Just Another Customer

Thought I Would Check In

A long time since my last post but looking forward to getting back into the swing of things

I just realized last night that it has been almost six weeks since my last post. Time really has flown by and although I knew it had been awhile, I had no idea that it had been so long. The big news is that tomorrow is my last day with the Department of Agriculture. I have spent five years in the department and four with my current agency, the Cooperative State Research, Extension, and Education Service. It has been a fantastic experience where, among other things, I have found a career that I really enjoy.

Next week, I move into a new chapter when I join the Web staff with the Department of Health and Human Services. I greatly looking forward to the new responsibilities and challenges and truly hope that I can contribute to the development of the site in the service of the public and the greater good.

Lastly, I want to throw out a quick nod to great post that I found today via the For Immediate Release podcast. Michael Hyatt had an excellent post last week on his From Where I Sit blog entitled Defending Your Brand Online. Well worth the read.

Photo credit

Testing the (Social) Waters

Social media and social networking provide great opportunities for communicating with customers but there are risks for the unprepared

Quick nod to Valeria Maltoni and her excellent post on how does a company dip its toes in the conversation. I really liked the analogy between social media and water and thought I would share some of my observations on why social media (like water) should not be taken lightly when companies get ready to take a dip.

• There might be sharks lurking (people with some very negative opinions and comments) so you had better investigate the water you choose to enter
• The water might be too hot (too much activity) for your organization to handle, so you better stay out
• The water might be too cold (no activity at all because your customers are not active in the social space) and therefore you might be wasting your energy and sink
• The current might be fast (lots of activity and conversation) so you better have enough strength (resources) to keep up or you will go under

Finally, social spaces are like pools which are much more fun when there is activity, energy and everyone participates. No one really has good time when they sit in the corner and try not to get splashed.

Still ready for a swim?  Jump in!

Photo credit: jsymmetry

NASA - Successful in Many Spaces

NASA makes great strides in the social media space

Social Space - The Virtual Frontier
It has been a long (but productive) week where I was afforded a tremendous opportunity to improve my Web analytic skills. I had been looking forward to this training for awhile but it has left me with little capacity for any in depth posts on a Friday night. I did get turned on to a great site this evening (courtesy of Joe Flood) that I wanted to comment on - Open NASA. The site is

“a collaborative blog written by NASA employees across the agency, and occasional invited guests. We come from a perspective within NASA of transparency, accessibility, risk, honesty, merit, and participation.”

WOW! Great to see such transparency and a seemingly honest attempt to communicate and converse with the public. Along with the Mars Lander Twitter “experiment“, the other NASA blogs, and their extensive podcast collection, it looks as if NASA is becoming equally successful and inventive in the social media space as they are in outer space.

Reviewlet: The Tipping Point - Mavens Traps

A quick comment on Malcolm Gladwell’s Tipping Point

Keys to the Kingdom
Malcolm Gladwell defines Mavens as individuals who know everything about your product, industry or market. They are one of the three groups of individuals he discusses - Mavens, Salesmen and Connectors - that are key in making a movement cross over the tipping point to become an epidemic. He also uses the term “Maven Traps” as ways to “a way of efficiently figuring out who the Mavens are in a particular world”

Maven Traps and Customer Service
Undoubtedly, it has never been easier for companies to use Maven Traps to find those people who are passionate and knowledgeable about their company and goods. The explosion of social media and social networking options (Twitter, Facebook, FriendFeed etc.) provide limitless opportunity for companies to listen to what is being said about them (and hopefully respond). The only challenge is that companies need to ensure that they are listening in the right place at the right time. Professional brand monitoring tools are great but services from Custom Scoop (free “personal” version ), Google Alerts and Summize (recently bought by Twitter) can help filter out the noise.

Note: If anyone knows of a good, up-to-date list of all the various “social” sites out there, please comment. Even Wikipedia is pretty far behind on this (no Plurk or Indenti.ca)

Eat No Chikin: Chick-fil-A Makes a Very Disappointing Decision

How a small ballerina only wanted to be treated like a cow

Grade: F
Company: Chick-fil-A
Event: “Cow Appreciation Day”
Location: Columbia, MD

Like the Concept
Chick-fil-A had an intriguing promotional campaign yesterday entitled “Cow Appreciation Day” (you may be familiar with their cow-related advertising). My wife found out about the event at our local pool where the event was being promoted. She was told (I am not sure by whom exactly) that our daughter could get a free meal by dressing up as a cow or as a princess. Not having a cow costume handy, my two-year old and another girl from the neighborhood dressed up in ballerina dresses and headed out yesterday afternoon to the local franchise.

Surprise no Chikin for You!
Well, as it turns out, the whole theme of the event was to get people to dress up like cows. Not really a surprise when you think of it but what did really shock me was that the staff at the restaurant flat out refused to give anything to my daughter. I fully realize that the chain could not be expected to give a free meal to everyone that wandered in looking for a freebie but my daughter was all decked out in a ballerina costume and got nothing for it (my wife did actually buy her something). It would been a much better move from a customer relations and customer service perspective to make an exception in this situation. Now, not only do you have a a family that will very much go out of their way to “Eat No Chikin”, but you have a pretty ridiculous story out there about Chick-fil-A disappointing a two-year old in a ballerina dress. Ouch.