"As far as the positive people [on social media], we love them. We’ll talk to them all day. We’ve taken the opportunity to engage because they’re actually working to continue the relationship with Walgreens by saying those [positive] things."
For Walgreens Social Media Analyst Zach West—and, frankly, all customer-facing professionals—dealing with happy customers is the easy part. People never tire of compliments, and as they face customers in the sometimes-vitriolic, often-hostile world of social media, dialogue with loyal customers represents an increasingly-comfortable shield against negativity.
But a successful social CRM strategy should not only be about cultivating the largest, loudest contingent of fans. Explains West, "We’re not focused on ‘likes.’ We’re focused on actual customer interaction." And while "bringing angry customers onto the positive side is always a goal," listening, addressing and responding to what customers are saying, whether positive or negative, is where a company like Walgreens can locate the truest value of social media.
Even when engaging would not be appropriate or an ideal response cannot be delivered, Walgreens never fails to recognize the value in monitoring negative social dialogue.
"It’s the listening that’s really been driving how negative [reviews and blogs] have improved our business," says West. "We’re able to pass along things to customer service that they weren’t hearing before. We’re able to pass things along to business owners and store managers that they weren’t hearing before…[because] you didn’t used to hear when one friend told another about a bad experience."
In the latest edition of Customer Management IQ’s podcast, Zach West, social media analyst at Walgreens and a speaker on social CRM at Customer Management IQ’s 2011 Customer Insight Week, shares Walgreens’ best practices on social media, stories of how the pharmacy giant won customers via unusual social engagements, insights on how positive and negative customer comments have impacted the business and what social media tool has become his team’s absolute favorite to use.