We recently attended the East Coast Bowling Center Convention in Atlantic City where I heard Bart Burger talk about Bowling 2.0. It’s a great program designed to get new people interested in the game of bowling, which I thought was awesome. In all these years I’ve spent around the family entertainment center industry, I confess I haven’t gotten to be any good at bowling and thought this would be a great opportunity for me. And maybe after I do that, I can work hard and actually hit someone in laser tag! Who knows, I might even be able to skate backwards sometime this decade. The sky’s the limit!
When I got home from the convention, I called my local bowling center they didn’t answer. So I went out to Facebook and saw that they indeed had a page. I ‘liked’ their page and noticed that they mostly put ads on there. Interesting. At any rate, I posted a message to their wall asking if they were going to be running Bowling 2.0. It got deleted. I thought maybe I had done something wrong and hadn’t submitted my comment so I sent another one a few days later. This time I asked specifically if they were going to run the program and that if so I was interested in joining. No response. That message, too, got deleted. Now I knew that it wasn’t a fluke. And I knew that this center has no interest in engaging with its customers. I also know that I will not be going to the center. Ever. And just like that I’ve deleted their number from my phone like a bad ex you never even want to accidentally pocket call. Ah, customers can be so fickle, can’t they?
But in my mind (and I’m not so different than millions of others), not only did they ignore a request from a potential customer, they deleted it, TWICE, as if the customer were an inconvenience to them. Not good customer service at all.
And there’s the real lesson. I mean, at first glance, having social media for business sounds like a terrific way for us to push out promotions and specials to our customers. And it is. But it’s also, and perhaps more so, a way for us to engage with our customers, find out what they think and what they like and what they want (so we can, ahem, sell them that). Think about being on a date. You’re sitting in the restaurant trying to suck in and make sure you don’t have food in your teeth and be charming, alluring and sound intelligent. But if your date doesn’t ever ask you anything and talks constantly about him or herself the entire time, do you want to continue the relationship? Of course not. (PS, if you’re that guy who talks about yourself constantly, I can provide some coaching :).
Social media provides us the opportunity to build authentic relationships with our customers that will inspire them to be loyal patrons for years to come. During that relationship, we’ll prove ourselves to be charming and alluring, so they’ll, naturally, want no one else. But I also mentioned customer service. I gave the center I called an opportunity to make a brand new customer out of me. They failed once by not answering the phone. And honestly, who doesn’t have voicemail? I provided them a second and a third opportunity by contacting them through Facebook. And they failed. I see this a lot. Airlines will get complaints about food and they’ll respond back with totally unrelated answers. Restaurants and stores will ignore negative feedback instead of using it to turn a bad experience positive and show how well you solve problems and the lengths you will go to in order to create great memories for your customers. In today’s instant gratification, “I’m reviewing your place while I’m sitting in it eating your food” society we need to understand that conversations are happening, and we have the unique opportunity…and obligation… to be a part of them. Think of social media as a guest standing in front of you asking, praising, or complaining. Because the better you engage them virtually, the more likely you’ll be seeing them instore one day very soon.
Of course you’re going to use strategic marketing campaigns to advertise and promote specials in store via your social media. And your customers want that! Just remember it’s about the person sitting across the table from you, too. It’s time to take the relationship to the next level. How ready are you?
