Buzz Builder

Is Safeway Building Negative Buzz with Charity Support Requests?

Recently, every time that I shop at Safeway, the checker has asked whether I would like to add a dollar to my grocery bill to contribute to a specific charity like the Prostate Cancer Foundation or Easter Seals. These requests have always irked me because they make me feel like a heel when I say "no" in front of the clerk and other people waiting in line. I'm a big believer in charitable giving; however, I prefer to contribute directly to causes I believe in so I can be assured that my money is going directly to them and I can get a tax deduction.

With prices on all food items zooming, Safeway's fundraising efforts are bound to irk customers struggling to make ends meet who might like to support worthy causes but quite simply are struggling to feed their own families. In fact, a recent article in The Oregonian indicates that Safeway's insistent fundraising is generating negative buzz. I'm guessing that Safeway's current methodology of soliciting customer support of charities will dissipate as economic times grow tougher.

Snapfish Customer Service Problems Continue - Is Overseas Outsourcing To Blame?

A few months ago, I blogged about a frustrating customer service experience that my wife had with Snapfish, an online photo production website. I was impressed with how quickly I received a comment on that post from Dean Cookson, director of Systems and Support Operations for Snapfish. His answer seemed reasonable enough so it prompted me to post a favorable response. But, as you'll see in the comments section on that post, Ona, one of my blog readers, posted a comment on 7/15/08 sharing her tale of woe regarding Snapfish which she attributes to outsourced overseas customer service.

I'm not sure whether Snapfish has outsourced its customer service but Ona's note raises some warning flags about whether Snapfish might be engendering a lot of bad buzz in the interest of saving money on its customer service operations. I'm sure that most people have experienced frustrations like Ona's. While I'm not absolutely opposed to overseas customer service, few companies can pull it off successfully since they tend to scrimp on training and quality control. In fact, problems are so rampant in overseas customer service that they've become a common joke as you'll see in the hilarious video from Reno 911!, one of my favorite TV shows.

RENO 911!
Outsourcing 911
www.comedycentral.com
Lt. Jim Dangle's Sex Tape Terry Time Thomas Lennon and Ben Garant Review RENO 911! Porn Parody

Professor Walter Carl Sets NPR Straight on How Word of Mouth Marketing Really Works

I must confess that I've been outside so much enjoying Oregon's beautiful summer weather that I've neglected this blog over the past few weeks. Well, time to get back to it...

Last week, I met a woman at a networking event who smiled knowingly when I told her that I helped companies sell more through word of our mouth marketing. "That's interesting. Do you help companies figure out how much they should pay people to talk about their product?"

I'm always surprised when I hear people say that word of mouth marketing is about paying people to talk about a product or service. A big part of this misunderstanding has to do with how journalists portray word of mouth marketing. A July 3 story on NPR's Bryant Park Project, a radio show which targets a younger audience than typical NPR news program, on "word of mouth advertising" began with a skit of people shilling products as an example of how companies use word of mouth to market their products and services. Fortunately, Walter Carl, a professor at Northeastern University and word of mouth marketing, was featured in the story and set the host straight telling him that effective word of mouth marketing does not involve paying people to recommend a product or service. He also mentioned an interesting statistic that I haven't heard before: his research indicates that approximately 15% of all converesations involve people talking about a specific brand, company, product or service.