The front line is the only line

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If you have the greatest company in the world, the best finance team, great IT support, well-respected managers, the whole nine yards - that’s fantastic. You should be proud. However, none of that matters if you have poor customer service representatives (CSRs). To the customer, those CSRs are your company. They make or break the sale. They leave the customer satisfied and likely to return or they leave them unhappy and likely to tell everyone they know not to buy your products or services.

Think about it. If Peyton Manning is your quarterback, you’re not going to surround him with a bunch of bush league offensive linemen. No, you want the best.

In a survey, the National Association of Retail Marketing Services found that companies lose 10 customers for every one that complains and 90% of unhappy clients will not do business with the same company again. Considering how much it costs to attract a customer, it makes no sense at all not to invest in a service program and satisfy and keep those hard-won customers.

This isn’t a new concept. It’s one that holds true through the evolution of customer service from face to face, to phone, to online interactions.

The person managing your Twitter and Facebook accounts is one of the most important CSRs there is. Is the person behind those social network accounts familiar with all aspects of your company? Have they been properly trained to respond to customer complaints? Do they follow through with people who connect to them, whether it’s a neutral, good or bad comment? It’s not enough to just be: you must become an engaged and active presence.

Consider this person an extension of your front line, because they’re not just picking up the phone and dealing with 50 customers a day, they’re online dealing with thousands – or more. Without a solid front line…the rest won’t matter.

Social media: the ultimate marketing platform

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Why do I call social media the ultimate marketing platform? A couple of reasons:

1. It allows customers to find you and saves you the expense of finding them.

2. It facilitates a real connection with your customers.

3. It leverages word of mouth which is the cheapest form of marketing and the most effective. (WARNING: It can also spread negative word of mouth so don't suck.)

Let's look at how three clever, risk-taking marketers made the most of these social media campaign attributes:

Last year, Tourism Queensland launched a campaign asking for candidates for what they billed as the "Best Job in the World," spending six months on Hamilton Island in the Great Barrier Reef, being paid $140,000 and promoting tourism to the region. The campaign generated tens of millions in publicity as well as many social media conversations where candidates were competing for the opportunity.

One of the serious contenders for this job was an editor from a Vancouver daily newspaper that I follow on Twitter.

This year, an Irish travel agency launched a contest to find two honeymoon testers to travel the world and be paid to review its most romantic destinations. The contest is still ongoing and is generating a ton of buzz on social networks and in traditional media too.

A friend sent me a link today to this article in Canada's Financial Post newspaper detailing how an upscale mall used a similar social media campaign on a regional scale. The 10 winners of the "Yorkdale is Me" campaign would be featured in its spring advertising campaign, get $1,000 to spend at the mall and park in their own dedicated spot at the mall for a year.

But the real winner was the Yorkdale mall which saw visits from its social media, fashion savvy new friends generate 49% greater sales per person. The campaign attracted 1,400 applicants and generated 100 Facebook fan pages created by contestants with 4,500 fans among them.

There are many more examples of creative social media campaigns that generated brand awareness and direct ROI from sales and earned media.

If you're considering such a campaign, you'll need a fresh and creative approach that captures people's imaginations and is worth talking about and competing for. Lastly, make sure the program ties back to your brand and creates stronger connections with your core customers because ultimately that is the point.

Frog legs: an appetite for destruction?

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UPDATE: (4/5/10 7:05 a.m.): Uncle Julio's has changed its Facebook settings so no fan posts are visible and continues to delete posts from people opposed to its choice to serve frog legs. Save the Frogs is mounting protests at all Uncle Julio's locations on April 30 Save the Frogs day. By the way, Save the Frogs has more Facebook fans than Uncle Julio's.

UPDATE (4/4/10 3:55 p.m.): The original blog post below was from 1 p.m. on Sunday. By 3:50 p.m. the Uncle Julio's Facebook admin had simply 'deleted' all of the posts.

ORIGINAL POST (4/4/10 1:00 p.m.): Uncle Julio's restaurant, with 14 locations in five states, has a Facebook page for fans of its border-style Mexican food. But there's an item on its menu that has Save the Frogs fans on Facebook hopping mad.

These frog fans have hopped on over to Uncle Julio's fan page this Easter weekend, while Uncle Julio's staff are off celebrating the holiday, to leave the restaurant chain a message about frog legs.

So far 20+ messages speaking out against frog legs and speaking up for frogs and their protection have been posted: http://www.facebook.com/unclejulios#!/unclejulios?v=wall

Amphibians are currently undergoing what scientists have identified as the earth's sixth mass extinction event in its history. In addition to other environmental causes, a pathogenic fungus is spreading across global frog populations and wiping them out. Frogs raised in India and China for the global frog leg trade are loosely regulated and at risk of spreading this highly virulent fungus.

Now a global environmental crisis is becoming a local PR crisis for this business.

And it's facilitated by the company's own Facebook fan page. Last month, the Nestle company fan page was the target of a Greenpeace-stoked campaign, but Uncle Julio's vs Save the Frogs this Easter weekend shows that you don't have to be a multi-national corporation to be on the receiving end of a very public outcry.

It's what you do with the criticisms that count. Uncle Julio's needs to understand that a large group of people are trying to start a conversation with their chain.

If the restaurant's management listens to these voices, it has an excellent opportunity before it.

It can join this conversation, keep it civil and respectful, and extend the conversation to its loyal patrons who will most likely follow its example of civility and respect.

It can let people know that it has recently been made aware of amphibian extinction rates across the globe. It can share some of the statistics it has learned with its customers. If it can show that its frogs clearly do not contribute to the degradation of other frog habitats or spread disease, it can communicate this to customers. Although, no restaurants serving this product have much of a leg to stand on.

Scientific evidence shows that the trade in frog legs may contribute to the spread of diseases that are a major cause of this mass extinction event. When you consider the risks against the benefits, serving frog legs just doesn't make sense. They're a delicacy and not a staple, are imported from long distances, and don't support a local industry that creates employment.

If Uncle Julio's were (W)right On's client, we'd have them primed to answer tough questions about their choice to serve this product and ready with a plan to announce a change.

Assuming Uncle Julio's took our counsel, we would make this announcement before Save the Frogs Day on April 30; educate loyal patrons about the change through point of sale materials in the restaurant, talking points for servers and online communications via its website and Facebook page; engage directly with those who criticized the practice to build new relationships; and develop a program and promotion to raise funds for amphibian protection and engage patrons in making the world a better place for frogs to strengthen their relationship with the Uncle Julio's brand.

What at first appears to be a crisis can often become an opportunity, but with social media giving a platform for these kinds of communications, a company has to be ready to engage.