Social media and mobile networks are changing the way people talk and interact with each other. Developments in transportation, communication and technology has made the world a smaller place, but has moved the workers from a standardized format of set work and play hours to all of us being global shift workers. We are all 100% contactable 100% of the time. The lines between work and play have blurred to the extent that we now need to carve out our playtime from our 24/7 work time. We keep in touch with our friends via social networks, social media, life streaming on Twitter or SA’s own gatorpeeps, sharing content on YouTube, Flickr, Facebook, Bebo, Blueworld, Zoopedup and others. Anyone watch the Tour De France online. ITVTDF did a brilliant job tweeting updates on the tour. We share our opinions and our experiences with brands with hashtags #brandfail. We share information using ‘shorten URL’ applications as well as Delicious, RSS feeds, Google Alerts and others. We build critical mass or global consciousness with aggregating search engines such Twitscoop, twazzup, or for more serious, content applications like Afrigator. Communication is becoming ‘real’ communication and not a one-way lecture or an assault (tirade) of what I think you should know. Feedback is growing in importance or should I say, taking its rightful role, as communication is moves towards conversations. The customer too is regaining his/her place, being right and the focus of any business. Social media has changed the way we react in a time of crisis. The current Iran election crisis is only one example and this is on a global scale. On a national scale one only needs to look at the Baraka Obama election campaign, Obama used the online environment to collect funding and to share his vision for America. On a more localized scale Hellopeter.com is a classic example of instant crisis management, where registered organisations are able to pull information and react instantly, both online and telephonically, but Hellopeter charges the organization for this information. According to last year’s speaker Melissa Attree “Brands need to discover and listen to their communities but they don’t have resources hence the Hellno Peter scourge. An alternative is getclosure.co.za vs. Hello Peter. They have two different business models, but a similar result. It’s all about the community.
We, as customers are always speaking about the poor customer service provided by retail outlets, but what about the respect shown by customers to the employees of an organization. A perfect example would be, when I was shopping at Pick n’ Pay, the cashier had closed her till, as she stopped working at 8h00. The time was 8h30 at the time she had closed her till. I was the last customer, when she closed her till, but as she served me a man came behind me with items. She had explained that the till was closed, but he insisted that she served him, so she said ok. He then called his buddies to the till, with their items. I turned and said to the guy that the till is closed.
The guy said it is none of my business. The cashier was trying to explain but they would not move. They became rude.
Where is the respect? We speak of customer service delivery, but some honestly don’t deserve it.
Rifqahabrahams's Blog 