I gotta give cwedit credit where it's due. I love it when companies use the tools of the trade to listen to their customers.
In a previous post I announced some of the new apps LinkedIn made available this week for LinkedIn user profiles. I listed some of my favorites. One of them being the BlogLink app. from Typepad. It's a small little widget that lets you show posts from your own blog on LinkedIn and, in another window, it shows, too, recent blog posts from others in your LinkedIn network.
Joining the ranks of early adopters, I clicked the install button for BlogLink. When the installation didn't produce the desired results, I didn't think too much about it. I figured I would just let it "bake in" a while and come back to it later.
In the meantime, I tweeted the experience on Twitter.
Satisfaction in an hour.
That was at 2:36 p.m. on October 30.
At 3:36 p.m., same day, I get an e-mail from @miz_ginevra, Typepad community manager. Turns out, she was listening to the community... She's asking questions and finding out how she can help.
First thing that popped into my head was, "?...!"
The next thing was, "!?"
Now, I don't know about you but I think that rawks.
I give Typepad--and their community managers-- two thumbs up for being johnny-on-the-spot with that one.
One thing led to another. A ticket was generated, a team responded, the issue was escalated, and the whole thing was fixed before I was even in bed that night; all was right with the world again.
(I wonder if B of A customers can say the same thing with their bank's response to customer feedback? BofA, if you're listening, you gotta read about @chrisbrogan's recent experience.)
The main point.
Whether you represent an organization, a department, a product line or an independent contractor such as yourself, it's worth following Typepad's lead and putting an ear to the data stream.
In this day and age, it's almost inexcusable not to do so as it speaks to an ignorance of tools that are widely available--many of which are free.
If you haven't set up a listening post yet, click here to read about Jacob Morgan's post about using Google Alerts to keep an ear to the stream.
Now, based on recent experience, and the large user base in the Twitterverse, I might also add another listening post using the RSS feed on Twitter search. (If you know of a link to a "how to" for setting up a feed from twitter search, please share it in the comments or the trackback section below. In addition to helping "pay it forward," it'll also save me from having to write one up.) ;-)
The final word goes to the Typepad team. Well done!
