Business Ethics

An article in AdAge this week about how AT&T plans to lift its image via social media “customer care” inspired us to share our own experiences with brands that use social media-as-customer-service (and do it right). As a business or brand venturing into social media, one of the most common mistakes one can make is set up the Twitter, Facebook, etc. accounts, post a few times, garner a few followers or fans, then maintain “radio silence.” The brands that we would qualify as “social media pros” use the medium not only for promotion and marketing, but also for customer service and brand loyalty.

One recent example: A friend spent a weekend at a Westin (Starwood) Hotel in Washington, DC, and returned from his trip with some unwanted “visitors” – dust mites that not only caused an awful rash that sent him to the doctor for treatment, but he also had to disinfect his clothing, bedding, luggage, and most of his home. When he called the hotel’s customer service department, they “opened a ticket” and finally responded to him (after several phone calls) that the room in which he stayed was indeed infested with dust mites. The offered compensation? Starwood Hotel points. When my friend hung up the phone, he Tweeted to his 1,000+ followers about his experience and his dissatisfaction with the resolution. In turn, several of his followers re-Tweeted his comment and shared it on Facebook. Within about 30 minutes, he was contacted by a staffer at Starwood responsible for customer care via its Twitter page (www.twitter.com/starwoodbuzz), an email exchange followed, and he was reimbursed for his entire stay as a result. He shared that information via his social media channels as well. Our grade? “C-” for initial phone customer service contact, but an “A” for follow-up effort via Twitter and Starwood’s customer care social media staff.

A few weeks ago after lunch, I Tweeted that I was dismayed to discover Central Market didn’t carry Sparkling Lime IZZE (my favorite IZZE flavor). Literally, within about four minutes, www.twitter.com/izzetasteagents were following me on Twitter and two weeks later, my favorite supermarket/lunch haven now carries my favorite IZZE beverage. Grade? “A++” for immediacy, responsiveness, and brand loyalty incentive. Clearly, the “taste agents” are on top of their game and since one-third of Twitter users talk brands, companies have to know what’s being said about their brand (and respond!).

Other top contenders for social media customer care:

Wachovia – www.twitter.com/wachovia, ranks “A” for customer responsiveness on Twitter, but also uses the social media channel to disseminate customer information.

Zappos – www.twitter.com/zappos, online shoe retailer (admitting to a little bias with my own love of shoes), but more than 1 and a half million followers can’t be wrong, can they?

Sephora – www.twitter.com/sephora, ranks an “A” or higher for sheer consistency and number of Tweets, lack of re-Tweeting, and sharing links relevant to its customer base.

Starbucks - www.twitter.com/starbucks, (I know, I know…we’re trying to “drink local” too). Interestingly, the coffee conglomerate has fewer followers on Twitter than Zappos and many other companies (less than 1 million), but we give them a “B+” for customer engagement via contests and other “follower only” promotions.

Whole Foods – www.twitter.com/wholefoods, Tweeting from its global HQ right here in Austin, TX. More than 1.7 million followers reading Tweets about healthy eating and in-store promotions (how else would I  have heard organic cherries were on mega-sale last weekend?), but this primary account is used to respond to Twitter users, followers or not, Tweeting about their Whole Foods experience. “A++” for responsiveness (to both negative and positive comments)!

There are many that rank high on the social media customer care index – www.twitter.com/coach, www.twitter.com/harleydavidson, www.twitter.com/gap, www.twitter.com/burberry, www.twitter.com/jetblue, www.twitter.com/HRBlock, and www.twitter.com/RedCross, among others. The reason?

They know “the four Rs” of customer service via social media: reviewing, responding, recording, and redirecting.

They also understand customer engagement, the immediacy of the social media environment, and the power of social media networks. We’ll be keeping an eye on AT&T’s new customer care initiative (considering the sheer number of mentions they have on social networks – more than 10,000 – in a 24-hour period) just to see if and how high they’re going to set the bar for large companies and “social care teams.”

If your company or brand is ready to dip a toe in the waters of social media, we’re here to help with anything from consulting to managing social media campaigns, monitoring, tracking, and responding. Contact us with any questions!

Facebook has sued Sanford “Spamford” Wallace for allegedly spamming members by flooding their Facebook walls with posts that appear to have come from their friends.

In a complaint filed last week in federal district court in the northern district of California, the social

networking site alleges that Wallace and two others ran a scheme that involved creating Facebook accounts, tricking members into providing their passwords, and then impersonating them to send messages to their friends. Wallace and the others allegedly began the enterprise last November. (source: mediapost)

The advances in spam have made it difficult for content publishers, marketers and every legitimate business to effectively use the web for marketing. Under the CAN-SPAM law, the feds are taking an agressive approach to the spammers. Unfortunately, it is difficult to trace them and even more difficult to get any damages from them.

We believe in email marketing when reaching out to those that have “opted in” to our messages. I personally receive some great online coupons and alerts via email that have become great marketing tools for call to action and direct response from me. So that these marketing tools maintain their efficacy, it is up to all of us to fight spam and other shady marketing efforts I’ve seen.

How spam is destroying Email as a communication tool

The start of February saw Internet spam levels rise to as high as 79.5 percent of all e-mail messages due to a spike in botnet activity and spammers leveraging the financial crisis and Valentine’s Day, according to MessageLabs.

My love/hate relationship with email boiled to the surface in this April 2008 post about the fact that email is no longer the best way to reach me or communicate with me. My email box receives an average of 46 emails every hour. If I stayed on top of incoming emails, it would be my only full time job! People I do business with know now that calling me or texting me is the best way to get a more prompt reply.

But, that’s another story altogether.

Accepting a new job is often an exciting opportunity to grow your career, increase your personal income and add more responsibilities to the experience heading of your resume. After you accept your new position there is the matter of giving notice to your current employer. This part always causes me anxiety.

Depending on your level in an organization, the circumstances of your departure, and perhaps the status of projects you may be working on, you may wind up negotiating your end date as much as you negotiate for a new salary at a new position. It is important to give notice the right way. No matter what your experience was at the company, burning bridges for the sake of burning bridges is not advisable. There is an old saying, “The toes you step on today are the butts you have to kiss tomorrow.” In my career, I’ve seen many people eating a lot of crow for just this type of bad behavior.

I’ll go over two main points when giving notice. 1.) How to give notice or submit your resignation and 2.) How to approach the “exit interview.”

1. Submitting a letter of resignation

Resigning can be an emotional decision. Even if you are leaving a position you hated and landed a new position that feels like you won the lottery, that’s an emotion. Some people feel guilty about resigning from a position. They feel a sense of loyalty to their boss or employer. I think a healthy amount of loyalty is a good thing, but it stems from job satisfaction…not guilt. Business is business and a resignation is just a business transaction.

First, prepare your letter of resignation. A letter of resignation should probably not exceed two sentences. Save any gushing praise, heartfelt sentiments, or “take this job and shove it” conveyances for your in-person exit interview. Here’s an example of a letter of resignation:

Dear Martin,

This letter is to serve as my intent to resign my position effective November 2, 2007, providing a two-week notice period. Thank you for the opportunity here at XYZ, and I wish you great success in your future endeavors.

Regards,

When you sit down with your boss you will have the opportunity to discuss your departure. This is where you can say, “I appreciate all you’ve done for me,” “I just feel that it isn’t a good fit here for me,” or “I’m moving to be near my parents.” None of that should be in your letter of resignation.

Now that you have resigned, don’t gloat. If the place was misery for you don’t hold it over everyone else’s heads that you “took the last helicopter out of Hanoi.” Also, don’t stop working the day you provide your notice. If you are going to work for a competitor, I strongly advise employers to walk an employee out the door immediately. No matter how much mutual affection there is between employee and employer if you are going to work for a competitor…today is your last day here. That’s just business. If you are a high level employee, some companies request a 30 day notice so that they may wrap up projects and begin a national search for your replacement. Everyone agrees staying for 30 days after you give notice is excruciating, focus on the work you have to get done and you may get an early exit.

If you provide notice and your employer accepts that notice, they should pay you for the notice period. For example, let’s say you give a two week notice and your employer says you can leave after three of those days. You should expect payment for the two weeks. You may need to get that in writing when you give your letter of resignation. On the other hand, in the State of Texas, your employer is not required to accept a notice period. In that case, you will not be paid for your notice period. Check out your state employment laws if this is a great concern for you.

Giving the notice in the right way helps you leave an organization with a good reputation. One that comes in handy as you begin your next search.

2. How to approach the “exit interview.”

Most companies these days will ask you either formally or informally to provide some feedback on why you are leaving. This is your opportunity to be honest about things you believe could improve in your current work environment. It is not a license to verbally attack the company or its employees.

If you are leaving because of work environment, try to position your statements with such things as, “I believe I thrive in a work environment that provides me with…, and I found that with a new employer.” [Translation: Whatever I just said that new company has, the current company does not. They'll notice.] If you are leaving because your boss is a tyrant, try “I felt my boss’ style of management wasn’t motivating me to perform in a way that was in the best interest of the company or my career.” [Translation: I'm leaving because of my manager]

You can say these things without creating controversy just by altering your delivery. Remember, walking out with a flamethrower on your back may feel good, but such behavior always comes back to bite you.

The number one reason people quit their job is because of a bad boss. Whether it is lack of praise, respect or tyranny management should work on management skills. Other reasons people leave almost always come back to management in one way or another. Here are a few other reasons people leave:

• “Not knowing what is expected of me” is a popular answer. If you do not know what is expected it is hard to meet expectations!
• Unrealistic expectations of management. Being set up to fail is a horrible position to be in, make sure goals are realistic.
• Lack of respect for employee contribution, praise for good work and positive work environment.
• More money is remarkably low on the list.

Quitting your job can lead to positive career growth and exciting new opportunities, however, when you do quit it is important to do it the right way. I once had an employee quit a job via text message to my cell phone. Needless to say, I marked their file “Not eligible for re-hire” and any time a potential employer called for a reference we answered within the guidelines with “This person is not eligible for re-hire,” which is a strong negative signal to any future employer.

Good luck with your new job! Enjoy the future, but don’t create a new future while destroying your past.

If you have questions about this topic or other business questions, email me at the address in the top left box.

Much has been written and said about how blogs can get your fired. The only thing I have to add to that discussion is that I agree, kind of. If you write about company secrets or the annoying co-worker or how much you hate your job, then you pretty much deserve what you get. However, if you write about what you do on your free time I’m a little less supportive of the corporate overlord determining that you’ve violated some unspoken morals clause in your employment.

That being said, your online life is not only going to get you fired it can also prevent you from getting the job in the first place. When I see a resume from a candidate I like, the first things I do are search MySpace and Facebook and Google for your name, your email and your school. If I find your MySpace page offensive or in poor taste, you aren’t getting an interview.

I’m also looking at your email address. It amazes me that I still see professional email addresses like “Iluvbutt@aol.com.” This one had to be my all-time favorite. A candidate was applying for a marketing position and before I could help myself, I replied to his email resume submission with: “What a coincidence! I love butts, too! However, that’s the kind of thing we don’t usually share with co-workers so I don’t think you’re a good fit for our company.”

It’s impossible to stay away from all of the fun on the Internet and you shouldn’t have to just to land (or keep) a job. Here are a few tips to avoid the pitfalls of your online life killing your career:

1. Make your MySpace page private right now. Delete “friends” that you don’t personally know. Don’t accept friend invitations from people that you don’t know…they could be someone at a company you’re trying to get hired on with looking to see your profile. Ditto with Facebook, and every other nerd-a-licious social networking site.
2. Don’t post inappropriate photos online. Ever. Even in your private MySpace pages. A right-click, save as will have them around the world in two minutes.
3. Create separate email addresses for social use and business use. Don’t mix them up. With the free email programs out there, there is no reason to not have yourname@gmail.com to have business conversations.
4. If you must blog, keep your name and email out of it. Even on a blog like this, I’ve created a special email address.
5. Don’t IM friends from work about how drunk you’re going to get this weekend. Those IM’s are the property of your employer and they can view the transcript any time they want. It may not get you fired, but it certainly won’t impress the boss.

Blogs and MySpace are important tools (arguably) for social interaction among friends and peers and while we shouldn’t be afraid of them, we should use good judgment.

If you have questions about this topic or other business questions, email me at the address in the top left box.

There are a lot of times when I wish business was just business. I naively thought that when I went to work, all I had to do was a good job and I would get promoted and recognized for my efforts and then I would go home and be content with completing yet another day. How wrong I was.

To succeed in business you have to do things that you both don’t want to do and don’t know how to do. Learning on the job is not always fast enough. If you want to truly succeed in business you have to be willing to step outside your comfort zone. For me, that meant grabbing a beer with the sales guys in a strip club, playing golf all afternoon and smoking cigars in the club afterwards and even the occasional dinner with what may or may not have been lesbian hookers as guests of my clients.

Even though sometimes events are outside of my comfort zone, they aren’t necessarily unethical or immoral in my view. So, I go. Otherwise, I get left completely out of the loop and might as well join the secretarial pool and give up any chance of a promotion. Do I have to pretend I’m enjoying a buffet dinner while strippers shake it over my salad? No. But, I did manage to close a deal before I left the club.

How to behave in these “social” situations in a business setting isn’t something they teach in business school and, these are things I couldn’t exactly turn to dad about. There are a few things my father did teach me that have stood as my main rules for conducting business in social situations. I call these my core values.

Business is as much hard work and good results in the office as it is social skills. People do business with people they like. When you are building a career, don’t forget to spend time learning and improving your people skills at the same time. Some companies will pay for Dale Carnegie classes. Check with your manager to see if your company offers these or other networking and management training. Your boss may appreciate your initiative, too. If not, seek out those that are successful and ask them to mentor you.