in the news
Got a couple of nice mentions recently. I’m fairly self-effacing about this sort of thing, but anyway they give an indication of what we’re currently trying to do at Carphone Warehouse to not only go where our customers are, but also to engage with them in a relevant way using the same platforms that they use.
Here’s an interview I did with Graham Charlton of Econsultancy.com fairly soon after joining Carphone Warehouse about online customer service.
Carphone Warehouse Twitters its way to customer service by Leon Benjamin, who I had the pleasure to work with for a very brief spell. This is about taking a leap of faith.
Carphone Warehouse on Twitter: Service with a Virtual Smile by Anjali Ramachandran. This is about one person’s experience of how a problem was resolved via Twitter.
When Skittles met Twitter by Kerry Cappell [Business Week]: ‘A bold social media marketing experiment on the Mars brand’s home page prompted a lively debate at the fourth annual Social Media Conference.
‘With social media constantly evolving, it will be some time before companies figure out how to fully exploit its potential. Early adopters such as Guy Stephens, knowledge engineer for Carphone Warehouse, describe it as just another tool that a brand might use to engage with customers. “Understanding what motivates your customer and trying to meet that need is still key, regardless of whether you use Twitter, Facebook, e-mail, or pick up the phone,” he blogs. ’
Carphone Warehouse – another example of a retailer using Twitter by Sarah Clelland [Snow Valley] …As well as posting ideas about online customer management, Guy is actively seeking out people on Twitter that are talking about Carphone Warehouse. He then contacts them and offers his support…
Carphone Warehouse signs up to Plebble by Will Patterson, co-founder of plebble.com:
“Last week Carphone Warehouse signed up to Plebble. Not only was it great to see another brand sign up but more importantly a brand which has such a poor service reputation. I met Guy Stephens, the man behind Carphone Warehouse’s move. He is the online help manager at Carphone and is doing a great job engaging with his customers. Guy is not only looking at Plebble but at other forums where he can engage with customers and resolve their issues. He is actively using Twitter to do this, check out his Twitter profile to see all the hard work he is doing.”
What UK retailers are doing on Twitter, article in Retail Week giving examples of how various retailers are using Twitter, including how I use it at Carphone Warehouse. This article also includes the following illustration - Twitter for Retailers: A beginner’s guide.
Confessions of a corporate tweeter, guest post I wrote for the Econsultancy blog. It gives some insight into how I am set-up on Twitter. Seems to have been well received by readers thankfully. Here’s a post from Paul Wilkinson on his blog picking up some of the themes from the article.
#PRWIN – Carphone Warehouse gets social, post by Jon Wilkins on PR Media Blog, about his ‘social media’ customer service experience with Carphone Warehouse. Jon comments: CPW has certainly upped its game and not only is social media enabling the company to solve customer hassles, it’s starting the process of creating brand evangelists online. How valuable is that?!
I was invited to be a panellist on the Twitter Demystified session at Internet World 2009. Here’s an article by Linus Gregoriadis of Econsultancy summarising the event – Experts demystify Twitter.
Here’s a link to an article I recently wrote for Econsultancy’s blog – When Twitter met Yammer. In the blog I share my insights on whether there is a point at which Twitter (where our customers are) and Yammer (where our customer service agents are) come together in the provision of customer service.
Here’s a link to a cover story I appeared in on social networking and online communities by Scott Thompson of Retail Systems – You snooze, you lose.
Here’s an interview I did with Lance Concannon of Immediate Future, the online PR agency, about how The Carphone Warehouse uses Twitter for customer service. The following is a summary by Richard Young of some of the key points from the interview from another blog post – Carphone Warehouse’s Twitter Strategy.
I’ve also been fortunate enough to be asked to be on the panel and to speak at the following events: Retail Systems conference (September 09), Internet Retailing conference (October 09) and Econsultancy’s Online Marketing Masterclass (November 09).
I’ve also started up a group on LinkedIn – where social media meets online customer service. I started the group because, although the space was seeing a lot of activity, I couldn’t really find very much on the subject to read about in one place. The aim of the group is simply: To provide a space where ideas, observations, insights and opinion can be openly shared about how social media is changing and challenging how online customer service and help and support is or will be.
