If you don’t know what people are saying about your company, you may be at a disadvantage. What’s one way to find out? Blogs.

The blog is a phenomenon that has truly changed the way people communicate on the Internet. Some blogs, like this one, simply disseminate useful information. Some blogs are personal and include pictures from the last family picnic. But some blogs foster public opinion and can spread information about your company faster than the speed of light. And it’s quite difficult to change perceptions once the information is out there for the world to see.

Monitoring blogs and blog forums, therefore, is an essential marketing task. As well, participating in the right blogs can go a long way in creating the best customer experience.

Here are several steps you can take:
1) Determine your monitoring goals: Get started by staying focused on one area. When you become more adept, you can grow your monitoring objectives.
2) Pick two or three keywords from your web site: Determine the keywords and tags used on your web site. Ask your tech person if you don’t know, or go to www.iwebtool.com/metatags_extractor to find out what keywords your web site uses to position itself. Nothing there? That’s another problem you’ll need to fix.
3) Set up a daily Google Alert: This useful little tool will send you an email every time your product or brand name is mentioned.
4) Visit www.BlogPulse.com, offering a free conversation tracker and other cool components that lets you learn more about a particular blogger if that person is indexed.
5) Visit www.BoardTracker.com for a tool that allows you to search through discussion boards and forums for free.

Blog monitoring is only the first step in a series of moves designed to help you engage with your customers. By paying attention to what is being said about your company and participating in community discussions, you have the opportunity to create a positive atmosphere, and provide the kind of holistic customer experience today’s savvy customers seek.

What is the point of interesting research that cannot be put to good use? Unfortunately, most marketing research is not very useful. It doesn’t help the customer, who may answer surveys with the best of intentions without ever knowing whether her opinion has made a difference. And it doesn’t help district and store managers, who can’t make enough sense out of the numbers to effect any real change.

Here are some questions to consider:

• Is it possible to gather research that aligns with the realities of the front line and with financial objectives?
• Can retailers provide managers with research they can accept wholly, instead of picking and choosing the numbers they’ll accept and the ones they’ll disregard?
• Why do companies continue to order large-scale surveys in an effort to measure their success and guide decision making?
• Is it wise to let go of graphs and charts to focus on the customer’s voice?

All customer research relies on customer goodwill. But if the majority of customers refuse to participate in research, what important opinions could be missing from the study, and what does their silence say about their opinions?

The most useful research tells district and store managers what they most want to know, but often never get the chance to find out. It’s not only about gathering information. It’s about providing momentum. In order to create the kind of research that can truly be used, the research process itself must be viewed as just one of the many tools for change at the disposal of senior management.

Imagine the chaos that could ensue from trying to implement every suggestion your customers make. Sure, some of the ideas would be useful, but many simply wouldn’t fit with your company objectives or might require resources beyond your means.

These are just a few of the reasons why most companies shy away from the idea of a customer advisory as a way to develop a more customer focused organization. But what more important audience is there than your own customers?

While planning and implement a customer advisory program can seem like an overwhelming project, carefully charting your objectives and approaching the task under the direction of an experienced project leader can ease the pain of getting started.

Some of the questions companies fear when implementing a program include:
1) What happens when a customer-led discussion becomes a negative free-for-all, with customers simply using the time to complain?
2) How do we keep the program fresh year after year?
3) What if we can’t pursue the ideas our customers suggest?

There is not enough space here to fully answer these questions. Suffice to say there are some excellent ways to diffuse an atmosphere of negativity and keep your program on track. This is where the help of an experienced moderator comes in. And this is why it is so important to commit to the success of the program over the long haul to truly measure its success and reach your customer advisory program goals.

In Part 1 of this discussion, we discussed three excellent ways to sooth the angry customer and hopefully retain their loyalty. Handled properly, this is entirely possible. Now let’s continue on with several more ways:

1) Empower your Employees.
Often employees do not know what they are allowed to do to help the customer. They may feel obligated to pass the complaint on to their supervisor. But what if the supervisor is not available? This leaves the employee with no recourse to assist when the customer is most angry or unhappy. It means that customer may walk away from your store, perhaps forever, and worse yet might tell everyone they know about their experience. When planning your customer satisfaction policies, leave some wiggle room for frontline employees to soothe ruffled feathers before having to call in the higher-ups.

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No matter how well you run your business, at some point in time someone will become unhappy. It’s just a fact of life. It’s not important that a customer is dissatisfied. What is important is how you handle it. Your process for assisting in and resolving customer issues will form the basis for public perception of your company, and this is why it is vital to handle it correctly.

First, you should know that the customer will be measuring your level of sincerity in settling their complaint. And don’t think they won’t be able to tell right away if your efforts are half-hearted. They can.

Fortunately, there are several excellent steps you can take. We’ll talk about a few here, but be sure to follow along to Part 2 for the finale.

1) Plan your customer experience recovery the way you would plan for an IT disaster.
What does this mean? Well, no doubt your company has an elaborate safety plan in the event of a system-wide computer crash, security breach, or other IT disaster. This took forethought, planning, perhaps consultation with experts. No less effort should go into your policies for dealing with dissatisfied customers.

2) Immediately apologize.
If you’ve ever been on the complaining end of the stick, you know how infuriating it can be to encounter an employee who makes the problem seem like your fault, or who claims it isn’t her area of responsibility. At the very moment when your ire is most aroused, this is the last thing you want to hear. So train every employee from top to bottom to say those two little words before they say anything else: “I’m sorry.” And teach them how to sound like they actually mean it.

3) Be a human.
Many companies are so wrapped up in procedure, they forget to simply be a human when dealing with human customers. Empathy is crucial. Put yourself in your customer’s shoes. Listen. Try to understand what has made them angry or unhappy. If customers perceive they are being maneuvered in some way, you’ve already lost out.

So far, we’ve looked at three important ways to begin the process of gaining back customer loyalty. We’ve learned the importance of sincerely apologizing to customers and doing what you can to get back on track. Remember, your customers do keep score of your actions, and they do tell their friends and, in some cases, the world via the Internet.

What other steps can you take to solve the dilemma of the disappointed customer?

The Neilsen Company recently completed a study entitled ‘Shopper Modality’ which studied the ‘body language’, or shopping modes, consumers adopt as they make specific purchases.

To better understand the scope of this study, think about the last time you shopped for groceries. Were you in a rush? Did you have other things on your mind? If so, you likely found yourself in what Neilson calls the ‘grab and go’ or auto-pilot state of mind, where you simply purchased the brands you’ve used in the past without forethought, price comparison, or other considerations.

As a marketer, your job is to disrupt this auto pilot mindset by forcing shoppers to reevaluate the decisions that lead them to purchasing the same brand repeatedly for no reason other than familiar packaging. Neilsen calls these well-planned interruptions ‘Delta Moments’. These can be applied differently to various categories of products. For example, grocery store shoppers purchasing coffee or butter will often grab-and-go, and are not likely to change brands readily, but those purchasing energy drinks might be open to advertising that engages and affects the buying decision. This would then be a good category in which to spend advertising dollars. At a retail clothing store, the same principles could be applied. Staple clothing items are likely purchased by brand familiarity, (“I love these bras. I would never switch to another brand.”), whereas customers investigating a new fragrance would be highly accepting of and even expect exciting advertisements, purchase inducements, and packaging.

When it comes to the customer experience, Neilsen’s study makes it apparent that even shopper body language must be taken into account when designing the ultimate customer experience.