{"id":1773,"date":"2011-09-28T06:51:33","date_gmt":"2011-09-28T10:51:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/meetcontent.com\/?p=1773"},"modified":"2017-04-20T00:09:29","modified_gmt":"2017-04-20T04:09:29","slug":"content-as-customer-service","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/meetcontent.com\/blog\/content-as-customer-service\/","title":{"rendered":"Content as Customer Service"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_1771\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-1771\" style=\"width: 250px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/meetcontent.com\/wp-content\/images\/service_250x250b.jpg\" alt=\"Ring bell for service\" title=\"service_250x250b\" width=\"250\" height=\"250\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1771\" srcset=\"https:\/\/meetcontent.com\/wp-content\/images\/service_250x250b.jpg 250w, https:\/\/meetcontent.com\/wp-content\/images\/service_250x250b-150x150.jpg 150w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 250px) 100vw, 250px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-1771\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Your web content is a customer service counter waiting to happen.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>When we craft our flashy admissions viewbooks, statement videos and feature stories, we hope they will cultivate \u201cwarm fuzzies.\u201d Whether the goal is to get an alumna to donate or a student to apply, tapping that emotional core is critical to influencing behavior. But sometimes, the quickest path to making a connection can be found simply by being helpful.<\/p>\n<p>Good customer service can be our best marketing, and our web content is on the front line of making that happen. If our brand is a promise, as we are wont to say, that promise is kept in the everyday, on-the-ground experiences that comprise the university experience. And content is a huge part of that.<\/p>\n<h2>How Can We Help You?<\/h2>\n<p>How do we make our web content innately helpful?<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li> <strong>User-focused<\/strong>: The sweet spot for effective content is where both our goals and user needs are served. The latter, however, often proves more challenging. What are their questions? What are their problems? What are their priorities? These should help shape the substance, presentation and organization of our content.\n<li> <strong>Clear, succinct language<\/strong>: At Podcamp Boston this weekend, in reference to communication and user experience, digital strategist Dave Wieneke remarked: \u201c<a href=\"http:\/\/usefularts.us\/2009\/05\/05\/is-simplicity-the-good-manners-of-our-age-laws-of-simplicity-and-simplicity-in-laws\/\" title=\"Is simplicity the good manners of our age? Laws of simplicity and simplicity in laws\">Simplicity is the good manners of our age<\/a>.\u201d As polite as you would be to a customer at a service window, you should take similar care in crafting content that is respectful of your users\u2019 time and easy to understand and navigate.\n<li> <strong>Emphasis on information<\/strong>: In a recent On Topic post, Rick highlighted the <a href=\"https:\/\/meetcontent.com\/blog\/prioritize-less-content-more-action\/\" title=\"Prioritize: Less Content, More Action\">approach used by SUNY Oswego\u2019s Tim Nekritz in revising his school\u2019s admissions homepage<\/a> to be less focused on content and more on information. While it can be hard to trim delightful prose about your school, providing relevant information and clear paths to action is often all your users need.\n<li> <strong>Create help content that actually helps<\/strong>: Back in March, Stephen Biernacki at the Educational Marketing Group (EMG) blogged about <a href=\"http:\/\/talk.emgonline.com\/Blog\/Pages\/Notebook\/Brand-Manager-s-Notebook\/March-2011\/Help-and-Support-Pages-in-Higher-Ed\" title=\"Help and Support Pages in Higher Ed\" rel=\"nofollow\">help and support pages on higher ed websites<\/a>. While these may be useful, as Rick wrote back in April, FAQ pages and the like often serve as a <a href=\"https:\/\/meetcontent.com\/blog\/three-higher-ed-content-problems-a-strategy-can-solve\/\" title=\"Three Higher Ed Content Problems a Strategy can Solve\">crutch or catch-all to make up for a largely ineffective web presence<\/a>. FAQs and other support content should be rooted in real questions and real problems. Ineye Caycedo, also from EMG, blogged in June about the<a href=\"http:\/\/talk.emgonline.com\/Blog\/Pages\/Notebook\/Brand-Manager-s-Notebook\/June-2010\/LEVEL-UP-YOUR-CUSTOMER-EXPERIENCE--Use-Video-to-Cr\" title=\"Level Up your Customer Service with Video\" rel=\"nofollow\"> value of video content for customer service<\/a>, such as screencast walk-throughs of online applications or a video how-to on writing a good admissions essay.\n<\/ul>\n<h2>An Organizational Culture of Customer Service<\/h2>\n<div class=\"pull-quote-box\">\n<div class=\"pull-quote\">Embracing the potential of web content for customer service may require a shift in organizational culture.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>We\u2019ve written a bit here about content strategy as it relates organizational culture. Customer service can be considered in a similar context. Social media channels\u2014by virtue of their real-time, conversational nature\u2014have the potential to be your most prominent customer service platforms. (Biernacki also recently shared some insights on <a href=\"http:\/\/talk.emgonline.com\/Blog\/Pages\/Notebook\/Brand-Manager-s-Notebook\/July-2011\/Social-Media-Concepts-from-Walgreens\" title=\"Social Media Concepts from Walgreens\" rel=\"nofollow\">how to use social media to facilitate customer service<\/a>.) But as 10,000 Words blogged back in June, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.mediabistro.com\/10000words\/research-customers-businesses-tweet_b4735\" title=\"Research: Use of Twitter in Customer Service Increasing\">embracing this potential can often require a shift in organizational culture<\/a>, empowering employees to use those channels in this fashion. <\/p>\n<p>Author Lisa Early McLeod recently wrote about <a href=\"http:\/\/www.huffingtonpost.com\/lisa-earle-mcleod\/customer-service_b_958353.html\" title=\"How to Differentiate Yourself in One Minute Flat\">how customer service plays out offline at Boston University<\/a>, with every staffer obliged to help visitors seen examining the large map displays on campus.<\/p>\n<div class=\"bqwrap\">\n<blockquote><p>It was emblematic of their organizational culture and how [BU staff] perceive themselves. \u2026 That single pivotal behavior\u2014help people at the sign\u2014ignites a process that makes customers and employees feel cared about and connected, and community forms quickly.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<p>The power of the web for customer service may be in this personal touch. In the wake of the publicity around social media personality Peter Shankman\u2019s free steak\u2014courtesy of Morton\u2019s Steakhouse, who sent a representative to meet Shankman at the airport with a steak dinner after he jokingly tweeted about it\u2014Higher Ed PR blogger Mike Lesczinski observed that such small, personalized gestures might be an <a href=\"http:\/\/mikelesczinski.com\/2011\/08\/25\/mortons-phenomenon-higher-education\/\" title=\"Morton&#039;s Phenomenon and Higher Ed\" rel=\"nofollow\">increasingly valuable tactic in an organization\u2019s PR toolkit<\/a>. <\/p>\n<p>For higher ed, Lesczinski sees social media monitoring as a valuable way to uncover issues such as roommate conflicts or sold-out textbooks and proactively work to address them.<\/p>\n<div class=\"bqwrap\">\n<blockquote><p>Each of these small acts of personalized customer service tactics show that your school is more than bricks-and-mortar; [it is] an institution that listens and cares\u2014and accommodates\u2014its students the best it can.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<p>When a prospective student or a parent is viewing our financial aid website, or an alum is searching for information about reunion weekend, we can\u2019t be there beside them to ask questions and offer suggestions\u2014or give them a steak. But our content can be. Much like customer service is ingrained into employees at BU, we have to bake customer service into our content and imbue it with the \u201cgood manners\u201d to solve our community\u2019s problems and address their needs.<\/p>\n<h2>Strive For Efficiency<\/h2>\n<div class=\"pull-quote-box\">\n<div class=\"pull-quote\">We should strive to provide the same exceptional level of customer service on the phone, in person and online.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>I wrote in July about the importance of having <a href=\"https:\/\/meetcontent.com\/blog\/aligning-content-online-and-offline\/\" title=\"Aligning Content Online and Offline\">alignment between online and offline experiences<\/a>, and this is particularly critical when it comes to customer service. We should strive to provide the same exceptional level of customer service on the phone, in person and online.<\/p>\n<p>David Meerman Scott, author of \u201c<a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/gp\/product\/0470547812\/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&#038;tag=meetcont-20&#038;linkCode=as2&#038;camp=1789&#038;creative=390957&#038;creativeASIN=0470547812\" title=\"Amazon.com: The New Rules of Marketing and PR\">The New Rules of Marketing and PR<\/a>\u201d (Amazon affiliate link), recently wrote about how efficient the move-in process was for his daughter at Columbia University. This prompted him to consider efficiency as a marketing asset:<\/p>\n<div class=\"bqwrap\">\n<blockquote><p>Columbia University&#8217;s efficiency at check in makes me feel better about paying the bills. It makes me confident that we have chosen a great place for our daughter&#8230; People don&#8217;t always buy the cheapest or fastest or biggest or most famous. Some might buy the most efficient service.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<p>Similarly, our content should offer an efficient experience. We should give our users the answers they seek as quickly and clearly as possible. The simple act of being helpful can go a long way.<\/p>\n<h2>Content on the Clock<\/h2>\n<p>When we talk about informing and educating our audiences, our content is what we send out to do the job. Imagine if we could personify our content and sit it at a customer service window. How would we want it to behave? What tone would we want it to use? What information would we want it to prioritize? Truth is, our content sits at that window every day. And its behavior is our responsibility.<\/p>\n<p>How do you employ content as customer service?<\/p>\n<p><em>Disclaimer: Educational Marketing Group is paying me to give a webinar on Oct. 13. This had no influence on my decision to reference their content in this post.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em><a href=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/drewzhrodague\/1243705\/\">Homepage image by drewzhrodague\/Flickr Creative Commons<\/a>. <a href=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/nathanmac87\/4524771512\/\" rel=\"nofollow\">Entry image by nathanmac87\/Flickr Creative Commons<\/a><\/em>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>When we craft our flashy admissions viewbooks, statement videos and feature stories, we hope they will cultivate \u201cwarm fuzzies.\u201d Whether the goal is to get an alumna to donate or a student to apply, tapping that emotional core is critical to influencing behavior. But sometimes, the quickest path to making a connection can be found [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1770,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[127],"tags":[76,19],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.8 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Content as Customer Service | Meet Content<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Good customer service can be our best marketing, and our web content is on the front line of making that a reality.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/meetcontent.com\/blog\/content-as-customer-service\/\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Georgy Cohen\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"6 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/meetcontent.com\/blog\/content-as-customer-service\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/meetcontent.com\/blog\/content-as-customer-service\/\",\"name\":\"Content as Customer Service | Meet Content\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/meetcontent.com\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2011-09-28T10:51:33+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2017-04-20T04:09:29+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/meetcontent.com\/#\/schema\/person\/c46e3050ea513291a46336298ee82c91\"},\"description\":\"Good customer service can be our best marketing, and our web content is on the front line of making that a reality.\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/meetcontent.com\/blog\/content-as-customer-service\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/meetcontent.com\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/meetcontent.com\/\",\"name\":\"Meet Content\",\"description\":\"Empowering higher education to create and sustain web content that works\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/meetcontent.com\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/meetcontent.com\/#\/schema\/person\/c46e3050ea513291a46336298ee82c91\",\"name\":\"Georgy Cohen\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/meetcontent.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/ed49bc8dd530713ec3ccdf6523f474b5?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/ed49bc8dd530713ec3ccdf6523f474b5?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Georgy Cohen\"},\"description\":\"Georgy Cohen is associate creative director, content strategy, at OHO Interactive in Cambridge, Mass.. 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