Social media montoring is something that all companies should be doing.  If people are talking about your company, positive or negative, you can either put your head in the sand or engage with it.

At my role at AccuQuote , I receive approximately a dozen cold calls per day. Usually I’m nice, but by the end of the day my patience is thin.

Today , I received a cold call from Michele at Ion Interactive about attending their sponsored landing page optimization seminar in downtown Chicago next week. I knew about it from their previous emails, and already knew we weren’t going to attend. When I declined the invite for myself (I’ll be out of town) and my team (who is up to their ears using Omniture’s Test and Target), she chuckled in a way that I received negatively before she hung up. Maybe I would have reacted differently earlier in the day… who knows.

I Tweeted about it, and got a response back from Michele within a few minutes! She appologized and asked what she could do for me.

It turns out that I had listened to a great Dishy Mix interview with their EVP, Anny Talerico, not too long ago. At Ion Interactive, they published a book called “Honest Seduction”, which has been highly recommended.

I asked for a copy of the book, and Michele was happy to send me a copy.

This is a perfect example of how monitoring the chatter about your company can turn a negative impression into a brand evangelist.

Ion Interactive and especially Michele,

Thank you!

Every once in a while a company shows that common sense and doing the right thing results in the emergence of evangelists for the brand.

My dad lives a couple of towns away from Temecula, CA and all of the wineries there. The wine region in Temecula has blossomed to over 30 wineries. Some of the wineries are average, some above average, and others can compete head to head with their top name counterparts in more popular CA wine regions such as Sonoma and Napa. Longshadow Rannch Winery is one of those that knocks my socks off every time, and for multiple reasons.

First, it’s beautiful there. Particular attention has been paid to the landscaping and setting the stage for a pleasant wine tasting experience. In addition to the landscaping, there are amazing Belgian horses as well as goats. I love animals, so this adds to the experience. In August, I took my 4 year old son to CA to visit family, and we went to the winery so I could show him the horses and goats. Whenever we talk about going back to CA for another visit, he asks if we can go to the winery to see the horses.  The experience offers something for all ages as well as non-drinkers.

Second, everyone is very friendly and welcoming. Even when the wine tasting room is crowded, the people pouring the wine welcome me, shake my hand, and generally make me feel like a VIP. Whenever I go back and someone recognizes me from my previous visits, they make me feel like family. It makes me want to go back whenever possible.

Third, they treat their customers like family members. As an example, I opened a couple of bottles of their wine over the weekend that I brought back from CA on my last visit. Unfortunately, the wine had spoiled. It happens sometimes with corked wine. Not a big deal. The other bottles I opened from Longshadow Ranch were in great shape and tasted amazing! I called over to the winery today and one of the owners picked up the phone. Keep in mind that this is a smaller batch vineyard as opposed to Mondavi or Kendall Jackson. She was very nice to me over the phone and we chatted for a few minutes about non wine related stuff as well as the problem I had with the wine. Without even having to ask, she offered to send me two new replacement bottles, which I’ll have shipped and at my door in around a week. No big deal, no need for a long drawn out inquisition, and a friendly common sense solution to something that ultimately was nothing more than a minor inconvenience.

Yes… simple common sense delivered from a friendly voice combined with a spectacular product develops brand evangelists.

UPDATE 1/7/10: Just received my wine today. I’m already thinking about the food I’m going to cook to go with it!

Service Magic has generally been a good source of referrals for us. We’ve used them a couple of times in the past for other services, with generally excellent service from the contractors they have referred.

We moved last week (finally) and the first thing we did was have the carpets cleaned and have a cleaning service to scrub the place down before furniture and boxes were unloaded and unpacked. We used Service Magic to get referrals for a carpet cleaner, and after getting estimates and interviewing several companies we chose Kwik Klean (www.kwikklean.com). We chose that company because we were dealing directly with the owner and figured that he would give us good service since it was his own company. We were very, very wrong.

Immediately upon walking through our home, he wanted to charge us more than the agreed upon price for the small baseement space even though it was a room as part of the quote. After settling on the agreed upon price, Bob began to clean the carpet. My wife was surprised that none of the stains came out, and was disappointed that the carpet looked no better than before the cleaning. When I came home later in the day, it was clear to me that the carpet still appeared dirty.

The carpet in the house isn’t new, so we weren’t expected it to look like new when cleaned, but we were expecting the dirt to cleaned out. It’s been about 10 days, and we used Resolve on a couple of the stains, and the stains immediately came out. My wife called Bob to let him know, and Bob went on the defensive a little but finally agreed to check his schedule to see when he could come back out. At this point, nothing in the conversations were adversarial, but were simply discussions… then came the email.

I don’t care what kind of service business you have, laying into your customer via and email tirade is bad service at its worst.

Updated 9/18 - This issue has been resolved with Bob from Kwik Klean. Follow the comment string and you’ll see it was a complete misunderstanding that was blown out of proportion. Although well within my right to keep the email up, I’ve decided to take it down because everything is resolved.

Here is a great story shared in a humorous way.

http://www.davecarrollmusic.com/story/united-breaks-guitars

In business and in life, it’s not necessarily what things happen, but instead how you react to them. This goes for people as well as companies.

Last week I was on an American Airlines flight from Denver to Chicago. I was wiped out after a 5 day business conference in Colorado Springs, and I was hoping to get home on time so that I could kiss my kids goodnight.

The first sign that something was wrong was when I received the text message alert that the flight was 30 minutes late. By the time I checked in (2 hours before the flight), the delay had already reached 1 hour. After a quick lunch, I planted myself in a cubicle at  the Admirals Club to get some work done. Every 15 minutes, my phone would buzz with another alert telling me the flight was delayed even longer.

Turns out there was a mechanical problem with the plane in Chicago. After trying to fix the plane, they ended up swapping aircraft. Instead of taking off from Denver at 3pm, we ended up leaving from Denver at 8pm. To American’s credit, they did try to accommodate me on another airline, but all of the seats were full.

I didn’t grumble too much (other than a few Tweets), and tried to look at the positive side. I’d rather have a fully functional airplane than a broken one. Also, I did manage to get a ton of work done in the Admirals Club.

Today (less than a week later), I received an unsolicited appology email from American Airlines along with a 5,000 mile frequent flier mileage credit. It’s this type of attention and focus on the customer that keeps me flying with American.

Thank you American Airlines!

Whenever you outsource anything in your business, you lose an apect of control. It’s an inherent risk with outsourcing, which is why chosing a partner is crucial.

I cancelled my Comcast account (triple play - phone, cable, internet) in early December, and switched to AT&T U-Verse due to better pricing along with a more robust product offering.

Part of the cancellation process involves returning the Comcast equipment. I had one cable box with remote and a cable modem to return. Comcast is supposed to send you a couple of boxes via DHL to return the equipment. It’s now been 5 weeks and 4 calls to Comcast, and I still have no boxes.

Last night, I called Comcast for the 4th time and they blamed the problem on DHL, saying that the box order was placed by Comcast and that DHL must have dropped the ball.

Am I frustrated with DHL right now? Well… a little bit, but most I’m mad at Comcast for not taking ownership of the problem and getting me the box so that I can return their equipment.

If DHL really is the problem (the rep wasn’t overly surprised the DHL dropped the ball), why does Comcast outsource to them?

Would you want your brand reputation in the hands of a company that continually damages it?

Yes… As much as I can’t stand United Airlines, I recently flew them again.

My mother-in-law passed away a couple of weeks ago, and we flew out the next day from Chicago to Boston for the funeral. Even though American Airlines (my preference) and United Airlines were the same price, my father in-law had vouchers for United Airlines, so they won.

There was the usual get on the plane, wait, get off the plane, wait, get back on the plane, go the end of the runway, wait some more. This is not what got under my skin though.

It was a horrible week anyway, with the passing of my mother in-law. To make matters worse, my father in-law caught a stomach bug the morning we were flying back. The flight was about 2/3 full. United charges extra for the “preferred” seats like exit rows, etc… My father in-law was the last person on the plane, and they closed the door behind him. As he got to the exit row, he noticed that there were plenty of open exit row seats. He sat down and was quickly told by the flight attendant that those were only for people who paid extra. My wife explained that her mom had just passed away and that my father in-law also wasn’t feeling well and asked if he could just sit there since the seat was otherwise empty.

The flight attendant looked at my wife and father in-law and said “no, go back to your assigned seat.”

All I can say is that this flight attendant acted like a complete jackass, and showed absolutely zero compassion. United Airlines continued to remind me why I do all of my business travel with American Airlines.

I was recently on a business trip to Vegas for a few days. I had been given a gift of $1000 of gift certificates to be spent at Bellagio owned stores, so I was looking forward to seeing what was available.

Unfortunately, the selection of stores was very limited, but I was able to find a counter of Origins products. After confirming with my wife that she wanted Origins products, I started looking around.

As a typical guy, I know absolutely NOTHING about cosmetics, creams, or lotions. When the cosmetic sales guide offered to help me, it was plainly obvious that I didn’t know what I was looking for. After I called my wife to review some of the products with her, the sales guide offered to get on the phone with my wife to find out what she was looking for and make recommendations.

This incrediblly helpful cosmetic sales guide, Ivette Lamboy, spent nearly 20 minutes on the phone with my wife finding out her needs and making recommendations. This went above and beyond the help I’ve ever received at similar types of store in the past. Ivette not only saved me from buying the wrong products, but make my wife and I both feel like valuable clients.

The result was that I ended up buying over $400 worth of products from Origins for my wife, mother in-law, and even a couple of things for myself. Not only is everyone happy with the products, but I’ve told this story about how helpful Ivette was to several people. If you’re ever in Vegas and you use Origins products, visit Ivette at Bellagio.

My wife just came back from eating dinner with friends at Buffalo’s Restaurant in Buffalo Grove, IL. The story she told me shocked me. Here’s the recount of the story…

 Her and her friends were eating dinner when one of them noticed a mouse dart out from in between a couple of booths. They called over the waiter who said “that’s cool.” He then asked them what they would like him to do about it. My wife requested that the waiter tell his manager immediately. When the manager finally came over to their table, he stated “All restaurants have mice whether you see them or not. I can take care of your bill, but there isn’t anything else I can do about it.”

Competely grossed out, my wife and her friends all left.

Is it normal in the restaurant industry to be completely ambivalent to the fact that having mice in restaurants in plain view of customers is not only a threat to public health but is also bad for business? Remember what happened in NY several months ago?

I’m sure that there are still some good employees left at Northwest Airlines, but the ongoing labor battles seem to have taken a toll on the morale and attitudes of the their flight attendants.

 I took a Northwest flight from Chicago to Minneapolis on business a few weeks ago. On the way back, I was in the very last row. This wasn’t really a big deal to me since the flight itself is less than an hour and I had a good book.

As we started to taxi, I started getting dripped on. In fact, everyone in the last two rows was getting soaked. I looked at the flight attendant right behind me and asked her what was pouring out on us and should we be concerned. She replied that it was condensation build-up from the air conditioning. As I looked at the side vents for the last 10 rows of the plane, there were paper towels shoved into the vents. This was not exactly the mechanical fix that gave me confidence in the overall safety of the plane.

 When I asked the same flight attendant if this was a problem only with this plane or the entire fleet of DC-9 planes, she told me that it was a problem with the entire fleet. I asked her if she had ever reported the problem, and she replied that she had never reported it because it’s a problem with all of the planes and wasn’t worth her time to report.

Yikes…. Can’t help but love a flight attendant who takes such pride in her company. Do you think Northwest Airlines has some serious problems?