When it comes to caring for our customers, Telligent has taken its commitment to the next level – creating a world-class standard for products and service.
Customer service. Customer support. Education. Partner support. In all facets of our customer care, we are always working to ensure that we are contributing to our customers’ goals and remain committed to our core values.
Telligent loves its customers and that’s a key element that initially attracted me to Telligent. If you are a frequent reader of this blog, you know our number one core value is, “Our customer comes first. Period.” In the social industry, I think this attitude is critically important. After all, social is all about building relationships and making connections that benefit everyone.
We know if we are meeting our customers’ needs by simply listening. It’s so easy to talk, talk, talk, but never actually stop to listen to your customers’ needs and wants. As a best practice, you need to stop and analyze what your customers are saying about your product, your brand and your service. By simply listening, you’ll find out what you can do better and even what you are doing right.
Recently, I saw a great tweet from one of our awesome customers, Brendan Cosgrove at Kaseya.
(By the way, you should know that Kaseya was a nominee in the 2011 Forrester Groundswell Awards and was recognized by Constellation Research for their community excellence)
How can you generate this kind of response from your customers? Consider these two definitions:
Your goal, whether you are in customer service, product development or even marketing, should always be to anticipate your customers’ needs and wants. And it goes right back to what I was saying about listening to the customer. You can’t dictate to customers what they will accept from you. You have to provide them a solution to their problem and then anticipate their additional needs.
You might be familiar with the Chinese proverb, “Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.” This is exactly how we approach the relationship we have with our customers. We don’t just sell a social software platform. We give them the resources and education to not only build a community, but build relationships, their brand and as a result their bottom line.
Recently, our Founder and CTO Rob Howard was speaking with customers and partners in Austin. Out of that conversation, I captured this tweet from Susan Scrupski of the Dachis Group.
You can't be shy about it. If you are going to raise the standards in your customer service and support, you have to be willing to shout it from the rooftops. This is not just for accountability; it’s to let your customers know you are thinking about them and that they come first.
Getting social is an important part of developing a world-class service approach to your customers. You can create an inviting environment for your customers in an online community you build and they own. You fill that community with great information and your ears; this is where you can gain the best insight into your customers’ needs. Now, are you ready to think about getting your own online community off the ground?