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Archive for the ‘Social Media’ Category

Aramex; Delivering Customer Satisfaction

06 Oct
Image from: aramex.com

It is good to read about companies that are making spectacular customer service, and about customers who are receiving these services. But do you know what is even better than reading these stories? It is being at the receiving end … of course!

That what exactly happened to my friend Mohsen who was at the receiving end of a superb customer service from Aramex, the transportation and logistics company. Before going on with this story, I should emphasize  here that this story has not been influenced by Aramex or any of its staff in any way. The only influence that you may want to consider is their sincere efforts in making one customer, a happy one!

Believe it or not, the story that in some point witnessed the involvement of the company headquarter started because of an online chat between Mohsen and a customer service representative. Mohsen started the chat asking about his shipment that was already in Jeddah but never reached him. The online customer rep. gave a weird reply stating that the shipment has been already delivered and it was received by someone called “Tahlia Branch” … I am sure you can guess that Tahlia Branch is … you know … a branch of Aramex on Al Tahlia street!!

Of course Mohsen was not impressed, he clarified the situation to the customer rep., then filled an online complain about the service, and decided to tweet about the story while hashtaging Aramex.

Nothing abnormal about the story so far; we have been there, done that! Now prepare for the delightful customer service surprise!

After a couple of hours, Mohsen received an international phone call. Identifying himself as the COO of operations in the Middle East, the gentleman on the other side of the phone called to apologize to Mohsen about of the misgiven information in the chat, and that he will make sure it will never happen again! You may want to ask how the COO knew about the story! Yes, he is on Twitter, he read Mohsen’s tweet!

You can imagine the kind the impression such experience had left on Mohsen, or any customer in his position. The COO of an international company is actually calling you to apologize for an online incident that he noticed because of a tweet!

The story is not over yet; in a couple of days, Mohsen received another call from Aramex, this time from a quality assurance representative calling him because of the online complain he had left after the chat! And guess what, Mohsen told the representative about the call he received from the COO and she was not aware of it, she was just calling to help with misfortunate customer expereince he had had while receivng the service!

So why this is a superb customer experience:

  • It clearly shows that the company, Aramex in this story, has the customer experience at the heart of its culture. You do not usually get a call from the COO and get follow up calls from a company that did not thoroughly thought about customer satisfaction!
  • The story does not suggest in any way that Aramex is a perfect customer provider and there is no chance of receiving some unfortunate experience with them, but it certainly shows that they are willing to learn from their mistakes, they care, they understand what customer service is (read the previous point again).
  • Finally, this is an example of the power of social media. An evidence of what Jeff Jravis* calls the lost control of timing. On social media you ‘no longer decide when to put your story out or when to answer critics.’ That’s why companies like Aramex cares about their reputation on the social network. That’s why they are closely monitoring what is said about their services. Deciding to have a Twitter, Facebook, and a website is not a luxury anymore. Online presence is important to have, more important to use well. To interact with customers and to engage them. To understand them.
* Read Jeff Jarvis book, “What Would Google Do?”

 
3 Comments

Posted in Branding, Customer Service, Marketing, Social Media

 

Impulse Purchased Products

05 Sep

How much time do you spend thinking about which type of gum you are going to pick the next time you are in a grocery store? Do you have a favorite gum brand? If yes, why is it a favorite and how did you develop that loyalty?

I would advise you against taking these questions lightly, we are talking about $19 billion industry here (about SAR 71.25 billion)!

Gum is one of those products that are usually purchased based on an impulse. You rarely plan to go to a supermarket or a grocery store to buy a gum! Most of the time you will be standing in a cashier queue and you will see it somewhere around and simply extend your arm to grab one.

It is argued that building loyal customers to such products is difficult, and I tend to agree on that argument. Distinguishing such products based on taste or quality is difficult if not impossible, and after sale services rarely exist!

However, being memorable through intensive advertising might be the only solution! Now if you remember my questions at the beginning of this post, and you truly have a favorite gum brand, I would bet that you have been exposed to many many many advertisements for that brand so when you stood in that cashier queue and extended your hand to grab a gum, you took the one that looked most familiar to you. Familiarity with a brand name or its package somehow generates confidence about the quality of products.

Nevertheless, advertisements are not everything in marketing, there is the new hype; social media marketing. The social media sites are getting more and more popular and more and more access in this part of the world. Although Arabic companies were a bit reluctant at first to jump on the wave, they realized the potential now and are trying their best to catch on (check out this post about Saudi companies and social media in 2009).

One of these attempts is Mentos Arabia. Mentos is a well known gum and mint brand, it has been around since 1950. And now its Arabic marketing team is working on different social media platforms to personalize the brand and engage with its customers (check out their Twitter & Facebook). Again, for such impulse purchased products, it is not an easy job, but they are doing a great job as I have been invited to see. The way they are engaging their online fans and potential customers through games, offers, and challenges is admirable. Such method will keep the brand name memorable and always in front of the customers’ eyes! However, I have noticed that although it is Mentos Arabia, I have not seen any posts in Arabic. This is somthing they should really consider to widen their audiance and reach more potential customers in the Arab world.

 
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Posted in Advertisement, Branding, Marketing, Social Media

 

Suing a Blog over a Review

04 Feb

Writing a review on your blog talking about your ‘personal’ experience with a company, or a restaurant could drag you to the court if that company or restaurant managers decided that they do not like your ‘personal’ opinions about them. If the lawsuit filed by the franchise restaurant “Benihana” in Kuwait against the blogger of ‘2:48 AM’ got through its course in the legal system, then this could be the first in the Arab world blogosphere, as far as I know at least!

The story started when Mark, the blogger of ‘2:48 AM,’ decided to visit the newly opened restaurant with his wife. Thereafter, he wrote this review on his blog about their experience at the restaurant. Although the management of ‘Benihana’ seem like they do not know a thing about social media and blogs, somehow they managed to reach that review and to them, that was a huge slap on the face. Go ahead and try to read the comments on that post, you will find that number of different people tried to attack Mark and counterattack his reviews. That until you realize through one of Marks replies that he found out that the different names are only one (same IP address) and it seems that it was a move from the management of ‘Benihana’ to shut him up. The story does not end here, when Mark pulled the cover of the multiple names, someone named Mike Servo came along indicating that he is the GM of the company and started harassing Mark by threatening with a legal action. You can find the comment of this so called GM on the same page under the name Mike Servo.

Now, Mark has announced that he was served with a court order (here); so it is official now that people running ‘Benihana’ Kuwait do not know a bit about marketing, customer service, PR, or social media marketing.

The story is now breaking out and it has been reported by many media outlets. Talking about bad publicity, this is what Benihana exactly got. From marketing perspective, I do not think there is a more dreadful mistake than reacting to an unsatisfied customer with an attack. Doing that you will not only lose the customer, but you will lose hundreds of customers who will hear or read about it. It is a bad word of mouth, and a bad social media marketing altogether.

The reaction of the Benihana really amazes me, not because all of the drama in the story, but because it is coming when everyone, on all levels, especially in the Arab world, is starting to realize the power of blogs and social media and how strong its arm could be. It is really a classical, old fashioned, unprofessional, and even a foolish managerial mistake.

Benihana restaurant exists in my city, Jeddah, as well. I am not a big fan of Japanese cuisine myself, but I will make sure to pass a note to all my friends and family members who are into Japanese food. It is unfriendly place, this the image I formed about Benihana, given that I’ve never been there!!

Lastly, the free spirit statement, I do not personally know any one running ‘2:48 AM’ or any one working in Benihana, none of them nor anyone else has influenced this post in anyway. It is all mine :)

p.s. Thanks to Darine Sabbagh, the Lebanese blogger; I found about this story through her post (here) :)

 
2 Comments

Posted in Communication, Customer Service, General Management, Marketing, Public Relations, Social Media

 

Social Media Revolution

23 Jan

Despite the fact that Muammar Al Gaddafi declared that the Internet, social media in particular, is leading us all astray, it is very hard to dismiss the role social media is playing everywhere in the world nowadays. The revolution that took place in Tunisia is still fresh in the hearts and minds and it is just a few days old and it can be considered as the first successful revolution in history that was mainly covered through social media outlets. Yes, the revolution had its own reasons to spark and its own reasons to keep its momentum, the role social media played in the events was unmistakable. At least for those following its events up and interacting with it even with mere support and excitement.

So what is this political start should do in a blog that talks about marketing and business?! I will tell you the reason …

If social media is now able to be part of a major political and national events, business owners, CEOs, marketers, … etc, should be seriously worried about their businesses.

The social media marketing started to be, you could say, conceptualized, about three years ago. And this date is supported by my own observations although there a lot of authors who push the beginning of social media marketing further back in time! It started with the boom in Facebook, Twitter, blogs, and Youtube. Some companies started to notice the shift in consumers behavior and decided to ride the wave before it is too late. Nowadays, the online interactions between family members, friends, or even people who never saw each other is a fact as far as any fact can be actually a fact, if that makes kinda of sense! People are sharing their experiences with different brands and customers service encounters almost momentarily. Before going out, they ask their online friends or followers about the best restaurant, the best shop, and best offer. Having a good product or a service, or bad ones, their news could be on a link shared somewhere, a tweet that hundreds are re-tweeting, or on a video that can go viral.

So where are the Saudi companies form all of this? … mmm … you know, by asking such question, you could be disturbing their sleep!!!

I have written a post about this same topic in Oct. 2009 (here, there is a link to an interesting study that you may want to check as well) and the change is … almost nothing!! Go ahead and visit any Facebook page or Twitter account of most of Saudi companies, if you are lucky and you found one! and you will be surprised by how poorly maintained these accounts are!!!

Sad, isn’t!! :(

I will be more than happy to be proven wrong, so if you know any known Saudi organization that have a remarkable online presence, please share it with the rest of us!

 
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Posted in Marketing, Saudi business, Social Media

 

It is Time To Dance

21 Jun

The videos you are about to see have been around the Internet since the beginning of the year. However, I’ve just got the chance to see one of them via an email that my sister sent me.

And let me tell you; beside having fun watching it … I am impressed  :)

Now, we all may agree that traveling is fun. But the worst part of it is definitely going to the airport, any airport! I mean who really loves the waiting lines, security checks, dragging or pushing bags all over the place, and the constant anxiety over delaying or canceling flights at any moment. Add to that the glooming sensation that usually occupies airports at seasons when everybody wants to go back home or fly out and start vacationing.

So can you quickly think of any thing that could ease such situation and make it fun. Think … any thing … I am not sure you came up with any thing near this. The Portuguese airliner named TAP Portugal turned the airport floor … into a dancing floor.

Before seeing the video, let discuss some marketing stuff:

  • The Power of Surprise: For advertisers and social media marketers, nothing beats surprises in determining how successful a campaign might be. One of the videos had been seen by more than 300,000 people in only 3 days after being released through the company YouTube channel. Just to have a glimpse of how successful that campaign is, just think of what are the odds of you ever hearing about TAP Portugal!!
  • The Happy Brand: I am not sure you will be seeing the staff of TAP Portugal dancing all over the place every time you travel with them, but you will always remember that these people made you genuinely smile. That video was shot during the christmas vacation. So the company was actually celebrating with its customers, and easing the whole airport experience on them.

I cannot help but thinking about what our local carrier, Saudi Airlines, might do to entertain its customers in such a way??!!

Enjoy …

 
5 Comments

Posted in Branding, Marketing, Social Media

 

Saudi Businesses and Social Media Marketing

29 Oct

It seems that Saudi companies are not yet sure about the importance of social media marketing and whether it should play a role in their marketing and branding strategies or not. Internationally, using social media tools (e.g. Facebook pages, Twitter accounts, Youtube channels, etc …) is becoming THE trend among other marketing tools and initiatives.

When the buzz started about the potential use of social media in creating an added value to their brands, companies were just waiting to see how things will end up. Justifying the cost of resources they will dedicate to build such a social media presence was the main concern occupying the minds of these companies’ managements. In other words, managers were thinking; what is the return on such investment?

The global marketing scene has moved from this basic question to discuss the specifics of having a successful presence online. The question of ‘should we have social media accounts?’ has been changed to ‘how to relate and engage with our customers using social media accounts?’. So it is not about the presence anymore, it is about the engagement. According to a study by Wetpaint and Altimeter Group, there is a correlation between a company’s social media engagement and its profit (more on this point is here). That means these social media accounts can be used as a channel of communication with customers. To be successful, this channel has to be considered as a long term investment and a major marketing and branding activity. The presence should be alive, active, and emotionally engaging to the customers. Small gestures like saying ‘thank you’ to a Twitter customer, or saying ‘we will make sure to fix that’ on a Facebook page could make a difference with customers and boost their loyalty to the company.

Now, I have been looking around Twitter to check out Saudi companies’ presence over there. And it seems that most of them are in the trap of ‘cold social media presence’. The giant, Saudi Aramco has 351 followers only, can you believe that? Check out now the telecom rivals STC and Mobily, pretty cold, isn’t? Now for the sake of a quick comparison, check out Qatar Airways Twitter account, you can even feel the difference, right!!

If you have any examples of effective social media presence to share with us, I would be grateful to hear.

 
9 Comments

Posted in Branding, Marketing, Saudi business, Social Media