute to the success at night.  Among those that he acknowledged were many members from Comcast, my employer and the main sponsor for the event.  In his acknowledgement he went a step further to discuss the great connections he was making with the Comcast team members that were there.  I am not sure what he was expecting, but you can tell there was a genuine like on both sides.  This was not a surprise, because I know I work with a lot of great people.  I was not surprised at the public acknowledgements; let’s face it, that is the nature of these type of events.  What did surprise me was the deeper personal conversations I had with Om and members of his team at Gigaom.com.   These included advice and honest conversations that were very touching.  This was the personal connection that really mattered.

While I was at the event , CBS News played a piece based on an interview we did months ago (A copy of the story is below this post).  The piece was regarding the trouble companies have allowing there employees to use social media while at work.  To me, as I pointed out in my last post, it is similar to the debate I am sure happened when phones came into the office setting and I know the same exact debate happened when employees were provided access to email.  One of my friends, Beth Harte, likes to share a picture of a golfer when she discusses social media with senior executives.  She is making the point that social media is the new golf outing to attract clients.  I agree in many ways.  Of course social media is a little cheaper.  For those who point out that social media has a negative impact on productivity, I would ask how long a status update takes on Facebook?  How about 140 characters on Twitter?  Another question I would ask companies is if they expect their employees to answer their blackberry during off hours?  I think that is why they provide them in the first place, so why can’t a little bit of home be brought to the office?  Seems to me to be double standard.

If you are a business, social media is a great way to humanize your brand.  The only way to humanize your brand is through your employees.  They are the most valuable asset to any company and in many ways actually define your brand.  Teach them social media, help them engage in it, and create an environment that encourages it.  This has been proven to be successful, just look at Zappos.   So whether it is in social media, at a business function, conference, or meeting a Customer at a local store, it is all about building and maintaining relationships.  Your employees are the biggest company cheerleaders, so please let them go cheer!

I apologize if this post seemed to go in a few directions.  While I was writing it I was having a conversation with someone that believes that companies should block social media websites and forbid employees from speaking about the brand.  It caused me to go in a little different of a conversation, but, like that individual, there are many people that do not understand the potential positive outcomes by building a social business.  Of course the conversation with that person was on Twitter!  Some do not see the benefits in gaining Customers, or how this new communication can really help businesses find new solutions and answers.  The social web has a lot of potential if a company decides to fully tap into it.

Watch CBS News Videos Online

This is the third attempt for me writing this post.  This morning I woke up and read my email like I do every morning.  One of the emails was a Google alert with a reference to this San Francisco Chronicle article about “Social Media Going Corporate.”  In the article it stated the following:

At Comcast, employee Frank Eliason took the initiative last year to use his own Twitter account to contact customers who were tweeting about service problems. Now known as “Famous Frank,” Eliason has been credited with almost single-handedly turning around Comcast’s reputation. He heads a staff of 11 who monitor social networks and offer help to customers.

During a question-and-answer session at last month’s Web 2.0 conference, Comcast’s Roberts said the Twitter strategy has played a big part in changing the corporate culture “from inside the organization, not just the top down.”

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/11/07/BU341ACLD3.DTL#ixzz0WE9gWzSR

In my opinion the change in culture was due to so many people inside and outside the organization.  Some of the people I work with I give huge credit to the change, including my team, Rich Roberts (my former boss, now VP of Customer Care in Atlanta), Tina Waters (SVP and my boss), Rick Germano (SVP of National Customer Service), Jenn Khoury, (VP, Corporate Communications), and D’Arcy Rudnay (SVP, Corporate Communications).  But it was so many more than these individuals.  Team members throughout the organization, from techs, Customer Service representatives, managers, directors, and VPs from all area contributed.  Our Customers, who are very passionate about our products, and simply want a great experience to go with it.  As Rick likes to say “They are cheering us on, because they want us to get  it right.”  In dealing with so many, I can say Rick is correct, they do love our products and they want the opportunity to cheer for us, we just need to make sure we deliver on that.  This post is not about Comcast, but for those that do not know, I agree our culture has changed.  I have been seeing first hand, including changes in reporting structure, new systems, the implementation of the Customer Guarantee and the overall attitude of the company has shifted to be about the Customer experience.  In fact the new corporate credo is:

“We will deliver a superior experience to our Customers every day.  Our products will be the best and we will offer the most Customer friendly and reliable service in the market”

I am sure some will say they have not experienced this fully yet, but I will tell you a lot is being done to ensure you do.  You will be cheering!  Internally the conversation is always about the Customer experience and how to make sure we get it right.  I see a much different place than when I started 2 years ago.  I do not believe it was due to me, but a lot of the discussions in various spaces that started to come together at the same time.  Many of the discussions supported greater transparency, Customer focus, and an environment that questioned how things were being done.  As this took shape, the culture of the company changed.

So I wrote this post numerous times I kept singing in my head the following lyrics:

We didn’t start the fire
It was always burning
Since the world’s been turning
We didn’t start the fire
No we didn’t light it
But we tried to fight it

Aren’t these words so fitting regarding social media and corporate America?  Now I was not around when the phone joined the business world, but I can imagine someone saying they do not need a phone on their desk.  Yet today, many of us carry our work phone wherever we are.  I would imagine in the marketing space similar discussions happened with the transition from newspaper to radio to TV.  I remember email coming out and much debate over providing email access to all employees.  Today, I have work email 24/7 on my iPhone.  Even funnier was the reaction to using email for Customer Service.  Today who would not think to email a company for service?  Same was true regarding allowing employees having internet access on their desk.  This was done, but then many site were blocked due to productivity.  Of course I work on email at night and weekends, why would their be a problem if I updated Facebook at work?  So lets allow the song to continue:

Telephone, radio’s playing, newspapers, TV’s talking,
email, googling, paying bills, Pandora playing
Facebook Mafia wars, Blog updates galore
Following more Twitter stars, I can’t take it anymore

We didn’t start the fire
But when we are gone
Will it still burn on, and on, and on, and on…

Social media is about relationships, and ultimately relationships are good for businesses and employees.  Will social media change corporate culture?  Well have other forms of communication?  I believe phone, email and the internet have already changed the culture for everyone, especially businesses.  With each new form of communication we gain efficiency and we find new ways to speak with Customers.  Can you imagine someone typing and copying memos?  Ugh, I would hate that.  For those that say Twitter and Facebook take away from the efficiency of the workers, the same was said about email and internet access.  I bet it was also said about phone too (oh no, a family member better not call).  Social media has made the world a smaller place (there are numerous examples of this) and I know it can make the business world smaller too.