2010 – Welcome to the Age of Customer Service
Paul Dunay is an award-winning B2B marketing expert with more than 20 years’ success in generating demand and creating awareness for leading technology, consumer products, financial services and professional services organizations.
Paul is the global vice president of marketing for Maxymiser a leading web optimization firm, and author of four “Dummies” books: Facebook Marketing for Dummies (Wiley 2009), Social Media and the Contact Center for Dummies (Wiley Custom Publishing 2010), Facebook Advertising for Dummies (Wiley 2010) and Facebook Marketing for Dummies 2nd Edition (Wiley 2011).
His unique approach to marketing has led to recognition of Paul as a BtoB Magazine Top 25 B2B Marketer of the Year for 2010 and 2009 and winner of the DemandGen Award for Utilizing Marketing Automation to Fuel Corporate Growth in 2008. He is also a finalist for the last six years in a row in the Marketing Excellence Awards competition of the Information Technology Services Marketing Association (ITSMA), and is a 2010 and 2005 gold award winner in Driving Demand.
Buzz Marketing for Technology, Paul’s blog, has been recognized as a Top 20 Marketing Blog for 2009 and 2008, a Top Blog to Watch for 2009 and 2008, and an Advertising Age Power 150 blog in the “Daily Ranking of Marketing Blogs.”
Paul has shared his marketing thought leadership as a featured speaker for the American Marketing Association, BtoB Magazine, CMO Club, MarketingProfs, Marketing Sherpa, Marketing Executives Networking Group (MENG), and ITSMA. He has appeared on Fox News, and his articles have been featured in BusinessWeek, The New York Times, BtoB Magazine, MarketingProfs and MarketingSherpa.
Paul holds an Executive Certificate in Strategy and Innovation from MIT’s Sloan School of Management and a bachelor’s degree in Marketing and Computer Science from Ithaca College.
This is so true. I’d add that listening to the customer is also critical for many businesses in determining the right business model. We’ve seen a lot of companies — such as mobile phone, cable, and music labels — struggle to find the right way to sell their services and products. A few companies have done a great job. For example, Apple is selling music to customers in a customer-friendly way — you can buy singles for $.99 or the whole album, and you can purchase DRM-free music for slightly more. Options. Amazon figured out that customers will purchase online if they don’t have to pay for shipping – and they’ll gladly order more merchandise to skip the shipping. I’d love to see cable companies get more inventive with their business models — offering consumers more choice in which channels they can package together. And maybe a package on my new e-reader that offers Internet (since the device is capable) for a subscription, along with a couple of books every month. This all takes a keen ear to the customer’s voice.
@ Tracey – agreed so much innovation can be done when listening to what the customer actually wants. Dell and Salesforce have done this well too – with IdeaStorm and IdeaExchange. I am going to be experimenting with something similar this year and cant wait to discuss the results on this blog! Stay tuned …
Great post Paul. Could not agree more. I work mostly with SMB’s for B2B software and have started/enhanced client relations programs with several clients in the past year. Its nice to hear about social media marketing (SMM) examples of name brand companies like Apple, etc, but the examples that I find more inspiring are with no-name companies under $25mm who have transformed their business using SMM.
For one very small company (with over 200 clients), we ran a client survey using the net promoter apporach in December. The results were off the charts – over 15% responded and 3 out of 4 said they were “extremely satisfied and would recommend my client to their colleagues”. Your post has given me the idea to use SMM to launch the client relations program for the user group, client advisory, enhancement discussions, etc.
I look forward to your updates on this topic.
I completely agree with your post. Having exceptional customer service truly makes a business thrive. My friend once ordered shoes from Zappos and when she received them they were discounted to 40% off! So she called Zappos and they gladly returned some of her money back. Now THAT is what you call incredible customer service.
Could not agree more that we live in the age of service or die. Businesses more than ever need to listen to their customers and react fast to issues that arise. Most unhappy customers leave without saying a word. Twitter and FaceBook have made listening easy and simple — as you showed in your Avaya Gets Social webinar (thanks for doing that with me, Paul.) The half life on authentic personal interaction is now measured in minutes.
@Kristen – WOW that is real customer service – you have to be dedicated to winning the customer for life (which I am sure your friend is now) – just think of the incredible WOM that story gets – even on my blog!! – thanks for the comment
@Jeff – I am here in Berlin talking to companies like Audi, AXA, T-Mobile, Deutsche Bank and Lufthansa about this very topic. I think the thing that is really interesting for all of them is the Speed of these communications and how true listening can make a big difference!