When you think of a bakery that makes great cookies and muffins, you probably don’t think of a creative company that has figured out how to use social media for solving customer issues. But that is exactly what you will find in the first highlight in our study of uses of social media for customer service. St. Paul Classic Cookie Company, “a bakery that specializes in cookies, muffins, cupcakes, cakes, brownies, bars and more”, is a small company that has figured out how to use social media even though they are a non-technology-based company. We interviewed Katherine Novotny about how she sees social media playing a role at her business.
Our Q and A:
Q: How long have you been using social media tools for customer support at St. Paul Classic Cookie Company?
A: We have been using social media tools at our company since its inception in January 2006. Our blog serves as our website, and we use it to keep customers up to date about what’s going on at the bakery, specials we are running, pictures of our baked goods and the day to day stuff that happens in a bakery.
Q: Which social media tools do you use for customer service?
A: We use a blog, Twitter, LinkedIn, and we have a Facebook Page.
Q: Of the tools that you use, which one do you find to be the most effective and why?
A: For direct customer service we use Twitter the most. It’s effective because we can communicate quickly with customers, and they can get answers from us right away as well. We also are able to Tweet when we have hot muffins and cookies coming out of the oven so people have the opportunity to come when they are still hot.
While we use Twitter the most frequently, all the of the social media tools we use have merits in their own right, and we continue to find them very useful to engage with our customers.
Q: What is the best success story that you can share about where social media directly helped you with a particular customer?
A: Last year we got hit really hard with commodities prices and almost went out of business and posted on our blog about the situation we were facing. A friend and fellow business owner Lisa Metwaly of the Q Kindness Cafe in our downtown St. Paul core saw it and forwarded it on to our local Chamber of Commerce, who then forwarded it on to all their members. The support of our customers and community was unbelievable, and we were completely amazed by the support of all the folks who came out to help us when we needed it the most.
Q: What is the single biggest key to successful social media tool usage for customer service?
A: The key to using social media successfully for customer service is to really listen to your customers concerns or comments, to be honest with them and try to help them as best you can, and to be authentic. You have to be you if you are going to make social media work, otherwise it will come off as a marketing gimmick. Social media is all about establishing relationships with people, your personality has to show through, and the best way to do that is to be authentic and genuine.
Q: As a non-technology-based company, did you have any hesitation using Twitter in your business?
A: I did not have any hesitation using Twitter in my business, however, I think that has more to do with my familiarity with blogging and social media in general. At first when I started using Twitter, there was a definite learning curve, but also, because Twitter is an ever evolving medium, it has really allowed us to personalize how we use Twitter and allowed us to connect with people we may never had the opportunity to connect with before.
Q: Have you ever had a customer turned off by your use of social media tools?
A: I would say I haven’t had a customer turned off by our use of social media tools, but I think that is because social media is only one of many ways we connect with our customers and I still make it a priority to be available face to face with our customers.
We have many ways a customer can get in touch with us: our physical location, phone, email, by mail, and through social media tools. I make an effort to connect with a customer in which they want to be connected with, so whether someone wants to connect in person, by phone, by email, or by social media, I try to accommodate their preference.
