Let’s All just Talk! - Blogging as a Corporate Communication Tool
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(businessandblogging.com) What’s at the heart of most relationship problems?
Any sociologist or psychologist will tell you that it is miscommunication.
Your relationships with your customers are no different.
Think about it. If you were going to receive bad news about your spouse or your best friend, who would you rather hear it from? Would you want to hear it on the six o’ clock news?
Of course not. You’d rather hear it directly from your spouse or friend.
Your customers are the same way. If there’s a problem they would rather hear it directly from you than find out about it on the news.
(Of course, blogs can be used as both an external and an internal communication tool. We’ll focus on blogs as an internal communication tool in a future post.)
Consider, if you will, the following totally fictional scenario:
XYZ company manufactures bicycles. One day the company receives a phone call from the attorney of a customer. Apparently, the bicycle’s seat fell off while a child was riding it. Company engineers examine the bicycle and discover that there is indeed a flaw in the design of the bicycle that causes the seats to fall off when a child shifts their weight a certain way. XYZ company will have to issue a recall for the bicycles, so they prepare a press release stating that they will replace all of the defective bicycles and contact the media.
Many companies would stop right there. XYZ company is different, however. They have a blog.
The XYZ company blogger opens a discussion about the recall on their blog. Several of their most upset customers, those whose children fell of the bicycles, leave comments. The company blogger answers their comments politely and informs management of the concerns. The CEO calls the most upset customer on the phone and winds up visiting the family in person and personally buying the child a competing brand bicycle. The next day the now-happy customer and their child (with their arm still in a cast) are shown on the news talking excitedly about how the CEO of XYZ took the time to talk with them.
Later, when a new model bicycle is announced (after making sure it is totally safe), the company blogger thanks all of the loyal customers. The blogger publishes a discount code for the new bicycles that customers can download and take to their local toy store.
Am I dreaming?
Possibly, since it’s impossible to totally predict how customers would react in such a situation. It doesn’t take a whole lot of imagination, however, to see that blogging can improve communication with customers.
Additional Resources about blogging as a communication tool:
- Blogs: The New Black in Corporate Communication from Liz Strauss
- New Media & PR: Corporate blogging still lags as a communication tool from Grant Common
- Comparing Blogs to other Communication Tools from the Movable Type blog
- Using blogs as a business tool by Gino Cosme
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