The PMN Blog

Frank Eliason of @comcastcares Shares His Twitter Secrets With The PMN

Michael Della Penna - Friday, October 30, 2009

He’s been called “the most famous customer service representative in the U.S. and possibly the world” by BusinessWeek and now he is sharing his Twitter secrets with PMN members. As Director of Digital Care at Comcast, Frank has been credited with reshaping Comcast’s customer service with a brilliant effort on Twitter that focused on listening to customers and then actively participating with them. So what are those secrets to his success? Here are the top 10 points that Frank made on the recent PMN webinar.

Don’t be afraid to try new thing – be open to the possibilities of the social web
Be everywhere your customers are
Be, find or encourage an evangelist in your organization
Invest in listening and ultimately participating with customers
Be honest, transparent and responsive – adopt a “Make it Right” mentality in the customer service department
It takes a village. Be a team player and work with your internal teams. You may even want to consider creating a cross-functional team like Comcast did.
Find an executive sponsor/advocate – support is critical, particularly if you need to change the culture
Measure success
Communicate success
Always be learning and sharing

Some great advice – thank you Frank. To hear a replay of the webinar, visit the membership section of the PMN website. Stay tuned for some more great speakers – up next how Dell made millions on Twitter…just confirming the details!

'Til Next Time

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@comcastcares: Turning Lemons into Lemonade

Michael Della Penna - Monday, August 10, 2009

Riding around my suburban neighborhood this summer, I will occasionally see an enterprising youngster set up on the sidewalk selling fresh lemonade in the afternoon sun. It gets me thinking about how challenging and satisfying it is to take an adverse situation and turn it into a positive – particularly in the world of business. Wouldn’t it be great to take negative chatter about your brand and convert it into something that promotes it? Well, Frank Eliason from @comcastcares has done just that by “socializing” customer service. By embracing Twitter and using the micro-blogging service Frank and his team respond to customer problems and issues in a timely and efficient manner. The result has been amazing - what could have been a legion of frustrated customers is now just the opposite – Comcast brand advocates. Many have sat up and taken notice, including BusinessWeek, which has called him “the most famous customer service manager in the U.S., possible the world.”

That’s why I’m really excited to announce that Frank has agreed to lead the PMN’s next webinar on October 21, 2009. In this interactive session, Frank will share his thoughts on the importance of listening and participating with customers and how you too can leverage interactive tools like Twitter to converse and ultimately convert customers into brand advocates. The addition of Frank to the impressive line up of PMN speakers -- including Charlene Li, Ron Shevlin, Steve Rubel and Dave Evans -- continues our mission to provide marketer with the very best know-how necessary to start marketing with customers rather than at them. We hope to see you at the Webinar and for those of you wanting to learn more about how to leverage the power of Twitter for your business check out TWTRCON DC the following day, October 22, 2009 where dozens of other leading brands will be sharing their thoughts, advice and stories.

To register for the PMN webinar on October 21, 2009 featuring Frank Eliason from @comcastcares click here. To register for TWTRCON DC Early Adopter pass, just $395 on October 22, 2009 click here. Til Next Time.

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What Do The World's Most Influential Companies Have In Common?

Michael Della Penna - Tuesday, December 16, 2008

What do influential companies have in common? According to Business Week, they define and redefine ideas and the terms of competition. That’s exactly what we need to do with the way we market.

The rise of the social internet is redefining everything including email. Consumers are in control; old marketing approaches are losing their effectiveness and consumers are growing increasingly frustrated. Think it’s just hype? Well, take a look at a few of the red flags over the past few years.

2002:

Nielsen Begins Tracking Tivo Usage.

2003:

Do Not Call Registry Created And Passes 50 Million Mark In September 2003.

2006:

DMA Mail Preference Service Reaches 4.6 Million.
DMA Email Preference Service Reaches 400,000.
AOL pays $3 million to settle complaints related to consumers having difficulty canceling their accounts after a consumer posts recording of their interaction with an AOL representative on a website. Posting gets national press coverage and serves as one of the first and most powerful examples of the emerging social web.

2007

78% of consumers report using anti-spam/filtering solutions.

2008:

Do Not Call Registry reaches 157 million – Wow, name one marketer's list who has grown that fast?
Catalog Choice, a leading mail preference service surpasses the 1 million mark.
DVRs used in 20% (up from 9%) of all households and make up 7.5% of all prime time viewers.
PC Magazine print folds - not to mention dozens of others…but let’s save some space for more bad news.
DMA study finds email ROI declining. Hey don’t worry, email is still cheap.
eMarketer reduces its social media advertising forecast for the second time this year as social networks find themselves still trying to figure out how to turn their vast audiences into advertising dollars.
Forrester Research’s Josh Bernoff publishes “Time To Rethink Your Corporate Blogging Ideas” citing corporate blogs rank at the bottom of the trust scale with only 16% of online consumers who read them saying that they trust them. For some of you out there still wearing your rose colored glasses, you’re probably thinking hey that’s 16% I might be able to sell. Go for it, time is running out.

What do these stats say about the state of marketing? I believe they indicate that traditional push and permission marketing strategies and tactics are sick, very sick and will get sicker if they don’t evolve. Consumer control and growing trust issues are a problem and these issues need to be recognized and addressed. It’s time to start listening to customers and engage them with creative and innovative ideas and communications that create value. After all, the great marketing of tomorrow will be, as Business Week notes - less about a company’s physical assets and more about the force of its ideas. Those ideas must start with what benefits the customer first.

Now the good news…many of you are starting to think differently. According to a recent StrongMail study, a significant number of organizations plan to experiment with new programs in 2009 to raise visibility and increase sales. As long as they are customer-centric that is a good start. In addition, the investment in email trumps all other programs as the communication of ideas that value and speak to the needs of consumers grow increasingly important. Key lesson for '09 - experiment more, create BHAGS: Big Hairy Audacious Goals and use powerful mediums like email to encourage your audience to interact with your brand. If we do that well we might just see some good news like higher open and click-through rates, cheaper acquisition costs via WOM and more sales.

'Til Next Time

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