A few of our team members recently sat in on a webinar co-hosted by Peter Shankman and Cision, a Geben client. Thanks to account manager Rose Finnerty for compiling this list of lessons learned!
Zombies eat brains. As a result, they create more zombies. Easy enough to understand, right?
If you’re not familiar, this is the basic principal behind Peter Shankman‘s newest book, “Zombie Loyalists: Using Great Service to Create Rabid Fans.”
But instead of giving gory advice on how to create more brain-eating, Walking Dead-esque monsters, he details how companies can use excellent customer service to create extremely loyal advocates, also known as “Zombie Loyalists.” When these Zombie Loyalists feed on their positive experience, they’re more likely to spread the word about brands they love, creating more loyalists on their behalf.
Peter recently teamed up with Cision for a webinar giving the down-and-dirty version of his book. Here are some of my favorite tweetable takeaways:
- Stop focusing on driving social media “likes” and start focusing on things that make your company like-able. (Tweet this!)
- No one will believe how great your company is if you’re the one to tell them. Create loyalists to do it for you. (Tweet this!)
- There is no better lover than a former hater. Owning mistakes and quickly fixing them can create loyalists. (Tweet this!)
- Good, or even just above-average, customer service goes a long way in creating loyal customers. (Tweet this!)
- 88% of CEOs think they provide amazing customer service. Only 8% of customers think the same thing. (Tweet this!)
- Turning your current customers into brand advocates is more cost-effective than going after new customers. (Tweet this!)
- Make customer service a company-wide goal, from the CEO to salespeople … not just in the customer service department. (Tweet this!)
- Don’t talk at your customers, talk to them – ask how they like to get their information and then give it to them that way. (Tweet this!)
- You can’t have loyal customers without loyal employees. Making them happy and teaching them to smile is very important. (Tweet this!)
- You need to allow employees to break the rules occasionally if it benefits the customer. (Tweet this!)
Last but not least, give zombies what they want – BRAINS (Bring Random Amazingness Into Normal Situations).
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Photo credit: ZombieLoyalists.com