It may seem as though I’m picking from The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey (PATH) fruit a bit too much, but once again it provides an excellent example of how to inform and aid customers — riders — during a time in which they were frazzled and angry, not two words you want to hear when discussing customer experience.

On Wednesday, July 29, after vicious thunderstorms ripped through the metropolitan area, signal problems suspended service along the Newark/World Trade Center line at approximately 4 p.m. Eastern, right before rush hour. In an hour that line was partially restored, allowing riders to go from World Trade Center to Journal Square, but there was still no service between Newark and Journal Square, putting out many riders.

PATH incorporated several electronic means by which to convey the message — and more importantly, how to navigate around it — to riders. First, you can check out PATH Alerts at the transportation authority’s Web site. Additionally, at that page you can sign up for alerts to be pushed to a mobile device via text message or email.

If that’s not enough, check out PATH’s official Twitter page, @PATHtweet being its handle. I must say that I was fortunate to not be riding that line home to Jersey City that night, but I was keeping tabs on how PATH handled the fact that myriad riders were frustrated, tired, and just wanting to get home.

On the Twitter feed, @PATHtweet linked to a PDF highlighting all the possible alternate routes one could take to get to Newark. (Basically, take one of the trains to Hoboken, and then take a New Jersey Transit train from Hoboken Terminal to Newark-Penn Station. New Jersey Transit cross-honored all PATH tickets, which was only fair.) In addition to providing a link, @PATHtweet responded to all those pinging it with specific ways to get to their desired destinations.

For those not up on Twitter, and maybe not even open to having alerts pushed to mobile devices, every station had automated announcements giving status updates for the suspended service as well as quick information on how to sidestep it. When I was taking the PATH back to my apartment, at each stop the train conductor would relay the message, too.

Overall, it was a cohesive communication plan put forth in an impossible situation. People want to get home after a long day at work, and having to take a circuitous route — in the rain, no less — is frustrating, especially since mass transit is supposed to take away pesky commuting perils like traffic, for instance.

Was everyone happy? Probably not at that moment.

But, the fact that the people at PATH were both proactive and reactive, answering and educating, will pay dividends in the long run to maintain customer service. People must understand that the folks running the trains don’t control the weather, but what they can control is the response and plan to maintain a respectable level of service despite it. (Full service wasn’t restored until 4 a.m. the next day.)

I’m curious to know how other mass transit systems handle situations like this one — if any of you have similar stories (with happy or sad endings) to share, please drop me a line.

I received an email invitation today to a view a recorded Webinar about mobile commerce hosted by  San Diego-based cross-channel commerce solutions provider Escalate Retail. The Webinar, “m-Commerce: The Gateway to Buy Anywhere, Fulfill Anywhere Commerce,” demonstrates how retailers are able to enhance the consumer shopping experience by incorporating the mobile channel (You can listen to the recorded Webinar here, free with registration.). Mobile commerce is already highly popularized in Europe and Asia. Why North America is slow to adopt is anyone’s guess — excuses are certainly running out, especially now that there are 68 million smartphone subscribers, a rate that’s growing 80 percent annually, Escalate reports.

According to Escalate Retail,the cross-channel consumer is hands down your most valuable. In a survey that asked whether consumers “shop across multiple channels,” 49 percent said no while 51 percent said yes. I was pretty surprised by how close these numbers were, but I often forget that most people aren’t tied to their computers for 90 percent of their waking hours — right?

Read on… »

A few minutes ago I was reminded of something powerful said at the 140 Character Conference in New York a few weeks back:

“If you are careful of who you follow, they can read the Web for you and direct you to the news you should read,” said Patrick LaForge, the director of copy desks for The New York Times, during a compelling panel about Twitter’s impact on the news.

I’m sitting here reeling with just how true that statement has become. I’m a fairly active Twitter participant. My followers and following rests in the 700 range. Although every once in awhile I go through to “clean up shop” and remove a few follows that annoy me, I believe my Twitter circle is a valuable source of knowledge. I’m realizing that nowadays, when I want news, I no longer go to Google news or even my Yahoo! homepage like I once did. Instead, I head straight for Twitter, knowing my friends have my back and will keep me informed about the news I will be interested in.

OK — That’s the end to my Twitter rave (for now…). The real reason I created this post was to share with you some of the valuable links I came across just minutes ago on my Twitter stream. Rather than rewrite already excellent stories, I will point you to the original pieces:

• Social media analyst Peter Kim has accumulated a superb list of social media marketing examples. From major commercial brands to tech vendors, Kim catalogues interesting marketing cases — from YouTube videos to corporate blogs. This extensive list must have taken forever to assemble. Thanks for a great resource, Peter.
• Ever heard of astroturfing? It ain’t pretty. Our good friend Marshall Lager blogs about the nasty practice of using false testimonials to give the impression of customer satisfaction. A cosmetic surgery company, Lifestyle Lift was recently slapped with fraud charges for its astroturfing efforts. Whatever happened to that thing called transparency?
• The enterprise 2.0/collaboration software market is populating by the minute. With so many vendors on the rise, it’s hard to keep straight who’s got what, who’s going where, and who’s worth paying attention to. The folks at ZDNet put forth a Map of the 2009 Enterprise 2.0 Marketplace that answers those questions and then some.
• I came across multiple Tweets regarding this video where Seth Godin speaks frankly on the use of social networking and business. “The Internet is this giant cocktail party,” Godin says. “What matters is where are the real relationships.” He states that networking is important only when it’s real — It’s a useless distraction when it’s fake. “The Internet has allowed an enormous amount of fake networking to take place and it’s so easy to be seduced by it,” Godin says. “If you are measuring it, it doesn’t mean anything.” What do you think? What percentage of your social networking relationships are real and what percentage are fake?

That’s it for now. I’m sure if I continue following my Twitter stream, this list could go on and on. Thanks to the above people for the links — And thanks to my Twitter crew for continually keeping me in the loop.

-@laurenmizzou

Back in late June, I wrote a story for our Web site, www.destinationCRM.com, about Interaction Process Automation (IPA), the latest offering from Interactive Intelligence.

Shortly thereafter, I was able to catch up with Geoff Calhoun, director of information technology at AccuQuote, since his company will be implementing IPA. Here are his thoughts on why his company decided to give IPA a chance.

Read on… »

Earlier this week, news came out about retail chain Best Buy requiring applicants for an open position to not only have a Twitter account, but at least 250 Twitter followers … in addition to two years of mobile or social media marketing experience, a year of active blogging experience, and a Bachelor’s degree.

According to Best Buy’s Web site, the position of senior manager of emerging media marketing, which required 250 Twitter followers, has been filled.

It’s not surprising that some companies today are requiring applicants to have experience in social media, as it is playing a larger role in the lives of consumers and businesses. What does surprise me and, quite frankly, scares me a little, is the fact that companies are trying to quantify what counts as active twittering experience.

Who’s to say that 250 followers is the magic number? What if 225 of those followers are spam bots, leaving only 25 legitimate, quality people left? Does that make someone better than another person who is only following 150 people on Twitter, but all of them are quality followers? And, who’s to say what is quality and what isn’t? Does it mean the followers have to be germane to the field in which you’re looking to gain employment? Does it mean all of the people you are following must have a set number of legitimate followers as well?

There are just too many gray areas, in my humble opinion, to try to blindly set a number of followers one must have on Twitter in order to meet a requirement for a job. I believe this is just the beginning, and we will be hearing more and more about companies looking for particular social media qualifications just to get applicants in the door for an interview.

For those in a position to hire employees, are you requiring applicants to have social media experience? If so, what are you looking for and how have you come to the particular benchmarks you have set?