Social Customer Care: Why Marketers Should Care

Wondering how social customer care improves your marketing results? Want tips for acquiring and retaining customers?

To explore why marketers should care about taking care of customers, I interview Shep Hyken.
More About This Show
The Social Media Marketing podcast is designed to help busy marketers, business owners, and creators discover what works with social media marketing.

In this episode, I interview Shep Hyken, a customer service and experience expert. He's also a professional speaker and author of multiple books including The Amazement Revolution, Amaze Every Customer Every Time, and The Convenience Revolution. His course is called The Customer Focus, and he hosts The Amazing Business Radio Show podcast.

Shep explains how small- to medium-sized businesses can offer reactive and proactive customer care.

You'll also discover how humor and convenience help both marketing and customer care.

Share your feedback, read the show notes, and get the links mentioned in this episode below.
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Here are some of the things you'll discover in this show:
Social Customer Care
Shep's Story
Shep got his start in customer care when he was about 12 years old. He had a business doing magic shows for birthday parties. After doing a show for a 6-year-old's party, Shep's parents offered his first lesson in customer service. His mom told him to write a thank-you note, and his dad suggested he call the family to ask what tricks they liked and improve his show based on their feedback.

When Shep was 16, he bought an old Jeep with a snow plow and started a plowing business. When his Jeep wouldn't start at 4:00AM after a heavy snow, he couldn't plow his customers' driveways. He asked a friend with a newer truck and plow for help, and offered him all the money. That's when Shep realized he was most interested in taking care of customers.

After college, Shep continued to develop his interest in customer service, and today he's focused on helping his clients achieve amazing customer experiences. He teaches people common-sense approaches that simplify customer service and improve company culture. He also travels around the world delivering speeches, and his team includes trainers who deliver his material, as well.

Listen to the show to hear Shep discuss his experiences attending and speaking at Social Media Marketing World.
Why Customer Care Is Important to Marketers
Typically, marketers acquire the customer and then let someone else handle customer service. However, acquiring new customers costs more than keeping existing ones. As a marketer, you can benefit from these savings by giving existing customers a reason to share positive things about your company, product, or service.

In doing so, you create disciples, advocates, and evangelists who praise your company. Whether your business is B2B or B2C, people talk about the people they do business with, good and bad. The best marketing you can have is existing customers who tell others about their great experiences.

Using customer care to turn existing customers into brand advocates is different than using a promotion or incentive that gets people to share. When customer care becomes part of your marketing, you're focused on making sure the customer is completely satisfied so they become return customers and want to tell everyone about your company.

A byproduct of providing this level of customer service is that your company stands out as different from the rest. Being different is great because your company is then no longer competing head-to-head with the same product or service. That's a powerful place to be in the marketing world.

Listen to the show to hear how I work with my team to make Social Media Marketing World an exceptional experience.
What Is Social Customer Care?
Social customer care is the actual service customers have with companies through social media channels. You no longer have to pick up the phone and call a company...