I’m currently reading a book called “The Whuffie Factor” by Tara Hunt. As best as I can tell, whuffie is social capital. If you are part of an online community such as Twitter or LinkedIn and you contribute to the community, you have whuffie. Whuffie is established by being “trustworthy, nice, networked and notable” according to a video by Tara Hunt at www.whuffiefactor.com.
I decided to read this book because I’m trying to make sense of the value of social networking so I can explain that value to my clients and students. I saw “The Whuffie Factor” at the store and I decided to purchase it to enhance my knowledge of social networking. Having been in business for more than 10 years I’m always exploring new avenues for sales and marketing, and in the last few years social networking has been thrown into the mix.
Having said all that, I’m a skeptic.
I always wonder if businesspeople that participate in social networking should be doing something else instead. For example: calling a client or prospect and saying hello. Do you know that the person that sold me my Honda Odyssey mini-van has never called to ask me how things are going? Dear Honda salesperson that sold me my car, I’m seeing another salesperson on the side and I suspect I’ll shortly be buying a new Honda. You should have done a little social networking with me.
But now let me talk to you about page 146 of “The Whuffie Factor” and outline why I truly believe that many social networkers are way off base.
Tara Hunt describes a company that uses an online tool to help reduce the number of customer service calls and emails they get. This issue was that their customer service representatives had to answer the same questions over and over again and it appears to be very time consuming.
So this is what I’m thinking after I read this part of the book: a company has a client calling and the customer service reps are annoyed by the clients question because it has been asked repeatedly by other clients. Keep in mind that the client asking the question has embarked on a social networking experience with the customer service representative, and the rep is already upset because they’ve been asked those questions too many times. I suspect the client doesn’t know that question has been asked a million times and even if they did why should they care. They are calling to ask a valid question.
In my opinion, this is where some people have been blinded by social networking. This company had a client (which they should be thankful for) call and ask a question. Instead of looking at it as a great way to cement a relationship with an existing client by providing warm and courteous customer service, they opted to avoid the client by using a neat online tool.
Their decision to be antisocial with their clients has freed up a lot more time to do social networking to get more new clients with which they can be antisocial in the future. Does this really build business? Do you see what I mean by being blinded by social networking?
In fairness to Tara Hunt, this is the third book I’ve read about social networking and I fear she has been the victim of my skepticism. Her book makes valid points that should be weighed carefully and measured against all of your current sales, marketing and customer service needs. My fear is that people forget about old fashioned customer service and replace it with social networking, thinking it is the easy way out.
Thanks for this. I don’t know about page 146, but I do know that I would never advocate for a company writing off human contact (or the chance to actually take the intelligence from repeated complaints about a specific issue with their product to improve that product). And I’ll have to re-read it (I wrote that over 2 years ago now), but I don’t believe I described the company as being annoyed! Totally not my style.
I completely disagree with replacing customer service with anything, let alone social networking (in fact, much of my more recent work speaks out against using SN’s as a tool at all – TWF was written before everyone jumped on the bandwagon and did a bad job of it).
Customer service is the most important part of any business IMO.
Tony,
I totally agree. Seems like people are hyping social media to create an industry that they can then sell, tutor, supervise, and manage new clients that begin to feel left out. Twitter is nothing but noise. Facebook, which is great for keeping in touch (and re-connecting) with friends and relatives, has become distracting with companies and brands pitching you. Its kinda like being at a cookout and having a guy walking around trying to sell everyone insurance.
Also the time factor is huge, I have seem many spend countless hours pitching the same 200 people – half of which only log in once a month, rather than put that effort elsewhere. I myself am guilty, but realize people don’t want to be sold stuff 24/7 and time and energy is better spent elsewhere.
The internet itself is like a giant tick that sucks the time from you. I am beginning to unplug. No more e-mail on my phone. Trying to stay away from the computer over the weekend, and soon will stop commenting on Blog postings.
Print this and frame it Tony – it may be my last
Russell