10 CEM Best Practices

What is customer experience marketing? 

Basically it's taking care of the customer as best as one can. This can be done by a series of different marketing practices that should be implemented throughout the company. Here are some best practices that I believe can make a CEM strategy excel at any business. Remember, if you hate getting on the phone with an automated "person", so will your customers!

1. Build a flexible infrastructure

• Reduce customer efforts by allowing customization at all touch points

If there's one thing I hate it's when I go to a company's website on my phone and the website is not optimized to mold to mobile. Make sure that all points of access to your company are smooth and easy to use.

2. Omni-channel optimization

• Be present on multiple channels
• Make sure all channels are consistent and convenient
• Ensure all channels are receiving the same experience and message

The best way to provide great customer service is to respond in an appropriate manner. Whenever I have an issue with a product I've purchased, I just go straight to social media. That way, the company is quick to respond and I'll get my issue solved in about half the time I would have if I called in.

3. Integrate social media

• Customers are sharing thoughts and opinions on social media
• SM increases brand loyalty
• Helps businesses understand their customer needs or wants

Companies need to be on social media. It's basically free advertising! It also allows for the flexibility to follow them on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, etc., this gives companies the flexibility to cater to all target markets.

4. Encourage, track, measure and listen

• Encourage customers to provide feedback
• Track and measure KPI's
• Analyze data and make changes

What are the point of analytic tools if you're not going to use them?! This is the best way for companies to track weather or not their customers are happy and engaging, hopefully positively, online! Klout is a great way to measure your online presence. It even shows you which posts are gaining the most engagement. Take advantage of the small things!

5. Invest in customer recovery process

• Train staff to acknowledge customers and take responsibility
•  Allow optimal solutions and alternatives. 

If a customer makes a complaint and you don't immediately take action, remember an angry customer is more likely to talk about their experience than a happy customer. Pick your battles wisely.

6. Build relationships

• Do not just try to sell a product. 
• Talk to the customer to find a common interest that will help them believe you're not just in it for the sale. 

More recently I've had a friend take a sales position, and now I feel like every time we try to meet up, it's just so she can try to sell me something that I'm clearly not interested. It's frustrating.

7. Talk to customers in real time

Talk to customers on the phone or through chat. No one wants to talk to an automated voice.Employees should feel empower and engage customers with confidence. I know when I have a problem with my internet or cable I better have a nice chunk of time dedicated to waiting to talk to a customer service rep. Just remember, the CSR is not at fault for the company. Bare with them while they're helping you!

8. Create a culture where employees feel comfortable to make decisions that are best for the customer

When I worked at a specific retailer, I won't mention names, one of the managers would always side with the customer instead of the employee. It got to the point where the employees wouldn't want to even answer any questions for customers because they knew their decision, which was usually the right one, would just be overturned. That's not okay. Never make your employees feel like that.

9. Gather customer feedback and quickly implement change

Listen to what customers are saying on social media and take those comments and relate them to changes being made to improve how things are done.

10. Adapt and refine customer experience using business intelligence analytics and reporting

• BI allows employees to help customers see a specific part of their business that may be struggling and what might be a better alternative.

When you're working with business intelligence, be sure to only put information that is relevant to the company. Give them exactly what they're asking for. Otherwise, BI can get confusing very fast.

So there you have it. If you can make sure these 10 things are being practiced in your CEM strategy, I don't think there's going to be much else that can go wrong!

5 Ways to Keep Your LinkedIn Up-to-date

Alyssa Bereznak, a writer for, Yahoo Tech, came up with five simple ways to keep your LinkedIn up to date. Bereznak has 10 plus years of professional internet use and has also worked for Vanity Fair.

As professionals, we all know how important LinkedIn is. Please tell me you have a LinkedIn. If not, pause your reading and sign up right MEOW! So many employers take advantage of your online resume. LinkedIn is a place to put all the extra things that you can't necessarily cram onto your paper resume. There are many great features to LinkedIn that a traditional resume does not contain. You can add projects, coursework, volunteer work, your resume, have people write you recommendations, and so on.

ONE

Have a good profile picture that shows who you are.

• But don't use a selfie
• No pixalated photographs
• Don't crop yourself from your friends
• Keep your assets to yourself
• Look happy :]

Look at this classy guy. He knows what's up.

TWO

Write a killer summary

• Use keywords, it makes you pop-up in search results
• Include:  experience, ambitions, what you want to accomplish
• Google Search. Your LinkdIn should be within the first three search results
• Include 40 words that seem substantial
• Discuss your life passions, interests and goals

EVERYTHING is awesome!

THREE

LinkedIn is your portfolio, add videos and graphics to show off your skills

• There's a cool button that allows you to add things, like videos, keynote presentations, PDFs of research projects and papers.
• It's a great opportunity to show-off things you've worked on
• Doing this is helpful if you're in creative industries where your artistic or design skills are valued
• Show everyone what your capable of.

FOUR

Are you a good person? Show it!

• A LinkedIn survey showed 42% of hiring managers said they feel that volunteer work is just as good as your work experience.
• Talk about the brochure you've designed for your friend's new business, or how many hours you put in at your local dog shelter, or how many kids you've helped by participating in Feed my Starving Children.

FIVE

To get endorsed, you must also endorse.

• When you have endorsements for certain skills your profile looks more impressive.
• Show people what you can do. What you're good at.
• Endorsements are easy, just visit the profile of the lucky human you chose to endorse, and normally there is a handy, dandy button that allows you to endorse that person for multiple things! (Now, hopefully, the favor will be returned!!)

Now that you have the basic skills to beef up your LinkedIn, go out into the world and endorse! Need more tips to keep your LinkedIn up-to-date, these websites are pretty awesome as well. 

1. LinkedIn Makeover
2. Improve Your LinkedIn Presence
3. 12 Resources to Improve

18 Rules for Making Documents Visually Appealing

Text Rules

Chuck Newbold, who has a PhD in Rhetoric, Communications and Information Design, from Clemson University, created this awesome list for how to make your documents visually appealing. Here are these 18 ways to move forward with the creation of professional documents.

Know Your Fonts Personality

Remember that some people like different font personalities than others so make sure that you know your document and what the documents purpose is. Once this is figured out, pick a font that matches yours and your audience’s expectations.

Default is Old School

Don't let the world know that you don't know what else is out there. Default fonts aren't bad fonts, they're just tired and way to overused. Usually, default isn't the best font for the type of document you're creating. It all goes back to personality.

Keep Clear of "Clichés" and "Uglies"

When a font is too popular it is considered a cliché. This is an issue because computers are usually loaded with the same types of fonts. There are hundreds of fonts that are available to be downloaded. If you can't find a catchy font that is already loaded on your computer, then search for them on the internet!

Make Use of Two Fonts

Documents do look better if you use more than one font. Make sure to use one font for the heading, and another font for the body text. This applies to ALL documents, resumes to business cards.

Contrast Font Families

It is not good to use fonts that look like each other, serifs and Sans Serifs. Make sure they look different from each other.

Pay Attention to Size

You might think that 12 point font is the norm, but realistically our eyes can read smaller text fine. Normally, 10 point font looks fine in documents, and for business cards, 7 or 8 is perfect. Headings should always be larger than the body and the most important thing in the document should be the largest thing you see.

Don’t Use All Caps

Our eyes read words in shape. This is why we can read at super-speed. When all words are in caps though, they are turned into rectangles. SO WHEN YOU WRITE IN ALL CAPS, reading is slowed down. You don’t want your audience to think you’re yelling at them. DO YOU?

Be Careful With Reverse Type

Reverse type is putting a light color on a dark background or a dark color on a light background. This is good for headings and titles, but not really anything else. Don’t use narrow or fancy fonts, thick and bold is needed for this

Create an Ideal Line Length

Line length is the width of a line of text on one single line. If it’s too long its hard to read. Line can be long, but the font size needs to be larger. If you’re using a small font, the line should be no more than 3.5 inches. Ideal Line Length can be calculated with the formula to the left.

Adjust Line Spacing

Line spacing = leading. This is the space between the lines. Fonts are designed with line spacing that is larger than the point size. Font looks crowded with large bodies of text. Increase the line space to improve the readability.

Pay Attention to Readability

Readability is how well large quantities of text read. This is most affected by font size, font type, leading, kerning and line length.

Legibility

Legibility is how well text reads in shorts bursts. Use a typeface that is legible for your name on your resume. It is affected by the letter in the word. Most times, one word will read perfect, but add another word and you’re totally confused. Don’t use a unique font if your name is uncommon or uncommon.

Make correct use of Small Caps

Small caps should be used for abbreviations. Don’t draw attention to the abbreviation. Also, use small caps for am & pm. Many people use small caps for the start of a new chapter in books as well.

Don’t use Line Breaks

A line break is when a word at the end of the line is broken and hyphenated to lead the reader down to the next line. Breaks are bad. You can adjust your desktop to get rid of them. This is not a good design choice.

Don’t Leave Orphans

Orphans are single words left by themselves at the end of a paragraph. It is extremely not wise to leave baby words, the tiny words, like, it. Just reword the sentence! You don’t want your presentation to look weird.

Know How to Highlight

Highlighting is important to readability. Don’t highlight more than 10% of the page. When everything is highlighted, then nothing becomes important. Don’t use all of the highlighting techniques at one time.

Consider Using Old Style Figures

Refer to numbers that are written with elements that go above or below the baseline. It’s an imaginary line where the letters sit. Usually, if you use old style figures, the numbers will get blended into the text.

Understand your Punctuation.

The power of punctuation, know when to use the 15 punctuation marks that are used in English. Do you know the rules? Consider the following: Let’s eat Grandpa! And, Let’s eat, Grandpa. Yeah, you’re not a zombie. Pay attention!

Like these rules? Visit Chuck Newbold's website for more tips and tricks to making your visual communication classy and classic. Everything he posts is so informative and half of these rules for making your document visually appealing I didn't even think about! Happy findings.

Yes, yes you do!

4 Ways to Get Your Company Through A Crisis

Domino's Crisis

April 13, 2009, two Domino's employees recorded themselves while they contaminated their customers food orders with unsanitary acts. The video showed the two employees sticking cheese up their noses before adding it to the customer's sandwich.

Steps To Recovery

Identifying and taking action against culprits

Domino's was able to capture digital images of the two employees from the video and they were able to distribute this image to all their US locations asking for the employees names and location. Domino's contacted the Health Department and police to file charges.

Removing the video

The social media team contacted YouTube and requested the video to be removed because it violated the site's guidelines. YouTube said that they could only pull the video at the video owner's request. The employee was contacted, and permission was given for the video's removal.

Response to the public

Domino's did not go public right away. Anyone who heard about the video saw the original and this encouraged its spread. The pizza joint would respond to the customers who approached the company, and they also communicated with forums that posted the video and were having discussions about the problem. Domino's never said the company did anything wrong, and that this act was something that was done to the company.

Fighting back

Domino's President, Patrick Doyle, posted his own video discussing the issue at hand. He explained calmly and sincerely while venting his anger towards the situation and how "disgusting" this act was. The video was posted to Twitter and Facebook. Watch what he has to say below!

Result

The apology video went viral and within the first three hours the video was posted, the video had over one million views. This stunt did affect Domino's sales, but not affect the company's stock price.

 So, What did Domino's Teach Us?

1. Have a crisis team in place that will respond quickly to any situation.
2. Don't let the situation get out of hand.
3. Honesty is key
4. Don't let the crisis discontinue business. 

The key to keeping a crisis under control is having a great team to keep the company strong during a time of need! 

                                                  

4 Ways to Integrate Instagram Into Your Business

#ThrowbackThursday

So you're looking to find a new way to integrate a new social media into your business. You may be thinking that this is "silly" and "a waste of time" and "how many things can I possibly do to promote my business?!". Well, Laura Wallis, a web navigator and online marketing consultant, knows a few ways to integrate Instagram into your business easy as pie! Wallis has over 15 years of experience in marketing and her goal is to help her private clients reach their goals for their dream business and life. If you want to read more about her, visit her website! Lets take a look at what she has to say about Instagram.

1. Create a strong bio section.

• You want to make your username part of your brand
• Make sure you're using the same image across every single one of your social media platforms
• Your followers like to be able to easily access your other social media channels
• Don't post "cross-content" (A Twitter post to Facebook, it doesn't work)

Call to action

2. Use a mix of images.

• You're going to want to put a face to your business
• Consumers like to buy from people, not businesses
• Don't be afraid to show people who you are!

3. Filter your pictures.

• Photos add personality to the mix
• There are A LOT of features on Instagram, you don't have to use them all at once.

4. Use fun hashtags!

• Examples:
• #throwbackthurdsay
• #flashbackfriday
• #mancrushmonday
• #womancrushwednesday
• Remember you are a business, and you can still use industry related hashtags to reach out to other business that are related to your industry! A little competition never hurt anyone!

 

5. Curiosities of social media.

• If your going to be on social media, you need to stay social, or people are going to lose interest!
• If you aren't tracking your analytics, you should be!
• Once you have you analytics, make sure to post when people are lookin'!

Mix these five things together and BAM! You've successfully integrated Instagram into your business. Where will you go next?