Sean Price – Tech Geek & Business Mind

Every day of our lives we interact with a variety of different people from all different aspects of life, different cultures, thoughts, backgrounds, emotions and so much contributes to the way in which those people will interact with you on a day to day basis. This can be very difficult when you are trying to deal with a company and their customer service is biased by so many factors – its can’t be helped thats for sure, however customer service is key to this whole social media business.

Every day I speak with customers and potential leads and ensuring that the customer service not only my company offers but myself on a personal level is the absolute best I could offer, as much as possible I go out of my way to visit and interact with my customers and actually give a damn about what they do not only in work but if personal life comes into play then that too because there isn’t a brick wall between personal and business life especially when it comes to caring about your customers. Far to many people but up barriers between their work and personal life and in some cases rightly so and some areas they are needed but knowing that if someone is going through a tough time then its really not the best idea to be chatting and trying to sell them your service.

Today I have had to deal with several fairly large companies to get some information and details changed and the manner in which this was achieved was nothing short of a 2 hour conversation for something that should have taken 10 minutes. Not because their systems were down, i was asking the impossible, there was a queue or things weren’t being put across properly but simply the cultural difference and bias bought upon them with the culture and expectancies of their company forced them to act and play out a scene that was really not needed at all.

When it comes to customer service for your business five things I think are crucial and these play a big part especially with social media:

1. Make sure your message is coming across as clearly and accurately as possible so that what you are saying does not offend or irritate the customer
2. Do not try and brush the customer and their concerns to one side quickly without properly attending to them just in order to get through more work or more enquiries
3. Word of mouth has always been a powerful tool – 1 bad customer review is worth a lot more when told to friends and family than 1 good review is and whats more with social media tools such as twitter, facebook, linkedin then this word of mouth has been increase a million fold – don’t damage your brand equity
4. Don’t rely on just your own knowledge when tackling a problem – if you need the help of co-workers or even the public – USE IT instead of being stuck or giving advice/information that may not be beneficial
5. The customer is always right, right? If they are embrace this and even display this knowledge through social media tools whereby should a customer praise, make suggestion or just ask for help with something promote these ideas and show the community you are listening. Should the customer not be the happiest person and are having problems with you – you better believe they will slate you through social media outlets – what do you do? Connect with them – engage and try your best to resolve the issue.

Make sure the way you communicate and engage with your customers not only through social media but on a day to day basis isn’t closed and restricted – caring is key – its not all about the money.

For those who were unable to attend Weston-super-Mare’s Chamber of Trade & Commerce event last night Wired Weston II then take a look below for my presentation which I made to the great folks of Weston-super-Mare and surrounding areas.

If you are interested in the first event which happened in October 2009 and this second event then you can find more information including all the slides (yesterdays slides to come) over at my company website by clicking here.

A lot of my consulting, talks and general meetings now are focused more and more on social media and how to go about utilizing social networks as a means to promote the brand of a business or individual a brief intro I wrote recently for Startup Donut can be found here.

The most common question I get asked is WHICH SOCIAL NETWORK SHOULD I USE?

The answer is simple – ALL OF THEM being at least a presence on them all is important maybe you dont focus all of your energy into all of these networks but having a presence there is important as your target niche isn’t in just one place – they are spread across facebook, twitter, myspace, bebo, flickr, hi5, tagged, tuenti and the thousands of other social networks out there.

So whats the Buzz in the social networking plane lately?

Well Google in their infinite efforts to monetize, improve search and improve the way we communicate have released BUZZ.

Google Buzz has gained a lot of attention since its release only days ago bringing approximately nine million posts and tens of millions of views in its first two days alone! Many people especially those on networks such as Twitter and Facebook slated Google for its efforts with Buzz for its lateness to the game and lack of privacy features.

We are still only in the first few days of Google Buzz but without a doubt its going to be a very important part of the Google plan as it ties in with mobile, email and desktop very tightly – mobile being the key part of Buzz which allows you to post updates just like other social networks to all your friends only this time your network expands A LOT quicker and is built on so much more importance the contact and communication between the entities of your network.

Every single person who has a Google Mail / Gmail address  with their Google Profile automatically has a Buzz account now that is a HUGE start to a social network to have that many registered users from the start with a system that integrates so tightly with your own email inbox!

What are your thoughts on Google Buzz? Friend me up on Google Buzz http://google.com/buzz/seanpriceiboxsecurity

Last year in October I made delivered a talk for Weston Super Mare’s Chamber of Trade and Commerce on the benefits of social media by introducing the basics and how to use it in a business environment; the talk which lasted approximately 45 minutes followed by 20 mins Q&A was a success and lead to several businesses in the area taking to the social network arena and trying it out for themselves.

The event held last year aptly named “Wired Weston” at The Royal Hotel in Weston-super-Mare had a great turn out and proved to be a great chance to network with like minded people and talk about business moving online in a town which is very much sat in its old ways.

This February 17th at the Royal Hotel sees the Chamber of Trade and Commerce come back with their 2nd part of the event with “Wired Weston II” – (I wish they would call it “Revenge of the tweets”) where by this time the event will touch on content from the previous event briefly and then move deeper into how you can benefit greatly from using Social Media on both a personal and business branding level.

My talk this year will be approximately 30 minutes followed by Q&A and I would love to answer as many questions as possible. If you are interested in coming along to the event please visit the Weston chamber of Trade & Commerce website, a buffet and refreshments will be provided, no pushy selling to join the Chamber, come along and learn, ask questions and network.

We are in 2010 – that’s twenty ten – where this year we should be coming out of the recession and we need to do it with a bang.

There has never been a more important time to get it right, your business brand and your personal brand. This is the year that social media will really dominate for a lot of businesses. Last year non tech people just found out about Twitter and the side of facebook above that of teenagers thanks to a vast number on celebs jumping on the social media bandwagon.

It’s not sufficient that you grab a Twitter/facebook account put up a message here and there in order to promote your business or personal brand. As with any kind of marketing, branding both online and off takes time and effort which is the key to the success effort and passion. It’s no good putting effort in if you have no passion and caring for your audience.

Over the next few weeks I’m going to release a few posts about branding online and how to do better.

But first of all determine the following

• who is your target audience – not necessarily for selling to but your current client base and in people a similar niche
• Are you promoting you as a brand, your company or both?
• What is your overall goal – sell more? drive traffic? provide better customer service? improve brand awareness? Other???
• How are you going to put your message across without annoying people or being pushy?
• Are you dedicated enough to follow through and keep on top of this?
• How are you going to track all of your efforts?

Tips, in-depth look at various tools, sites and how to’s to come soon. How do you manage your social networking efforts to promote your brand?