Rachel Levy: Social Media & Marketing

I was sitting at Boloco at the Boston Common today, trying to get some work done but was disturbed by the music which was too loud for my taste. Out of curiosity, and for a bit of fun, I sent this tweet:

Less than 10 minutes later, I got this back from the Boloco Twitter account:

Wow, amazing (by the way, John Pepper is the owner of the entire Boloco chain)! Not only that, but the manager at the Boloco I was at, came over to me personally to ask if the music level was OK now.  I was really amazed.  What an example of great customer service!  I spoke, and Boloco responded quickly, in a friendly manner, and certainly made me a happy customer (even though I can’t eat burritos at the moment… BOO!).  John Pepper really GETS customer service and how important social media is to business. (side bar… he attended the #BurritUP event I went to a couple of months ago, and he continued with us as we went on to his competitors’ stores to eat and discuss burritos.  Not a lot of business owners would have done that).

So, why is this important?  Customers in this day and age have many forums to discuss their opinions, many of which are quite public.  Companies can easily make a customer very happy by responding to their concerns.  Now, “responding” doesn’t necessarily mean doing what customers want all the time.  If Boloco knew that the volume they had the music was ideal for the majority of their customers, and had responded to me with “Sorry the music is too loud for you.  We are always striving to achieve the perfect balance and sometimes we struggle to get it right” that would have been OK with me.  They heard me, and responded. That’s the most important thing.

But wait, there’s more…

…the story doesn’t end there.  Check out this stream of tweets about Boloco after I tweeted what happened.  For example, “Think that they just won over a customer”, “Wow -  that’s service” and “That’s pretty awesome. Great stuff from @boloco.” Praise, praise, praise.  Even some discussion about a new Boloco product.  So, now Boloco has taken making one happy customer to a whole group of people discussing this, and getting a more positive image of Boloco the more it happens. That’s the REAL power of social media.  Viral.  Spread your message.  Listen and respond quickly to your customers.

So, I ask you, is listening to your customers important?  YES.  Why?  To make a happy customer (and make them feel heard).  And, happy customers tell their friends.

What do you think?  Does this show the importance of Social Media?