Business | Justin Levy

Determining Social Media ROI

October 12, 2009 By Justin Levy 20 Comments

A few weeks before the Inbound Marketing Summit took place, Chris Penn and I were discussing what he should speak about. Of that discussion came the decision to do the presentation on how to determine the ROI of social media. Figuring out social media ROI continues to be a very hot topic not only for the social media geeks but also for big brands that want to determine success measurements of their investment into the space.

Outside of this conversation I had been bugging Chris to analyze my restaurant, Caminito Argentinean Steakhouse, for some time now. Other case studies have focused on what we’ve done but not tearing apart the metrics. Chris is a genuis at analysis and analytics. So, I really wanted him to expand my knowledge and ability Google Analytics and other tools to properly analyze our efforts at the steakhouse and determine our ROI. For those that don’t know, approximately 1.5 years ago we cut out 80% of our traditional marketing budget and turned our focus to our website, SEO, social media and other digital initiatives as a way to drive sales. Surprise, surprise, it worked. Since then we have seen a minimum of 20% increase in sales when comparing the same month the previous year. But, one thing we never did was break out and track those individual efforts between the website, social media, and other areas we were spending our time online.

As part of his presentation Chris asked if he could use the restaurant as an example and do an analysis of our ROI. What Chris found, in terms of hard dollars, surprised me and I think it will surprise you too.

You can check out Chris’ presentation, both slides and videos below:

Video

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Slides

As I said, I was surprised at the actual dollar values but I wasn’t surprised at the result that Chris found. For us, our entire focus has been on SEO. We have used social media as a tool to augment that but not as a primary vehicle to drive revenue for the restaurant. For instance, we have made a conscious decision to not set up a Twitter account where offer discounts. It is something we’re considering doing in the future, but right now we aren’t utilizing social media in that way.

While this presentation gives you some information about my brick and mortar and the decisions that we face and have to make, have you taken these steps to determine the ROI of your efforts on your website, blog, or social media profiles? If you have done this exercise, did you change anything about the way you spend your time post-analysis?

Note: This is the first post of many highlighting videos from the Inbound Marketing Summit that was held at Gillette Stadium on October 7-8, 2009. All posts will be tagged ims09 for aggregation purposes.

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Why You Should Buy Trust Agents

August 17, 2009 By Justin Levy 4 Comments

If you need yet ANOTHER reason why you should buy Trust Agents by Chris Brogan and Julien Smith, today I explain what I’ve seen these two friends of mine go through over the past year to ensure that the best possible book that they could write hits bookshelves.

If you can’t view the video, you can also find it on YouTube.

Please enable Javascript and Flash to view this Blip.tv video.

Note: Apparently I was tapping the laptop as I was recording so my apologies that it’s a little bumpy

To pick up a copy of Trust Agents, head on over to: http://bit.ly/buy-ta. I really hope that you’ll support them and pick up a copy of 20 of the book.

If you already received your copy, what did you think about it? You can let me know your thoughts in the comments below, or better yet, write/film a post reviewing the book and tag it #trustagents.

Filed Under: Book Reviews, Business, Marketing, Social Media Tagged With: Book Reviews, Business, chrisbrogan, Marketing, Social Media, trustagents

Providing Customer Service Without Ever Speaking

May 6, 2009 By Justin Levy 5 Comments

Is it possible to provide great customer service without ever speaking to your customer? I think so. Actually, I know so. Since its inception, I have been a regular customer of Netflix. There have been a couple times where I’ve canceled the membership because of traveling, moving, etc but I’ve always come back. Why? Well, beyond the fact that it’s a genius system for a great price, I have always loved their care for the customer experience. I’ve never talked to one representative at Netflix. Do they even have customer service reps? I’m sure they must have to but I’ve never had a need to go looking for a number. Yet, I always feel like they are continually trying to improve customer service thus improving the overall customer experience. How so?

One of the big ways is through the below email I get randomly from Netflix.

netflix

It usually comes about once every couple weeks. It simply asks what day I dropped the movie I was returning in the mail. But, it is so much more than just remembering that you dropped it 2 days ago. Netflix is using that data to track the delivery time from mailbox to shipping facility. Sure, that allows them to know it takes 1-2 days from the greater Boston area because they have a shipping facility in Worcester, MA (about 1.25hr drive from Boston). It also allows them to strategically determine where to open new shipping facilities. If they see that the average delivery time moves from 1.3 days from Boston to Worcester up to 2.2 days, that will show them that maybe the Worcester shipping facility is overburdened because of the number of customers in the area. Netflix could then build a new shipping facility closer to Boston using their customer address data and the average return time of a movie based on what customers tell them on these email surveys.

Those are just a few examples of the many possibilities for using the data that Netflix receives just by you telling them what day you sent back a movie. Also, that’s only one way of many that Netflix is working to improve their customer experience and they’re doing it, at least in the above example, without ever speaking via phone to their customers. Furthermore, they’re making the customer feel as though they’re valued by the company. Remember, every customer matters!

So, how are you working to improve your customer’s experience? Do you analyze every touch point that your customers have with your brand? Do you strive to continually improve those touch points?

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Filed Under: Business, Business strategy Tagged With: Business, Business strategy, customer interaction, Customers

Are You Developing Raving Fans

February 17, 2009 By Justin Levy 15 Comments

It’s no surprise that word-of-mouth can be the best marketing a company could ask for. It can also be the most detrimental to a company’s brand if that word-of-mouth is negative or even indifferent. As we are going through difficult economic times, it becomes even more important that you cherish every single customer. Furthermore, word-of-mouth is now on steroids with the speed at which information travels across and through social networks. So, how do you ensure that your customers become a positive word-of-mouth vehicle for your company? One way is through developing raving fans of your brand.

A few years ago I first read Raving Fans: A Revolutionary Approach To Customer Service. Back then I was in college studying sociology. While the book made sense, it didn’t really sink in what a “raving fan” was or why they were so important. I recently decided to re-read the book again since I’m fascinated in developing positive employee cultures and the concept of developing raving or super fans. If you haven’t ever read this book, this is a must-read and you should order it immediately. Even if you have read it before, it’s one of those classic business books that should be read once a year or so just to remind yourself how important it is.

What are some ways that you can develop raving (or super) fans? These are just some of the ways I try to develop raving fans at my steakhouse.

Developing Raving Fans

Take the time to learn their name and something interesting about them. Write it down and next time you meet them, ask them about whatever it was.
Set up a listening post. If you find someone talking negatively about your brand, address it directly with that person. Chances are, they will appreciate it and may actually become a super fan of your brand.
Learn what your customers actually want and then find a way to deliver it.
Be humble
If you find someone talking positively about your brand, reach out to them and thank them.
Don’t always make it about your top or bottom line. Zappos.com runs their warehouses 24/7 to provide fast service to their customers. Inefficient from a labor prospective? Probably. Develops raving fans who continue to buy? Absolutely.
Be human

Do you agree with this list? What are other ways that you develop raving fans of your brand?

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Filed Under: Business, Business strategy Tagged With: Book Reviews, Business, Business strategy, Customers, ravingfans, word-of-mouth

Do You Build Amazing Culture Like Zappos

February 16, 2009 By Justin Levy 12 Comments

Over the past 6 months or so I have become increasingly fascinated with Zappos.com. First, it was how fast the shipping was. Order something, go ahead. See when it comes in and you’ll be amazed too. Next it was that they have over 400+ employees on Twitter. Don’t believe me? They have a subdomain set-up dedicated solely to Twitter – twitter.zappos.com. Once I found out about the Twitter piece, I began to dig more. The more I continued to learn, the more of a fan I became.

I didn’t start begin becoming a fan because I thought they sold cool products at good prices (which they do!) but because of the importance they placed on culture, both internally with their teams, and externally with their customers. While in Las Vegas for CES I was given a copy of the Zappos 2008 Culture Book. No, this is not a management book where Tony Hsieh, CEO, talks about all the great things he’s done or his team has done to grow the company to more than $1 billion dollars in sales in just 9 years. This is a book that starts by asking a simple question on the first page: “What is culture, anyway?” To answer this question, Tony sent a company wide email stating:

Our culture is the combination of all of our employees’ ideas about the culture, so we would like to include everyone’s thoughts in this book. Please email me a few sentences about what the Zappos culture means to you…We will compile everyone’s contributions into the book.

What follows at the end of that email is over 460 pages of employees who responded to Tony’s email with what the culture of Zappos.com and what working for the company means to them. If you had never read about the 10 core values that the Zappos.com culture is based on, you would quickly learn what they are after reading the first dozen or so responses. Oh yeah, and the reason why you would know what those core values are is because the employees truly believe in them. It wasn’t a PR, marketing or branding move. It’s what these employees live, eat and breath by. Want to know what they are?

Zappos Core Values

Deliver WOW through service
Embrace and drive change
Create fun and a little weirdness
Be adventurous, creative, and open-minded
Pursue growth and learning
Build open and honest relationships with communication
Build a positive team and family spirit
Do more with less
Be passionate and determined
Be humble

So, how do they go about embodying these core values? Instead of boring you with example after example of what I’ve read through previous interviews, presentations, or through the book, check out these 2 videos. The first is a piece done by Nightline which goes inside Zappos.com offices in Las Vegas. The second video is an interview Tony recently did with Seesmic founder, Loic Le Meur. I highly recommend watching both videos in their entirety.

Do you actually live by your core values, personal or professional? What can you learn from what Zappos.com is doing and adapt or create within your organization? Let’s chat about it in the comments below.

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