MindComet

Brand Terrorists

Watch out, there are brand terrorists on the loose!

And yes brands, you should be really really scared of them.

Some of you might be wondering, what are they?

Brand terrorists infect online channels with negative information and perceptions about a product. In many cases, that negative chatter is well deserved by the brand. Brand terrorists are often created through poor customer service.

So what can you do?

For one, make top-notch customer service part of your DNA. Look at Zappos, as an organization they are hyper-focused on customer service. EVERY single employee, not matter what your role or expected level of interaction with the customer, must attend customer service training. That’s hard core.

So how many Zappos brand terrorists are there? I don’t know for sure, but a recent search on Twitter assured me it’s probably pretty low and confirmed that they have lots of “brand advocates”. Yes, brand advocates, the people who happily praise your brand in public forums and HELP brands sell products..no commission required.

What else can you do?

Extend your customer service through social media channels. Proactively mine actionable customer service situations, take care of the customer and transform a brand terrorist into a brand advocate. Relative to normal customer service overhead, it’s a scalable, low cost approach.

If you haven’t read my post, Twitter kicks ass…and so does Boingo, click on over and see a real world terrorist to advocate transformation.

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Posted by Jeremy Hilton on Jul. 15, 2009