Great Customer Service Is Worth Its Weight In Gold

By Sean Cashman, Senior Account Director

Everyone knows the clichés. “We pride ourselves on our customer service.”  “People are much more likely to tell their friends and family about a bad experience than a positive one.”  The experience prospects have when interacting with businesses certainly has an effect on reputation and perception within their group of friends and family, but what about when the experiences are published for all to see instantly?

The goal of all search engines is to provide the user with the most accurate results for queries so that the inquiry can be “solved” within a single click. Google and Bing have advanced that cause with the integration and emphasis on social media and online reputation as factors in how they judge and rank websites.  This quarter Bing expanded its integration of Facebook by adding “likes” and recommendations from friends and strangers into search results.  Bing also plans to incorporate Facebook posts from brands being searched for to alert browsers of any new deals.  Never to be outdone, Google has deployed its “+1” initiative, which is a voting system that shows what websites your online network place value in right in the search results.  The web has always been “word of mouth” on steroids, but how others perceive your business will now affect whether they even navigate to your page.

The fact that a few bad experiences can have an immediate effect on your online reputation can be a bit intimidating, but don’t sweat it!   Now more than ever great customer service can have a major impact on your search engine presence.  Ensure that you are using social media channels effectively to gain the most from this impact.  Optimize the properties for search engine rankings, and use them to inform, interact and serve as a thought leadership platform for your clients and prospects.  Add that to an already stellar offline customer service program and you will be reaping the benefits online like never before!