Web 2.0 and Customer Service for Small Business - Meeting Saul Colt of Freshbooks

Kevin Kelly, who writes “The Technium” came up with the concept of 1,000 true fans. It relates to the concept of the “Long Tail” where the head and the tail meet as you can see in the image below:

(Credit: Kevin Kelly, The Technium)

Kevin Kelly defines it nicely:

“A True Fan is defined as someone who will purchase anything and everything you produce. They will drive 200 miles to see you sing. They will buy the super deluxe re-issued hi-res box set of your stuff even though they have the low-res version. They have a Google Alert set for your name. They bookmark the eBay page where your out-of-print editions show up. They come to your openings. They have you sign their copies. They buy the t-shirt, and the mug, and the hat. They can’t wait till you issue your next work. They are true fans.”

Working on getting these true fans you quickly realize that 1,000 people is something you can see in your head. You can count it (it would take a while, but it is doable) and the technology available to you today through blogs, podcasts, social network sites and web sites easily creates community and connection between your and your “fans”.

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Network Solutions is joining many companies that are successfully using Twitter to respond to their customer’s needs. People are using services such as Twitter & their blogs to express their frustration & appreciation of services. Customers are pleasantly surprised when they get a quick positive response.

Anthony Bouvier expressed his appreciation for getting help on Twitter on his blog:

What happened after I vented was quite interesting. After figuring out the problem myself, I went to my Twitter page and I had a direct message from @netsolcares, a Network Solutions customer assistance rep on Twitter itself…He used Summize, a search engine for conversations going on at Twitter and found my message within hours of posting and contacted me directly to see if he could help at all.

“Now that is proactive customer support!”

Today we were able to help out another customer. He posted this on Twitter:

Can anyone explain why Network Solutions has been down for over a week and how I’ll ever be able to re-register my domain???

Within a half hour of that being posted Customer Service looked up the customer’s contact info & and called the customer to ensure that the domain is renewed and also resolve his issue. It seems his ISP was blocking his access to our website for some unknown reason.

Our goal is to provide the best customer service as soon as possible to all of our customers including those that are expressing themselves online.

I have joined Shashi as the voice of @NetSolCares on Twitter. We welcome your feedback whether it’s positive or negative.

Let us know if you would like us to tweet service messages?