A few weeks ago I did a radio interview with Jeffrey Summers of Hospitality 101 on this topic, which you can listen to while reading this if you like – it will open in a new window: Blog Talk Radio: Building a Better Restaurant Business 7/27

I had an experience, just that day on the way to a lunch meeting that has to be a common occurrence for others, I’d imagine. On the way to Gordon Biersch, running slightly late, I needed to look up my meal in advance so Lisa could order for me, so I looked up the restaurant on my smartphone. They did not have a mobile version, so I navigated best I could, but had to put in a zip code or find my state to try to get to the menu. (A better way? Do a mobile app that picks up the smartphone’s geo-location and shoot them to the right menu/map/location information instantly.) I finally got the menu for lunch pulled up, and it was a PDF of course – restaurants seem never to have heard of HTML when it comes to menu’s online) and some of the PDF was dark and colored so it was very difficult to find what I needed to look at. I finally gave up, and since the one white page of the PDF had salads and appetizers on it, decided to pick a salad to eat. Sigh… oh well.

This is SO typical. Type in any major city into Google: “restaurants Chicago” for example, and go to the first sites that come up. Ask yourself this:

• Do they have their menu chunked into sections so you have to click back and forth to see what having a whole meal there would be like?
• Do they only offer their menu as PDF’s you have to download to view?
• Do they have pertinent information about how to reserve for big parties, catering info, delivery info, business meeting capabilities, and things beyond the typical that you might be seeking information about?
• Do they offer convenient links to Driving Directions so you can pull that up without having to do the work yourself to get them?
• Do they link to reviews for you so you can get a sense of the restaurant’s quality from unbiased sources?
• Do they solicit your feedback, either personally via email or social network invitation, or through poll questions or short surveys? Do they make it easy for you to ask questions?
• Do they have large, detailed photographs, video of the space and imagery that immerses you in the experience of what the restaurant would be like if you visited?

Sadly, many restaurants fall short in the areas above. And those are just basic needs: find a menu, get a sense of the restaurant itself, get driving directions to it, communicate with someone to give them feedback, a complaint or ask a question.

What about more advanced stuff? We aren’t even getting close to doing what technology and the social web enables us to do, like:

• A mobile site that is particularly geared towards the needs of mobile users and anticipates their actions to make the experience both efficient and pleasant.
• Real-time content, currently spread around the internet at sites like Twitter, Facebook, Yelp, Foursquare, Foodspotting and many more, being aggregated into your site.
• User experience on-the-cheap, because people are willing (and sometimes you can’t stop them) from sharing their experiences online. Polls, quick surveys, soliciting feedback on social networks, making it easy for people to give anonymous feedback… this is something every hospitality business should be using the internet for today. Listening, talking, and seeking information about what you’re doing right, what’s wrong and how you can improve.
• Real relationships – beyond simply interacting. Jeffery has long been a proponent of serving customers a bit more like they do in Europe, which is to get involved in their lives. Some of my favorite places where I do business get to know me personally over time, as I am a regular customer, and go the extra mile to help me get done what I need to: become more polished at the nail salon, cut off my nappy hair and make me look more presentable, clean my clothes so I can make a good impression at a meeting, or nourish me with some delicious food that I may be craving.

Jeffrey, a seasoned restaurant & hospitality consultant, says they’ve found that 88% of people visit the website of the restaurant that they will be going to later. So people ARE seeing your sites, whether you think they are and are watching the analytics or not. They’re visiting via their mobile phones (dumb and smart), on laptops, desktops and via links sent by friends. They’re visiting after randomly catching a picture of your food on Foodspotting, or a checkin from a friend on Foursquare or Gowalla. They’re coming to you from Yelp and other review sites, or even a random Google mention. What do they see when they get there???

This is what I want to see… I had wanted to make this a pretty diagram in Illustrator but only had time to whip out a fast sketch, so apologies for the low-fidelity image here:

Bottom line: this is what I need. This is what your site users, mobile users, customers and prospects need. Feel free to let me know what I missed in the comments!

We need you to have a website of your own, first and foremost. You are not in the Facebook business, though you may use that site for marketing and communications. Don’t rely on Google and Yelp and other directories to list your information – they’re not going to do your selling for you! I get so frustrated when I type in a restaurant and city name and cannot seem to locate ANYTHING except third-party sources of information. (NoRTH in Kansas City, I’m talking to you. I’ve seen a site before but think it was linked from your parent company, because searches don’t bring back anything relevant that is owned by you. You make enough to have a unique domain name, surely. Sigh… also, this name – it may sound fancy schmancy, but it is virtually impossible to find relevant tweets about you, because “north kansas city” or “north overland park” doesn’t bring up what you should hope it does on Twitter.)

We need to see FULL menu options, to read it fast or envision an entire meal, without hopping around all over your site, trying to piece together the big picture. Help me get enrolled by tempting me with the whole enchilada.

We need shareable menu content, down to a single item and for the whole menu. Use PDF’s for what they were primarily designed for – to print from and to send! Have your menu as a normal web page or pages so people can copy/paste and share this content with others. I have a design for this we’ve never implemented yet, that involves showing the shareable bits if the user wants to, with one click. The technology is there today – utilize it!

We need to see macro shots of your delicious dishes to make our mouths water, and large scale, panoramic shots of your space. We want to see happy customers at the bar, your waitstaff, chefs cooking, the front door staff, (and please tell me you have nice, sufficient waiting room!) Hire a great photographer, and bring the ambiance to your site – it’s the next best thing to being there!

We want to see your recent press. If you’ve been written up in the newspaper, a restaurant guide or even a blog post, please link to it for us and let us read about you from others. If the press mentions contain both good and bad, even better. It makes it seem like a more realistic, honest assessment in the reader’s mind.

We’d love to see some interactive elements like video taken in your space (from a low-rent Flip cam or a professional production, either one.) We’d love to see a virtual tour like real estate folks offer, so you can walk through the space without being there. Even better? An interactive tour with a friendly, appealing tour guide (like a hostess, business owner or your top chef.) Make us WANT to come and see for ourselves. Make photos in a virtual tour LARGE to immerse people in your space a few moments.

We want to read reviews from folks who have eaten there. Point to Yelp and other review sites. Link to Foodspotting. Ask for more reviews! Respond where you can, to negative reviews with the honest truth. Give people the 360 degree perspective about your restaurant and fix what’s broken.

We don’t just want a Facebook icon and Twitter icon in the footer of your site. That’s okay, but optimally, bring in social feeds, and aggregate this real-time content in your own site. People are talking about your place, you are hopefully sharing specials and information on Facebook and Twitter. Bring this all together in the ultimate hub of information. Keep an eye on your universe. Use Foursquare’s API to show who has visited you recently. Be a connector of people who love sushi, wine, barbecue, french food, tex-mex, etc. Get involved with them in conversations online and translate that into real-world sales. (Contact Jeffrey to learn more about that!)

We need directions. Make it easy – Google has given you all the keys you need to post a map, link to driving directions, or send directions to another person who might be meeting you. Take advantage of the technology that’s available and make it pleasant for users to utilize your site. This leads to goodwill, and goodwill leads to good customers and better sales.

We want to know how long you’ve been in business and what your credibility is. Give us visually rich, verbally descriptive images that tell the story of your history, your particular philosophy, your owners or chef’s background, your funny customer stories. Help us know you’re credible and engage us mentally, so we’ll want to be part of your world.

We want to know what others have said about you, so give us testimonials and link to or replicate positive reviews so we can quickly understand what other people like about your service, your food or your catering abilities for big parties.

We need a custom mobile site. There are inexpensive-to-expensive ways to accomplish this. We can help you understand all your options in the mobile realm. Beyond simply having a neat site, our friends at Meers Advertising are doing some amazing, fun stuff with mobile SMS text campaigns. Fun stuff to consider? Text “steak” and get back the special of the day, or text RSVP to reserve a table for tonight. Text “save” and get a coupon delivered you can either print, or show the waiter on your phone to use the coupon of the day.

We have a slew of other ideas for using social networks and content created by yourself and users to drive traffic to your site, but that’s a topic for another post. What to do if you’re a restaurant and feel overwhelmed by all the options, issues and choices? Here are some ideas:

• Contact Jeffrey Summers at RestaurantWorx about a restaurant consultation
• Add the RestaurantWorx blog to your reader or subscribe by email
• Contact us at Fresh ID about your restaurant site
• Listen to Hospitality 101 radio shows – they are chock FULL of helpful tips!

I.      Current Use/Statistics (7/6/10)
II.     Organization/Legal Issues/Fears/Questions (7/8/10)
III.   Doctor-Patient Relationship (7/13/10)
IV.    Recap/Look into the Future (7/15/10)

As I mentioned in the previous post, a lot of this information is drawn from a social media panel discussion hosted by Meers Advertising at Children’s Mercy Hospital in Kansas City, MO.  If you haven’t already watched the recorded video of the event, you should definitely take a look here.  There is a lot of information to get through in four posts, so I figured we would keep it somewhat simple with the first post. The goal today is to paint a picture of how social media is currently being used in healthcare. The plan is to stay away from a lot of analysis or predicting, and really just get a feel for what’s being done in the field.  This is going to require looking at a lot of statistics, but please hang with me… having a better understanding of the status quo is extremely important in understanding why or why not social media will work for healthcare professionals and how it can best be used.

When I first started researching this topic for the social media panel discussion, I watched a short YouTube video called, “Social Media in Healthcare” that had some pretty interesting facts (you can view this video at the bottom of the page).  The original video is somewhat dated, but it has been updated with some new numbers.  I’ll sum up some of the key points below:

• 60 million consumers interact and discuss their health-care online
• Roughly 1,200 Facebook pages advocate finding a cure for an illness
• 72% of patients say they researched their symptoms before visiting their doctor
• 93% of e-patients say internet provided them with health care information they needed
• 80% of internet users have looked online for health information

Source: Q1 Productions

These statistics highlight a very important point.  Whenever I speak with a prospective client, I’m usually asked, “Why does it matter if I participate in social media?”  I always try to help those who ask this question realized one thing:  Your brand, your product, your service is already a part of social media.  The question those people should be asking isn’t why they should participate, but whether or not they are willing to allow others to lead the discussion regarding their brand, product, or service. Most of the time, that answer is “no”, and it’s clear from the above statistics that the same situation holds true in healthcare, even though the goals may be different from a for-profit business. Even if healthcare professionals don’t use social media, 60 million consumers make sure the conversation continues to take place online.

I also came across a great presentation put together by Carolyn Grisko & Associates, Inc. called “Healthcare & Social Media: 2009 Trends and Strategy” (You can view this presentation at the bottom of the page).  The entire presentation is great, but the information presented on slides 5-7 is key.  Look at these statistics regarding how Americans search the internet:

• 36% want to see what other consumers think about medication or treatment
• 34% use social media
• 46% use health care portals

Source:”How America Searches: Health and Wellness“- survey by Opinion Research Corp.

These two sets of statistics clearly show that people are using social media to get their hands on healthcare information.  But how have hospitals, doctors, etc. responded to these facts?  I stumbled across a great blog post on Top Rank Online Marketing Blog called, “5 Examples of Social Media in Healthcare Marketing”.

The 5 examples mentioned are:

• Live Procedures (This is something that we have been contacted about.  A hospital wanted to use our Intefy product to allow medical students to watch a live surgery and ask an observing doctor questions via Twitter or chat)
• Train Medical Personnel
• Reach Mainstream Media That Use Social Media
• Communicate in Times of Crisis
• Provide Accurate Information to Patients (With With such a large amount of health information available on the web, it may be hard to determine the accuracy or trustworthiness of a source)

There has also been a growth in Twitter accounts, blogs, forums, and networks focused on healthcare. It is clear that social media is becoming more and more important for healthcare providers. There are resources available at the end of this post.

Now that we have a little better mental picture and understanding of how social media is used by healthcare professionals, we can look forward to understanding how these professionals go about organizing a social media strategy and what sort of legal and regulatory issues must be considered by the healthcare field in regards to the use of social media.  Look for that post to be available on Thursday, July 8.

Matt

Healthcare & Social Media: 2009 Trends & Strategy

Blogs

• Diabetes Mine Blog
• Health Matters Blog
• NYT Health Blog

Twitter

• @livestrong
• @stupidcancer
• @backusHospital
• @healthsocmed- hosts an online discussion regarding social media in healthcare (#hcsm) Sundays at 8pm CST

Social Networking

• OrganizedWisdom
• Patients Like Me
• Nurses Recommend Doctors

Podcasts

• Johns Hopkins Medicine Podcasts
• Mayo Clinic

Forums

• Revolution Health Groups
• Google Health Group

Since Lisa was speaking as part of the panel, we did a lot of research on social media and healthcare in the days leading up to the event, and have to admit, we were all blown away!  We’ve been doing more and more proposals lately for sites that involve something related to healthcare or disabilities, but have not been immersed in this segment of the social media space and it was refreshing to see all the many ways people are incorporating social media into healthcare: from advocacy to patient support, many organizations are discovering new ways to connect people with information about their health, wellness, or particular issues.

We decided to use this panel discussion as the beginning of a blog series. There was so much good information presented and uncovered in our research, that we think this is a topic that deserves more attention. So for the next few weeks, we are going to try and wade through all of the information available and share what we discover about social media as it’s being used by healthcare organizations, doctors, nurses, patient advocates, insurers, special needs, the government, and others that touch people via a health or wellness interaction.

The panel discussion was guided by a list of questions Sam Meers asked regarding the use of social media by hospitals, doctors, nurses and other healthcare professionals. These questions will guide what we discuss in this blog series. We are avid students in this area and would love to see your comments and hear your stories. Have you had a personal experience related to social media and healthcare? One of the most innovative things we’ve heard of recently is from a hospital system that is thinking about using our Intefy product for online surgery lessons… they would have cameras in the room as doctors perform surgeries, and students watching would be tested later for college credit. During the surgery, a moderator would be present so they could answer questions and facilitate conversation about what people were seeing. We would never have dreamed of our product being utilized this way – it just goes to show the power of all these social tools and platforms in the hands of creative people who see how to use them to meet a need.

Hopefully, together, we can come up with some pretty awesome ideas on how hospitals, doctors, etc. can use social media to improve patient care, disseminate information or gather feedback and data. Be on the look-out for new posts on Tuesdays and Thursdays, starting tomorrow.

I have long had a fascination with what lies across the sea. Though I’ve not been to Europe yet, I have often imagined myself there for reasons unknown even to me. The idea of many places there just call to me, but this panoramic view of Paris offers lessons beyond appeasing a girl’s fancies.

Immersion into an environment like this IS the ultimate experience, and it’s far better than Second Life or a virtual reality. Zoom in closely, and you can see people eating on a terrace, or the Saints on the top of the Sainte Chappelle, something you could not see as closely if you were there in person.

This wonderful site is not the only place you can feel as if you’re standing in front of a place you’ve never been. Google Maps latest “street view” feature for many places is totally amazing. To revisit a place you lived as a child, explore the home of a friend you’ve met online, study a city you’re moving to before you arrive… it’s all possible now for a lot of major places by just putting in the address and zooming around the nearby streets.

So how does this translate to your business? Are you giving people something tangible to see so they almost feel they are experiencing it firsthand? When we redesigned the APS website we went in and took photos of the location, staff and even some faux surgery photos to give people an up-close look at what working with these plastic surgeons, nurses and supporting staff would be like. @zachishere and @simonkuo from Westside Studio did a great job capturing different aspects of a “day in the life” of these busy doctors and staff and we used them throughout the site, telling a graphic story in pictures that are more compelling than stock photography ever could be (we have a few of those mixed in as well, but not many.)

Don’t just paint a picture in words of what you can do for people… find a way to have them experience it. Our friend Kamran @swagclub sends unforgettable goodie boxes to people sometimes (we loved our gifts!!), knowing that’s the best way for people to get what receiving customized promotional merchandise can feel like when it’s a good fit for the audience.

I’d love to hear how you make things tangible for people in the comments. I will be thinking about this for our products and services too, as digital goods are often just experienced via samples online. An interesting challenge, to be sure!

Not as many people know about Red Chair, but it’s new – this is the first event – and the creator of it is an only recently discovered gem in the sm industry. His name is Olivier Blanchard, and we are pleased to call him both a friend and business partner… he is someone that we rely on for advice, debate, discussion and who we mention in RFP’s and proposals for corporate or on-site training. We’re lucky enough to get to pick his brain at will, but his Red Chair events offer everyone the chance to get to know him personally and take whatever understanding you have of social media marketing, social media ROI or social communications and customer care to a new level of intelligence.

Here are 21 reasons we think you should head to a Red Chair training in Portland this week, or a future event if you can’t make it there now:

1. Olivier doesn’t do “fuzzy math”. His slideshare presentation from a conference speech on social media ROI has garnered over 104,000 views, was featured on Mashable as a lead story, is embedded on nearly 600 websites and blogs, and has literally been used in dozens of presentations by OTHER social media consultants, to make a point with clients or close a business deal.

2. He has been an outspoken advocate FOR corporations WITH consultants who insist that ROI is just an old-fashioned term that deserves a new-fangled meaning, diluted for the social media space. Return on inanity, return on engagement, return on interaction, etc. mean little when it comes to budget spend and making decisions that are going to impact the health of your organization. He offers a site dedicated to just the topic of social media ROI at http://smroi.net

3. A former business consultant, product marketer and brand advisor, Olivier has both B2B and B2C as well as startup and Fortune 500-level expertise, working with such companies as Microsoft and SYNNEX and he knows operationally, and from the corporate level, what it means to do something as simple as start a Twitter account. You’ll never find him promising to make your video “go viral” or get you a ton of followers on your Twitter account. The short-term tactics of many consultants are not the strategy Olivier takes when helping you assess your approach to social media.

4. An active blogger since 2005, Olivier has had a front-row seat to the changes we have all made online the last few years, and has been at the forefront of experimenting with and learning about marketing to and serving customers with a mix of traditional and social methods since the first social platforms started appearing. He brings practical, real-world experience to both his training sessions and his consulting gigs.

5. He will help you, in these Red Chair events, determine a blueprint and strategy for designing a comprehensive social media program. (That link is just a very brief snapshot of what this training will include.)

6. Olivier has become a sought-after speaker the last year, and his presentations, keynotes and chats bring valuable insights to participants and are often tweeted about and written about online.

7. He goes deep and delivers real substance, above and beyond what many experts in this field offer for advice and guidance. Case in point: covering every detail of presenting your company’s brand on Twitter in images and verbage as a plan and not an accident.

8. Red Chair trainings, at least as far as I know, do not exist in this form anywhere else. This is like a crash-MBA in social media marketing and communications… without the MBA pricetag!

9. Olivier, with all of our help, wants to help people understand the real value behind using social media for business, and how to use it to transform your company culture, user satisfaction and ultimately sales. He has spearheaded the use of terms like “people to people” and “social communications” that others pick up on and use, because they make sense and add another step along the path of social evolution that all of us in this realm are defining.

10. Olivier has made me smarter. I honestly believe that everyone attending his Red Chair trainings will walk away smarter too. It’s not merely the education he imparts or the insights he pinpoints for you so sharply… it’s in his questions. He poses questions and theories that make you think for yourself and in doing so, your brain enlarges just that little bit more, that you feel you really see things in a different way, or you can imagine something new you hadn’t quite visualized before. Armed with new viewpoints, you will tackle problems and see opportunities in a different way after being exposed to this unique frenchman!

11. And speaking of France… Olivier is not 100% American. His heritage is French, with some other influences mixed in. Why this matters is because he has a lot of international, and therefore broader experience in the world than some of us do. And if social media has taught us anything, it’s that the world feels smaller than it used to – we can reach people faster and easier than we ever could before. And we need to be aware of what that means from the organizational standpoint, if we’re becoming a social company.

12. Olivier is active on his and other people’s blogs, Twitter, Facebook and Linked In. I don’t want to speak for him, but I am pretty sure that if you attend his trainings and get to know him, you’ll have a lasting and rich relationship with him and will be able to reach him as things come up that you need a nudge in the right direction with. I have seen him help countless numbers of people online.

13. Customer service managers, directors and support people: Red Chair will have a lot of information to help you build or improve a solid customer care program.

14. Executives and anyone concerned about social media and the ramifications and impact: Olivier will be covering lots of legal issues like defamation and confidentiality, as well as social media policies.

15. Ad and PR agency principals and managers: you will leave with a blueprint for how to help clients put a social media program in place, as well as concrete, actionable steps you can take to improve your own social presence.

16. Chief Marketing Officers: you will be armed with the knowledge you need to help you make hiring decisions, marketing campaign decisions and more after your Red Chair sessions.

17. Human resources managers and recruiters: Do you know how to hire a social media director, community manager or other social media personnel? Olivier has been very vocal in the community about who is qualified for these important responsibilities and he’ll guide you in making sound choices that will actually be effective for your company.

18. Social media is about integration into many facets of your operation… not just something the marketing team or your PR agency does. You’ll learn how to integrate social media into your company in a planned strategy that minimizes risks and embarrassing brand failures.

19. Olivier Blanchard has… well, finesse. His approach has been admired by many industry heavyweights, who I have seen compliment him on his style, manner of handling issues and people, and willingness to stand his ground about topics others shy away from. What better person to learn from?

20. There is an art to teaching something that sticks in your memory. Olivier blends humor with graphics with clear, concise words and his indelible style equals a pleasurable learning experience you’ll be able to relate to, comprehend and remember.

21. We value the work Olivier does and highly recommend attending his training! It will be an investment of time and cost well spent.

We love what Olivier is doing with this training program so much we will be bringing it to Kansas City this summer. The date is not yet determined. His next event at the moment is not until May, so check out the Red Chair Portland sessions and if you absolutely can’t make it, see the schedule of future events at the site.

• Follow RedChairGroup on Twitter
• Visit the Twitterface Page
• Join the LinkedIn Discussion
• Join the Facebook Group

I’m not against engagement and talking to people. Obviously I talk to lots of people who talk to me on Twitter, and do my best to engage both new people I don’t know and people I consider friends. As well as prospects, clients and various companies and brands. I am a user advocate, after all, so I get it. Using Twitter, Facebook and various other social platforms to develop mutually beneficial or even just interesting relationships with others is not new. Using these platforms to solicit web traffic, sell a book, product or service or promote yourself as a celebrity or expert of some type is really becoming yesterday’s news, as well. People are jumping onto these platforms by droves to take advantage of the marketing opportunities, and to provide a listening ear or customer support also. There is definitely marketing value, in listening to people and acknowledging what they have to say about your company… it takes finesse sometimes, which savvy social media marketers and community managers have (or anyone tweeting for your company) in order to read the needs and then meet them, for the particular individual you’re dealing with.

But I know there’s more we can do, with all the people, and the easy, instant access, and the short-burst communication and the open api’s and ability to integrate technology online, where it can be accessed from anywhere there’s a computer and internet connection. So much more. Some enterprising local companies are taking orders over Twitter and having food or drink ready for the person when they arrive. Delivery companies are finding ways to use Twitter. Cabs can be ordered and dispatched. Shipments can be tracked. I even had an interaction with a great company called Gourmet Library and they changed their site for me that night, to add a suggested feature. Now THIS, this is a beautiful way to use these unexpected (a few years ago) resources in ways that can benefit our bottom lines and improve our business processes.

Still… people go on and on about engagement and almost can’t stand to have a conversation including social media that doesn’t put the total emphasis on that singular concept. I understand why – lots of companies and business people are on Twitter, but they don’t all do it like we wish they would. Some of them are stiff, not overly chatty or friendly. Some are defensive. Some of them have an account name and don’t even tweet or acknowledge things being said about them at all. Some users/customers/prospects DO choose another company based on the lack of interaction, by the way. Some send out automated, crappy sales solicitations and annoy you. Some just listen – you know they are – using all the real-time streaming as intelligence but they don’t deign to respond. Some intervene too much – maybe you want to vent about your hideous tasting sandwich from a fast food chain, but don’t want to be confronted about it in public. So all the advice and the opinions and feedback about how to develop these relationships online is definitely warranted.

But is “engagement” the ONLY need that people have? I’ve been thinking about this a long, long time. I believe people/users/customers/buyers/employees have needs, and engaging with a company representative in order to meet the need is only one facet of a holistic plan to be implemented.

For you, in your life, what’s the fastest way to go about getting a particular piece of company information? Say you want to know the hours and location of a company you plan to do business with later today. Do you…

• Ask a friend/spouse/coworker if they know?
• Look them up in a paper phonebook?
• Look them up in Google or online?
• Go to their site and hunt until you find the information on the site?
• Call phone information and ask for their phone number so you can talk to someone on the phone?
• Drive by the location to look at a sign on the door?
• Search for them on Twitter or Facebook, to see if the company is there and you can ask or see the info?
• Send an email to them to find out?
• Ask an intern/spouse/assistant or some other person to find out?

Different people will take different approaches, based on how they learn and gather information, and where they are at the time. If I’m driving, I might ask someone else to look it up for me, or I might Google a search at a red light. If I’m on Twitter, I might pop the name into search and see if the company is there, and take the lazy route of asking someone and waiting for the answer. If I want to see the company’s site, I might visit and poke around and eventually get to the info. But I want to be able to do any of these things, and come up with the answer fast… because I have a lot to do and this is kind of like “white noise” in my day – until I get the info I need, I can’t ignore it and so it’s on the mental task list until I can check it off.

Emarketer’s latest research offers reasons that people befriend or follow a company using social media. They say social media users are “interested in deeper engagement.” That seems to be somewhat true, but have we helped respondents identify what it is they TRULY need? Two of these categories are too vague (at least as represented in this simple chart.) Do they need a person from Whole Foods, Macy’s or Apple to address them? Or do they need a question answered, a complaint addressed, a suggestion for a feature or product acknowledged, some praise for an employee noted, a request considered, or some other, specific need answered, that may or may not involve “engaging?”

What requires unique answers vs. what could be answered in a FAQ or inventory call? Inquiring about known product availability is different than asking if the company even has a product that meets a particular need, or a service offering. Asking for hours of operation is different than engaging in a conversation about the best person to contact within the company to discuss a potential business deal, or an inquiry about a unique problem with a newly purchased product. Asking a Human Resources representative on Twitter about the most appropriate clothing choices for a new hire, is different than asking if there are job openings. One requires human engagement, the other can be answered by a machine. We don’t refuse to automate business processes inside the enterprise, or factory, or kitchen… wherever they make sense and are affordable. So why do we act as if some automation of information via a social platform is a crime against humanity?

As a user experience designer, I have seen that interactions inside a site or software system (or over a phone system) are also forms of engaging with your company and brand. The increasing popularity of making purchases online is a testament to this. You need to think of interactions and transactions as mechanical engaging, and you’ll see how important they are. People have good, bad and downright horrifying experiences, just like they do with your employees in person. An online experience with a site or ecommerce shopping cart can leave the same good or bad taste in your mouth, resulting in the same good or bad word of mouth sharing. If you have a crappy site, and are hoping your salespeople or customer support will make up for it (or vice versa), you won’t be fooling anyone, really. Customer care is a pervasive, underlying foundation or it’s not, and all aspects of your approach need to deliver on it. Social media is not a silo, your site is not a silo, your blog and community managers are not a silo, your managers, customer support handlers, marketing people, receptionists, retail floorwalkers, the lobby, restrooms and the parking lot are not independently going to carry the brand – it takes all of these pieces – human, tangible and intangible – working in tandem from the same value belief system, to satisfy prospects, buyers, partners and even former customers.

So instead of looking at the world of social media and thinking “Oh my gosh, how can I even go there? Our staff doesn’t have enough time as it is!” I am suggesting that you step back and ask yourself, what do people in your business ecosystem really NEED?

• What do prospects need?
• What do people appropriate for our products/services need, that don’t know about us yet?
• What do existing customers need?
• What do people with a return or complaint need?
• What do potential partners need?
• What do employees need?
• What do our salespeople need to close deals/do their job?
• What do company managers need?
• What do investors/stakeholders need?
• What do people we owe money to/do business with need?

Then look at your people, business processes and existing technological systems, and pinpoint where you can start to meet these needs. If you can honestly always answer “deeper engagement” for the myriad needs you will come up with, I’d be highly surprised.

We have got to separate true need of specific information (inventory question, process explanation, how to return something, what time a store closes, if something desired is in or out of stock, if a discount is available for bulk purchase, if sales or discounts exist) from ego gratification from need for positive acknowledgment (desire to contribute to brand growth or offer a suggestion) from need for issue acknowledgment (desire to be heard when customer has had a problem or complaint.)

All of us that do marketing consultation and act as social media advisors need to be careful tossing around terms like “deeper engagement.” What does that mean, anyway? I have deep engagement with my closest friends and family – not so much with Freshbooks, though I sure think very highly of them and recommend them often (for example.) It makes people feel good when a company rep or major brand responds to them, but why? Is it because they are perceived as being busy/important/popular and the name-dropping in our direction impresses others (and maybe delights us. It can be fun when someone you admire responds.) But is our ego drive to be acknowledged an unacknowledged driver behind the call for engagement with brands and companies on Twitter? Or do people need access to information, that may sometimes includes a person and sometimes an automated FAQ or inventory tool? What makes interacting with Sally Smith (a random person – like any of us) any different than interacting with Mark Parker (the CEO of Nike)? Do we value a brief interaction with Mark Parker, who we don’t know, more than with a beloved friend who lends us a word of encouragement, or a mate who declares undying love in public for all the world to see, or a boss that gives us an ‘atta boy’ in front of our peers?

If people aren’t accessing Twitter accounts for fast info now, is it because that type of interaction doesn’t much exist today, so there’s no precedent to believe they can do that? Or because they don’t want to? (The classic chicken and egg question.) I would much rather hit Twitter (where let’s face it, I am 75% of the time off and on) and ask a quick question and get the answer now (automatic response) or later (via a nice human) than dig through a company site full of information and FAQ’s or support questions. It might be the height of laziness for me, but it’s the art of providing convenience and engagement (even if automated!) for savvy businesses who have the foresight to see it now, because it WILL come eventually. Our processes for automating certain interactions are more clear inside the company than on these social platforms, I think. We haven’t built them yet, but we can and we should go further than the “social” in social media and include opportunities we have to meet and answer needs in a number of cool ways.

Maybe it’s just me, but…

• I would greatly prefer to order some of my food and beverages directly via Twitter and then go pick them up (like Coffeegroundz in Houston wisely initiated early on – I was longing for this just the other day from Moe’s in Shawnee, KS)
• I’d love to be able to sit on my rump in Twitter and ask an Amazon account about a book someone mentioned, and have the link to it sent back to me, instead of going to the site and searching
• If I have an Apple Mac issue (I have multiple Macs and an iPod), I want to be able to hit a knowledge base with my question from Twitter. It may work or may not, but it seems easier than going and digging up the info at their site. It’s just one more hook, but for me, mentally massively more convenient.
• Someday I want to ask for hairdresser (lawn care, dry cleaner, nail salon, doctor, air conditioner repair, etc. recommendations and receive a nice link back to a list of known folks reviewed near me (or the city I will be going to.) I don’t want a special, local Kansas City site – I want to ask the world at large, from where I hang out (my site, Twitter, Facebook, etc.)
• I’d like to be able to tweet a preferred appointment time to my nail lady, doctor’s office, chiropractor, etc. and get an answer back – an automated return of “Yes, that time’s available, would you like to schedule” or “No, I’m sorry, it’s not” is no less valuable coming from a software system than it is a human being. Either way, I get the appointment – engagement and customer care happens with the practitioner I am going to see and the people who take my money at the door, in addition to the software system they set up to meet my needs.
• If my internet goes out, or the electricity, I want to tweet an account and get a status update back.
• I want to ping my gym and find out what classes are being taught at 5:30 pm (because I realize that’s when I can go.) Or I want to know when Thom or Martha are teaching, or some other schedule related question.

Ask the question OUT, get the answer back IN is the future of cloud computing. Right now, I have to do a lot of work, despite how much more convenient things are now than they were 5 years ago. I have to know the places to go, or ask people and find out, and then go to the sites, and then do a search, and maybe they have or don’t the info I am looking for in THEIR particular database. If they don’t I have to start over.

But these social platforms have opened a new door – they offer new horizons of people-powered comments, reviews, praise and complaints to work with. With links mentioned, people recommended or disputed, reports posted, analytics tracked – this is incredibly valuable to the humble person overworked, underpaid, and with the ambition to pack as much productivity into a day as they can.

Forrester, who many companies rely on to separate the good from the bad data and information, has recently added a bucket of “conversationalists” to their social media persona ladder. But… I think this needs more work. I’ve added a couple of notes in green:

This chart just doesn’t address people who are seeking information vs. the need to engage, in any of these areas. The RSS feed comment is mildly confusing – I assume they mean these collectors aggregate feeds into a feed reader or something, or maybe mix them, but not sure. “Inactives” may not appear to be doing anything, but we can’t know that – after all, they signed up for some reason… maybe they are self-educating or scouring for deals or seeking specific information.

Why aren’t we building databases based on social queries? Is it because we are so focused on people, and people who need people (LOL!) that we are totally overlooking an entire segment of socialization? Once I asked @WholeFoods if they carried Nutella – someone answered and said no, it does not meet their ingredient quality list. That answer could be popped into a database for a future automated query, so the next time a Nutella addict wants to know it could be answered automatically. The supplements questions alone (if anything like the quantity we got in the store) could result in a big time-savings for the human staffers.

Similar questions as an example: take Cost Plus World Market – do they have a location near me, do they carry Fat Tire Beer (at my location, or nearest?) Does LifeTime Fitness have a tennis center at a gym in Kansas City? (No, automated answer.) Will they ever have one? (Requires human answer with explanation.) Can I tell someone who will listen/respond at LifeTime, how much I wish they would bring Tennis to a KC gym? (Human answer with link to ideas site or direct forward to tennis program director, preferably on Twitter, or Facebook, or wherever I have initiated this conversation.) Do they have any recommendations for tennis in the Kansas City area then, given they are not meeting my need as an existing customer? (This is where the company could go the extra mile in their answer/recommendation, resulting in customer loyalty, user retention or positive WOM benefits.)

I am not saying the people running branded accounts on Twitter aren’t doing a world of good for their companies, customers and brands. I have no idea why, but one day someone mentioned to me she had a big problem with a seatbelt in her Ford. Not knowing how I could help, but having a passing acquaintance with Scott Monty, Ford’s very socially present PR person, I forwarded her issue on to him. He got the right people involved apparently, and a few days later she told me Ford had contacted her and was resolving the problem. Now, while I was glad this was the case, I don’t know why her efforts to reach them on her own had failed. These are the kinds of customer care issues all companies have to examine and correct where they see failures. If there were only automated systems, this would not have been possible, and I am not recommending we replace the people spearheading social media efforts at the groundbreaking companies that are here now, with automated systems. In fact, to know how to deal with people who request things and ask questions of you on Twitter, you need to BE an active Twitter user, so don’t even think about planning automated services without being immersed in the social culture, or you will likely pay for it in negativity.

I’m suggesting we (my company and others who think about technology and integration and business processes non-stop) help these Twittering employees and companies by coming up with new solutions. New ways of approaching the needs. New ways to scale and manage the requests. I hope that’s clear, if you read this far!

I leave you with two things. Tonight I asked the question “If you have recently interacted with a brand/company on Twitter, what was the nature of your interaction? Question/comment/issue?” and I got a lot of neat answers and opinions, which I have starred as favorites. I recommend browsing these comments for insights.

New friend @CariEllison gave me a link to a related article that’s interesting, so you might want to check it out also.

Want to discuss this? Tell me I’m full of smack? Need help with an integration plan or process? Let’s talk about it. I’m curious to know what other folks think of the idea of mixing automation (for utility, aid and response, not marketing – huge, huge difference) with people on social platforms.

I’m not talking about making a bunch of strict guidelines. You can do as much or as little as you feel you must, given your customers, public or private holding status, your industry, etc. But unfortunately, especially for a lot of younger people, they need guidelines in common sense so they don’t unnecessarily tarnish your brand. And if they deliberately tarnish your brand, I’d show them the door. Too many great, displaced, laid off workers are out there and you can do better.

A link is going around right now to a blog post called Starbucks Employees Publish Inappropriate Pics of Customers Online. Apparently an employee has a Flickr set of personal photos called “87th & Sunset: Life at Starbucks.” It should be noted that these photos are several years old – I think this employee has moved on and left these in his archives. I don’t have any idea whether Starbucks has a training program for all employees in place or not, now. This scenario is a great example to learn from.

While it’s within an employee’s right as a human being with free will to document photos and put such captivating captions on them as “You’ve got to take a few ass shots on unsuspecting hoes, you know?” I question whether a brand like Starbucks should reward this fella with a job. (He was working for them when he posted to this collection regularly.) Starbucks, it’s no secret, is already struggling to survive the economic downturn. They need no help from an uninterested, apathetic employee to tarnish their brand in my opinion. If your employees don’t have your back and you need to make some changes in your approach and culture, listen to them and do it. But you don’t have to put up with providing continuous fodder for people you pay to damage your brand with. Write a final check and cut the documentary photographer free so he can take photos of people doing other things, like job-hunting with him or struggling to pay bills.

I feel horrible for the customers he served at this particular Starbucks. Imagine knowing how bitter the people serving you are, and how little they actually like you? I am not a stranger to this chain – I visit the drive-thru as often as I go inside and have probably hit a Starbucks in every city I’ve ever traveled to. I certainly would feel funny knowing some smartass barista or anyone else who worked there was snapping my picture, making hateful comments about me or laughing and pointing out my many obvious flaws. After all, we go in for a cup of coffee or maybe a snack, not for a blow to our self esteem. I pay way too much for what I get there to put up with that!

The dude, for reasons I can’t imagine, that posted these to Flickr said he had an obscenely long career at Starbucks. Was the manager that out of touch with his attitude about working there? One can sense the disdain for both his employer and his customers in a matter of moments looking through the photo set. This is what happens when you do NOT institute broad-based employee training and ask them to clean up their online act.

It’s unreasonable to expect:

• Employees not to tweet, post to Facebook, Flickr, YouTube or any other social site
• Employees not to occasionally have a work gripe that gets aired
• Employees to turn over the keys to all their social sites so you can monitor them like Big Brother
• Employees not to want to share/bond with colleagues via pics, funny videos, etc. (not all the pics in the Flickr set used as this bad example are inappropriate or problematic)

It is reasonable to expect:

• Employees will not deliberately bash your brand on public forums and if they do they run the risk of losing their jobs
• Employees will make sure their personal artifacts online don’t tarnish your brand and they will clean up what does, if their name is associated with your company
• Employees will realize they are representatives of your company whether they’re on the clock or not, and behave with some decorum
• Employees won’t bash, disrespect or call customers names
• Employees won’t threaten customers
• Employees won’t do things to deliberately humiliate customers, such as take their picture or video them without permission

There are only 3 months left in this year. If you do NOT have a training program in place, get it in place by 2010. You don’t have time to waste, and it doesn’t have to be hard. You can make improvements as you go along. Start with your managers and make them responsible for ensuring employees do the right thing when it comes to both playing online AND collecting a paycheck from your company.

If you just don’t know where to start, contact me. My team or some of my colleagues can help you get something in place swiftly. No excuses… stop harmful stuff like this dumb Flickr set before it hurts you. These pictures were taken in 2005-2006 and yet they’re making the rounds today, three years later on Twitter. Social media monitoring can make finding online assets easier and quite a few products exist to help you do this.

If you don’t think you need a social media training program, you need to ask yourself this: Is losing one single customer worth not asking an employee to show reasonable restraint online? I don’t think so. I value the people that hire us to do things for them. People doing business with you is an honor – they have choices and other things to spend money on. Make sure every last employee knows and cares about that, or replace them.

Some time back I wrote a post about how to launch a product. This one is about what to do when things go horribly wrong (and they will sometimes.) I’ve made up a new little term that I hope people will remember: CIA. When things go wrong, if you have even ONE user (and Twitter has hundreds-of-thousands active, millions registered), you are duty-bound to enact a policy of CIA to help the user base remain stable and calm.

CIA stands for “Communicate, Inform & Address” – I am borrowing it from the Central Intelligence Agency without permission because the sentiment is the same. But instead of keeping information private, in this case I am advocating sharing it with the people that matter most to your bottom line: your users.

This weekend, a totally stupid individual has decided to conduct phishing attacks on innocent Twitter users. The intent is to expose a Twitter vulnerability and publically humiliate people, from my vantage point. Other reasons could be to knock Twitter down, give it a bad name, or hurt its chances to earn revenue in early 2009, as they announced. The phishing attacks began last night and quickly escalated. Bloggers from news sites immediately began posting articles so that Twitter users could point others to them for information, which was helpful. But I wanted more information from Twitter about what they were doing, and what we could, as users, expect.

Here’s what they did last night:

A. They posted a “Warning” message in small text yesterday on the site, and linked to a short status update. Within a couple of hours they linked to this blog post which gave a bit more information. (It could have used an icon for attention & much larger text. This only appeared on the Twitter website itself, so those using clients did not see it.)

B. They sent 3 tweets from the @twitter account:

1. ! be careful of DMs with a link to blogspot.com that seemingly redirects to Twitter.com and asks for your credentials (we’re on the case) about 20 hours ago from Power Twitter
2. Don’t Click That Link! http://tinyurl.com/9sste4 about 19 hours ago from twitterfeed
3. Check out our blog post about “Phishing” http://tinyurl.com/88mas4 about 16 hours ago from web

C. They did something to their app or the server, which seemed to make things better overnight at least.

Today, the phishing scam picked up steam again, with new and different messages and url’s. Some reported it on their blogs, but Twitter has done NOTHING visible to users. For the last several hours, I have been on Twitter communicating with concerned users and trying to track down information and piece together why this issue is still occuring.

A post went up today at a SANS security site that states: “It looks like the Twitter folks have it well under control” – I got this link from the list at yesterday’s blog post, which it points to, so they must have added it today. The problem is, yesterday’s news is no longer comforting when TODAY there is more stuff going on in your application. When this is extent of the security news coming out, how much can we trust that source for security information?

I am angry. Twitter has grown mighty fast, and they provide a great service for free, but the congratulations and revenue-generating plans are mighty premature when the site is notoriously buggy for basic functions, the free use of the api has created havoc, and users are largely ignored in times of crisis.

Why hasn’t anyone from Twitter responded to the Get Satisfaction question regarding this issue today? What is more important than this issue for the company? A football game? Frisbee in the California sunshine? Margarita’s on the patio? Shopping at the mall?

I could go on (and on), but Twitter’s problem and chaos surrounding it have sucked away too much of my life last night and today. Here is what I recommend for other web applications who face an issue of this type:

COMMUNICATE EARLY & OFTEN

When things are bad, your users NEED to hear from you, and if your brand does not contain the promise that you will be there for them, then you need to re-examine every single thing about your business. Don’t be a fairweather friend. The last communication from the @twitter account was 19 hours ago, and that is unacceptable. You better have your friendliest, most personable employee – I don’t care if it’s the receptionist or the CEO’s mother – out on the front lines, available and responsive, FOR THE DURATION OF THE CRISIS.

INFORM YOUR USERS – KEEP THEM IN THE LOOP

Having worked with numerous security companies, I know there are things you just don’t want to say. But you can keep your users informed with non-critical pieces of information that will provide the comfort they need to have some peace of mind. And their comfort levels affect your bottom line and brand reputation, so I don’t consider it optional.

ADDRESS USER’S CONCERNS

Even at the risk of repeating yourself and the tedium that goes with that, you have got to be willing to address user’s concerns if you operate a web application – free or not. This phishing incident is important to users… they are concerned about a number of things: the followers they have lost, the password they gave out, where the source of this problem is, what they can do about it next. If you don’t have all the answers, don’t be too damn proud and arrogant to admit it! In Twitter’s case, surely they could say who they are working with and what they are trying to do to STOP the messages from coming through on their system, as Matt Cutts did from his Twitter account regarding Google’s attempts to do what they can from their side.

Every single employee of Twitter, no matter what their role, EXCEPT those developers working round the clock to block the bad guys, should be visible and available today, on Twitter, making blog posts, sending an email out with info, and at the Get Satisfaction site responding to questions. This is what I would be rallying the troops to do if I worked for Twitter today, in any capacity.

I am horribly disappointed in them right now. I am EXTREMELY concerned about releasing a Twitter-related app that I have worked so hard to design because my company and my users may be on their own when it comes to big problems. I want the security of knowing Twitter is not too egotistical to learn from grave mistakes. Many users will give them a lot of license here, because they feel they get the service for free and they don’t deserve much else. I give them no room for error, because talking to users is relatively cheap and easy! I admire the product and community a great deal, so my standards are high for them now, because they have done a lot that is right. This weekend, my admiration is dropping by the hour, and it saddens me. I love the cottage industry that has sprung up around them… books, games, applications, niche information. I have great plans and ideas for my product, Twitterface. But I am worried about Twitter’s priorities and perception of themselves, if what I have been witnessing in the media and this weekend is the best they can do.

If you design, sell or develop web apps, is this how you want your users to feel?

Additional links:
Advice on What to Do if Phished
Visual of Tweets
One User’s Experience

Comments are welcome. I know everyone will not agree with me on this issue. I wish everyone a totally phish-free week. I just don’t know that we will get it.

Hmm… that’s a head-scratcher. It’s after 9:00 am, yet I got this message. About 30 minutes later, a salesperson called. Since the email said they opened at 9:00, I had decided to test drive a car after attending the Social Media Club KC breakfast Friday morning, so the timing was just perfect. However, the salesman said they don’t open till 11:00, that they only open at 9:00 on Saturday. Huh? Essentially, the auto-response email couldn’t be more wrong! Fortunately for Carmax, I’m already a fan. I have purchased several cars there over the years, and have faith that I’m getting both a good deal and a good car there, so this little snafu didn’t exactly turn me off, but what if I were a first-time customer??? Quite a different story, and not a good one, because now Carmax looks totally inept, when I know them to be quite solid as a business (at least in my dealings so far.) They just need to fix the message in this email and eliminate any inconsistency.

Then I discovered this most excellent web video program, called “Help! My Business Sucks!” In Episode #24, Andrew Lock describes a similar problem with 24-Hour Fitness. He wanted to become a member at a strange hour, and assumed their company name stood for round-the-clock service and access. Listen to his tale…

Isn’t that a fun program? I intend to tune in again, because I learned stuff beyond the customer experience story that will come in handy. I can’t wait to watch some more episodes.

Bottom line, these tiny infractions, errors, inconsistencies or whatever can add up to one big cold shoulder in a prospective customer. Don’t take the risk. Make sure your promises, marketing materials, company tagline, business name, motto, slogan, posted hours, etc. are 100% accurate and complete, and that you stand by them rain or shine. Err on the side of truth in advertising and customer service, and you will stand apart from your competitors and other businesses. Ultimately this will result in more buyers and profits, and more happy fans spreading the word about you and your awesome business!

As a user experience evanglist who often extends her reach into customer service departments and processes, I find myself wondering… just where IS the fine line between poor, inept, inadequate customer service, and intentional theft by a large corporation who has brand equity (though apparently, not the reputation to back it up any longer.)

Remember the good ‘ole days (before I was born, even), when families gathered round the TV and watched a world they’d never before seen unfold in front of them? The RCA brand was at the forefront of color television technology, and started demonstrating capability for color with NBC as early as 1940. Wired actually named the RCA TV from 1954 as “The Greatest Gadget of All Time.” When Walt Disney’s Wonderful World of Color became popular in 1961, so did requests for color televisions. This is the RCA a lot of people, who grew up as television technology advanced, remember. The moniker “RCA” used to denote a compelling brand that meant quality, value, and ownership by modern consumers who embraced new and exciting technologies. (Photo by Roadside Pictures)

Ad for 1961 RCA Color Television with Remote Control

Nearly 50 years later, the brand, the company and the quality have all changed. The RCA brand is owned by Thomson SA and the rights, licenses and lines of ownership and responsibilites are a blur of changing hands over the last decade. I don’t know if parts are made of cheaper quality stuff than they used to be, but the website promoting RCA is pretty and professional enough.

Our Bad Experience with RCA
Here’s what happened to us, and why I am pondering this company’s history and customer service commitment… we purchased a large screen RCA HDTV from Walmart in Ottawa, Kansas on December 30, 2007. We love this TV – it was just 1000.00, but has a nice matte screen, and we have a Wii now and have had so much fun playing with it on the nice big screen. In early July, I turned it on one Saturday morning, having just watched it in action the night before, and it wouldn’t show the picture. Eventually, the picture came off and on, and kept doing that to the point where we realized this TV was not usable in its current state. Hmm… and it’s barely half a year old? (To us, at least.)

We gather up the paperwork and I had kept the receipt, so my husband starts calling the number for Thomson. They explicity tell you in the paperwork NOT to contact the store you purchased it from, but to contact them. (If you are reading this, and lucky enough to still have time to return it as a refund, take yours back now and say a little prayer of thanks!) He also spoke to our local TV repairman, and searched online and at Ebay/Craiglist for parts, and he did found a single lamp kit for sale for 260.00.

He waits on hold through various phone calls with customer service, because this thing has a 1 year warranty, and speaks to someone he can barely understand (the connection was so bad, I have to wonder if the support center is in China or very distant to us.) She says that she will send a shipping label to his email address, and to expect in either 4-8 hours, 48 hours, or 4-8 days. (That horrible connection!) At any rate, all of those have passed, and we still have no email. The shipping label is to send the lamp back, at which point the story is that they will send us a replacement that I guess we are responsible for installing.

I have also spoken to someone at Walmart, who says there is nothing they can do, and she expressed surprise that we could even locate a phone number for Thomson. She also recommended we buy a Phillips next time.

Our Bad Experience with RCA is Far from Unique!
Sounds okay so far, right? Well… many people have been told this same story. In fact, I have saved a bunch of links of sites with names like “pissed consumer”, “complaints”, “ripoff report”, and “my three cents” all of which have multiple complaints from RCA buyers who have sad stories of their own to tell, some of them exactly like ours. Not exactly reassuring. Our lamp issue is fairly common, as is the TV turning itself off and on in some demonic-like state of possession, which would certainly be annoying. Several people online claimed RCA/Thomson customer service representatives and managers said that their TV would be picked up, and a refund check delivered within 6-8 weeks. I did not see saw an update to these complaints that confirmed a refund check had arrived.

So… I am not an expert on product laws and consumer satisfaction rights, and this post only intends to pose the question about a company’s legal responsibility regarding electronic devices and equipment. We all hear about cases of fraud that are obvious, such as the Enron fiasco, but can a company make and sell products, that last just long enough to hopefully make it out of warranty before failing, and still be allowed to exist as a company? Or could this be some form of theft that somehow goes unpunished? When someone pays upwards of a hundred or a thousand dollars for something that works for a few months, but in case after case it fails and the company does NOT make good on warranty promises, why is that called “bad customer service” and not grand larceny?

One of the complaint web sites has a tagline that says something like “customers in control”. But a volume of complaints online, for all the world to see, some with such heated vocabulary that as they write and start typing in all caps, you can picture the steam poring from their heads, has not yet done a thing for many of these consumers. Some have spent less than a hundred, some less than a thousand, and some have spent thousands on RCA products that may only work a few months to a few years. Is this the new expectation of electronics? Or is this the hallmark of a company who legally should have to make better products or stop selling them to people? Are there laws governing the length of time a tangible product has to work?

This post will be updated, for the morbidly curious, as events happen in our attempt to either fix this television or obtain a refund. If you’ve had experiences, good or bad, with RCA products or the Thomson company, I’d love to read your comments, so please leave one.

>> To read comments from other RCA buyers, go to my Delicious links on RCA

July 5, 2008
Our RCA HDTV television bites the dust. The picture keeps going black.

August 4, 2008
Today I called the customer service center and waited on hold forever before finally hanging up, and submitted a request via the RCA Contact Form, which states: “We’re always in the mood to talk RCA Television. As far as we’re concerned, it’s the most important thing in the world. After our customers, that is.” We’ll see.

August 4, 2008
My husband had received the shipping label in his email this morning. Now he has to remove the lamp kit from our TV and send it back to them. It would be nice if they had sent some instructions. Fortunately for us, hubby is excellent at figuring out how things work, so he’ll manage just fine.

August 7, 2008
Fedex picked up the bulb to deliver it back to RCA. Unfortunately, they didn’t leave a tracking number so I can only hope it has arrived and we will get a new one back to replace it. I am tired of this giant TV sitting behind my couch! (And I miss playing with the Wii.)

UPDATE: August 29, 2008
Fedex delivered the bulb and The Oilman happened to be here and he fixed the TV immediately. Yay!!! We have our giant TV back. I hope this bulb will last a lot longer than the first one.

For now, this issue has been resolved.