a groovyweb by isman tanuri » Business

Social Media World Forum Asia 2010 : 22-23 September, Singapore

Isman Tanuri — Sun, 25 Jul 2010 02:24:40 +0000

Ever wonder what’s the fuss about social media? Why is it important to understand social media’s impact on how we communicate and share information? And the fact that, just like the internet and email, the social and technological changes brought about by social media are irreversible?

Look Who’s Back

For the second year running, the folks from Six Degrees are back to present Social Media World Forum Asia 2010 in Singapore. This year’s event promises to be bigger than last year’s and will present a host of speakers from many sides of the social media story.

Among the many distinguished speakers I look forward to hearing are:

Brian Solis : Acclaimed original thought leader on social media and writer of the new book ‘Engage’

Blake Chandlee : VP & Commercial Director at Facebook, EMEA

Thomas Crampton : Asia Pacific Director, 360 Digital Influence, Ogilvy Public Relations Worldwide

Shalabh Pandey: Leading digital marketing personality in Asia. Author and founder of Chasingthestorm

I Am Interested in

What I really am excited about is to hear how businesses are transforming their organisations through embracing ‘social media’ within their organisations. Or is it all merely outwardly PR- and marketing-focused? What are the initiatives taken by business leaders to empower their employees to engage in social media? Is it ‘See & No Touch’ approach? Have they built ‘social media-like’ infrastructures in their organisations to facilitate social conversations and learning? Are their employees allowed to be on ‘social media’ in the office?

After all, ‘social media’ is really all about ‘online conversations around bits of information and new learning’.

I look forward to meeting these folks in person with these ‘difficult questions’.

Derek Yeo : Head of Marketing, Tiger Airways

Pooja Arora : Brand Manager, P&G

Jeremy Khoo : Deputy Director, Marketing & Communication, NTUC Fairprice

Disclosure: A Groovyweb will be at the two-day forum as an official blogger, courtesy of Six Degrees. If you would like to follow the live coverage of the event, follow me on Twitter via @ismantanuri

More Information

The event will be held on 22-23 July at the Suntec International Convention & Exhibition Centre.
The early bird 25% off discount ends on 31 July, so do register for the Social Media World Forum soon or you may also register for the free exhibition-only pass.
If you would like to stay for the Singapore F1 race happening on the same week, find out more on how you can register for the Social Media World Forum and F1 Networking Pass (includes a ‘3-day Premier Walkabout’ ticket to watch the F1 race
You can follow updates on the event via Twitter @socialmedWF
For Facebook fans, visit the official Social Media World Forum Asia Facebook Page
See the presentation below for even more information including other speakers:

Complaints are Healthy, Positive and Good for Business

Isman Tanuri — Sat, 24 Jul 2010 16:01:38 +0000

This post first appeared in an internal employee ‘email-cast’ by yours truly. Adapted for general reading.

Singaporeans like to complain, right?

We complain about everything! Why is it flooding in Orchard Road? Why are MRT fares expensive? Why watching World Cup on cable is so expensive? Why is the weather so hot/cold? Okay lah, let’s say we call these: ‘feedback‘.

Now look at the photo on the right. This is the message from the video display screens around Gatwick Airport in London:

‘Are you on Twitter? Get in touch with us @Gatwick_Airport and let us know about your experience at Gatwick today.’

Isn’t this the perfect airport for Singaporeans!?

The airport that gives you the license to complain all you want!

Feedback is Good

But really, there is value in all of these ‘feedback’. For businesses who are ‘listening in to these feedback’, it is a way to find out what is wrong with their products or services. For customers, complaining is a ‘healthy way’ to voice your unhappiness. If we don’t say it, we can only suffer in silence and businesses will never improve or give us what we pay good money for.

The SingPost Experience

Here is my personal story on why complaining is good. When SingPost lost my wife’s US$400 parcel (they cannot explain why, gave us totally crap customer service and didn’t want to admit to losing the parcel) I decided to blog about it . I shared the story on Facebook and Twitter and we received so much support from friends and strangers that eventually SingPost had to come to our home, apologised and refunded the whole amount. Moral of the story? Never keep quiet as a customer.

(Honestly, I really salute SingPost for having the courage to talk to us directly and doing what we feel is within our rights as a paying customer.)

Complaints Are Inevitable, Take Them Positively

In any industry, complaints are inevitable. Just as you and I like to complain, customers and clients are in the habit of doing it too (we are in Singapore after all!). But let’s take a moment and look at complaints differently, and positively, in these ways.

Complaints are never personal. So don’t take it personally.

Ignoring complaints is a good way to tell your customers or clients: well, we don’t care.

All complaints are an opportunity to find out what we are doing wrong or even right. Look at the Gatwick Airport story, they are not afraid of receiving complaints because they want to improve themselves.

Listening to clients or customers’ complaints and positively resolving their problems is actually a good opportunity for clients to tell their bosses and customers to tell their friends how good your organisation is! Strange idea?

If we are perfect all the time (unfortunately no one is), then all the hard work we do serving customers or clients will forever go unnoticed and no one talks about it.
But because we are not perfect and we will receive complaints, this is actually an opportunity to shine! And if we shine, people will talk about it. Make sense?
SingPost shines for me because they received a complaint from us and decided to act on it to make things right.

Complaints are a good way to fill up the time in a productive manner. Well, as long as there are not too many of them. Which also means you’re doing your job very well.

So that’s it:

Complaints are good, complaining is positive.
And certainly good for business.

Social Belonging (Not Money) is Key to Employee Brand Ambassadors on Social Media

Isman Tanuri — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 09:23:54 +0000

After letting the previous post run happy (Happy Employees = Best Brand Ambassadors), I received a tweet question from @thangdynasty thrown into the mix:

@thangdynasty asked (read more about @thangdynasty) :

What about monetary incentives? Do you think these will taint or complement the positive effects of the rise in social currency?

The Short Answer

The Beatles said it best. Money can’t buy you love.

That is my sole conviction. Just as the practice of paying bloggers in dollars to endorse products is a thorny and questionable issue, providing employees with monetary incentives to engage on the social web comes with considerable risks to reputations, both employer’s and employees’. The integrity of the corporate and personal brands will be questioned. Don’t forget, we are dealing with social media, everyone is ready to pounce on you at the whiff of a questionable practice or the slightest mistake (see Google search results on ‘I Hate Tiger Airways’).

Furthermore, to quote Daryl Tay:
‘Will paying get the same kind of emotions and authenticity? Will your paid post even be remembered a week from today?’

But I know you will still ask, why would employees openly and willingly talk about their employers on social media when they are not compensated for it?

Let us assume my argument here for ‘happy employees make the best brand ambassadors’ is true and that you buy my theory that employees are the best assets for ‘spreading the employer brand love’.

High Pay = Employee Ambassador = Result of Love & Belonging

Let’s look at it from another perspective, ‘Will high-paying employees be brand ambassadors for their employers on the social web?’ I sincerely doubt it. With the internet as a window to opportunities, employees are increasingly mobile. A high-paying employee paid to market or promote the employer’s brand are compensated to do so. But what about the rank-and-file? What will trigger employer brand endorsement? What can we cultivate internally within the employee network and ecosystem to encourage employee ambassadorship?

Love and Belonging

Now, you may ask, how can I justify that? Let’s go back into history and revisit the work of Abraham Maslow, in particular his theory on ‘Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs Theory’ (credit to @thangdynasty again for putting this into my view). Here is the most common representation of this motivation theory:

In short, Maslow theorised that we progress through different levels of self-need in seeking satisfaction and motivation. But only if a more pressing need is fulfilled first, for example, food and shelter before employment, family before friends.

So What Does Our Employment Address?

Our safety and security needs. All of us probably feel we are not being paid enough (who doesn’t?!) but ultimately our family and our own’s safety and security are ensured by the monthly salary we receive. The salary pays for our property and daily expenses and keep us on a social equilibrium. Can this sense of security be replicated in every workplace in the world? More likely than not. So what else do we seek for happiness?

Love and Belonging As Social Glue

If Maslow is right, we yearn for love and sense of belonging. Put aside family and friends you grew up with, we are more than likely to seek fulfilment in these needs through our colleagues: fellow employees we spend most our daylight hours with. Discounting colleagues you’re in dispute with and office politics aside, there is very likely a group of colleagues at work you would consider as ‘friends’ (if you don’t, then I’d suggest you re-look your relationships in the workplace.) All of us wants to belong to a group or be affiliated to like-minded individuals.

When we have determined these friends and established trust, what do we do next?

We literally get into each other’s Facebook and we establish Twitter communes. Vice versa.

Managers and leaders cannot pretend that this does not exist. Because it does and it is happening everywhere. Even in the most unsophisticated of workplaces.

Employees Are on Social Media and They Are Happy

Now that we have established the fact that employees use social media to interact with one another (sense of belonging) and with their family and friend (love and friendship), we can now firmly conclude that social media is not going anywhere because these online social channels fulfil and satisfy employees’ needs for belonging and affiliation. Belonging can actually means multiple choices of lunch partners to hang out with. So these positively equate to the following:

Employees Are Happy on Facebook Because They Belong

Employees Bring ‘Facebook-Happy’ to Work and Hang Out with Happy

Happy Employees Spread More Happy

So here’s the good news and conclusion: Employees are more than happy to hang out on social media with their colleagues. And employers don’t have to pay for it because their self-needs for belonging will take care of that.

Agree?

Now The Bigger Picture

The not-so-good news:

Employees are not talking enough about their employers’ brand (or products) because they are told not to mix work with personal.
Employers are not seeing the big picture on employees engaging on social media and the opportunities that it represent.

Let’s address the more immediate issue 2 for now. Here’s a comment snippet (on a blog post by Belinda Ang) from Anol Bhattacharya who fully explains issue 2:

Another big missing link I see in organizations – strategy to harness the informal networks. Most likely your people are already in various social networks and connected informally with your clients and prospects. Why not tap on that opportunity and provide them the relevant context, engagement opportunities and (if possible) relevant content to ignite a conversation!

And Belinda’s response highlights the exact sentiments I would expect from many business leaders today:

Indeed! Power of the community comes first from within. Like it or not, employees are ambassadors of your brand and they can make or break it with the things they say and do online. However, that calls for a very top-level intervention and most companies aren’t ready to dive into something like that, which potentially changes the business and internal communications framework.

The Business Leaders Challenge

If you agree with Anol’s and my own argument that ‘happy employees can be the best brand ambassadors’, then the immediate challenge for business leaders is to identify the value of social media internally and how it can contribute to their organisation’s growth and visibility. We have all heard about the huge buzz that is ‘social media: the weapon of unhappy customers’ but what about ‘social media: the ‘creating happy employees’ tool’?

To consider:

cultivate social engagements from within the workplace by providing access to social platforms
extending trust and empowering employees to engage in conversations that involve the employers’ brand
use employees’ social media engagement as a tool for promoting the corporate brand
use social media as an internal culture- and team-building tool

What are you thoughts? If you are a manager or a business owner, then I would love to hear your opinion on this issue. Do you feel there’s value in social media for your employees and your brand? Or social media is more risk than necessary for your business?

*Image credits for Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs: The Skool of Life

The Digital Edge: People Development through Simple Technologies

Isman Tanuri — Fri, 04 Jun 2010 09:58:43 +0000

Full disclosure: I admit I am a technology geek and, unabashedly, a Google fanboy. I am always fiddling with my gadget of choice (my Google Nexus One phone), customising my Google Chrome browser and I constantly try to outsmart the office’s laptop and its ‘restrictions’. You may ask why do I spend valuable time and effort on activities like these?

Well, I demand technology to work for me, to get the most value out of pieces of technology I own or paid good money for. But most simple technologies are made available to me for free, so being Singaporean, free is holy. But, above all, the driving motivation for this is to increased productivity and efficiency, both for my personal and professional uses. (Particularly useful when I was studying too).

Consider these very simple examples:

Very simple example 1:

Bookmarks Sync: Using the Chrome browser means all my favourite bookmarks I had saved on my home desktop is automatically available to me on my work laptop. Google keeps Chrome on all of my computers synced automatically.

No exporting, no importing, no mess. And most importantly, no emailing a URL link to myself!

Very simple example 2:

Universal Calendar: As a professional, I have to keep to a schedule (meetings, lunch appointments, etc.), in this case, I have to use the Outlook calendar in my work laptop. However, I need a personal calendar too (nephews and nieces’ birthday parties, dentist appointments, ‘buy milk’, bachelor’s parties, etc.).

As I don’t think carrying my work laptop everywhere I go or on the weekends is a terribly brilliant or cool idea, I use Google Calendar. I have Google Calendar on my Nexus One and I can access Google Calendar everywhere I go, even on holidays. All I need is a browser and an internet connection.

And there IS a way to have my Outlook and Google Calendar ‘make friends with each other’. Update one and the other automatically updates itself.

No exporting, no importing, no mess. And most importantly, no double duplicate repetitive work!

Very simple example 3:

Auto-Silence Mobile Phone: To keep this really simple, I use my Nexus One with a Locale application with the following strict settings:

Only on Mondays to Fridays, between 8.30am and 6.30pm, and only at HarbourFront Tower 2.

Result: Every single weekday morning when I walked into the office, my phone had auto-silenced itself off. Neat, right?

No time-wasting fiddling, no sweat, no more WonderGirls’ ringtone going off unexpectedly and no more embarrassments. Isn’t that nice?

And there are many more little tricks and simple tools that are waiting for to be discovered and used daily. Technology (even weaponry) are meant to help us in some way or another to improve our lives. The computer, the telephone and even the humble toothpick (care for a twig?)

All This Is Fuddy-Duddy to You?

Are you saying these to yourself “That is too difficult!”, “Oh, I don’t think I am savvy enough”, “I am afraid of the Internet”, “I don’t have a smartphone”, etc.? Well, heard about the 99-year old grandmother with an iPad? Or the 1-year old iPhone-savvy baby?

Believe me, you too can take advantage of simple technologies like these and make your life a little more productive and efficient. As long as you have a computer, work with a computer or simply surf the web on a computer, you deserve the opportunity to harness the power of simple technologies.

Everyone has a right to simple technologies to enhance their lives. Every second saved through being efficient really adds up. (In a year, how many hours do you waste in total waiting for your favourite news website to load every morning?)

The Truth Hurts

To be frank, I keep company with young and technologically-savvy people (maybe an old-age inferiority thang!) Many of them understand the power of simple technologies and use this knowledge for their own benefits. They are school-leavers (could possibly be your child, nephew or niece), below the age of 26, equipped and exposed to iPhones and iPads and also totally understand and exploit the value of online social networks, such as Facebook and LinkedIn.

In a few years’ time, they will slowly and collectively change the culture in your workplace: they have Twitter on their iPhones so they are getting news as it is breaking. They have placed their trust in cloud computing because they know it is efficient, timely and cost-friendly. They will make lightning-quick and well-informed decisions and will be the main driver and steward of a real-time and social economy.

Where will you be then? Can you catch up?

My working experience in the world’s biggest enterprise software company has been quite telling. Despite the technology-driven environment, a large majority of my former colleagues are not taking advantage or leveraging on simple technologies to help them in their work and learning. Even for something simple and efficient like RSS for reading. If folks from a top technology company are ‘not getting it’, what about the rest of us?

No one I knew in school (I used to attend part-time classes) uses RSS for reading or research.

The digital divide is alarming. And here are my plans.

I REALLY Need Your Help With This Survey

I believe I can help bridge this gap in digital learning. I have this platform, my blog, to share my own practices, knowledge and experiences with simple technologies as well as trends in efficient computing (do bookmark or subscribe to this blog if you wish to keep in touch).

However, I wish to do more. But first, I need your help.

In order for me to better understand the scale and scope of this issue, I would like to have some information and data to study the pain points, apprehension and views you may have on adopting simple technologies for daily use. I have prepared a simple survey to achieve this (using Google Forms, its free!).

The Digital Edge Survey: Do You Use These Simple Technologies?

Survey Link: http://bit.ly/DigitalEdgeSurvey

All are welcomed to participate in this survey as I will appreciate the opportunity to hear insights from the different age groups or profiles. However, my ideal participant should be as follow:

Between the age of 26-50
Of any gender, race, educational and professional background
Of any level of computing proficiency
Resident of Singapore

I apologise for the very Google-centric nature of this survey. Why is this so (other than what my wife calls my ‘one-sided love affair with Google’)? Because I have been taking serious advantage of Google’s free online tools and services for my personal, professional and academic use. There are so many of them, I am hard-pressed to use other services! The convenience and benefits I have received far outweigh the time and effort I have spent discovering and learning Google’s tools.

I mean, did you know that there’s a ‘(‘Home-made’) Ice Cream Map of Singapore’ on Google Maps? :)

(In truth, there are many free online productivity tools and services that are available, such as Zoho, Evernote, Remember The Milk, just to name a few.)

If you believe the study and work that I am about to embark on will be beneficial and of value, I really hope you will spare some time for the survey or help to distribute the survey URL link to this survey to your friends, family, colleagues and anyone you think who will be able to provide insights for this study. The more participants, the better!

Survey Link: http://bit.ly/DigitalEdgeSurvey

Survey Outcome and Future Plans

I plan to publish the results and analysis of this survey on this blog during the week of 14-20 June 2010. I really hope this future report will provide great insights and viewpoints that will assist me and others to develop educational digital learning content for the general populace.

I am also assuring you that my blog will now focus on sharing the secrets of simple technologies through learning posts that I hope you will find useful and adopt for your daily and professional use.

I thank you for your participation and for your willingness to re-share this survey.

Why Am I Doing This?

I will write a more in-depth post soon on my future objectives and my conviction on why I should set out and do this. But here’s a short explanation in a nutshell.

Recently, I did some thinking and had a ‘A-HA!’ moment that totally changed my focus and perspective.

An empowered and enabled employee will do more wonders for an organisation than state-of-the-art software or a roomful of high-end servers. Period.

Throughout this blog, I have written about how businesses should adopt and adapt the ‘open’ business model through social media and online marketing.

I was totally missing the point.

It is people that should matter first. Develop the people, then develop the business.

Didn’t they say the most efficient and productive workforce keeps the economy running smooth and healthy?

I leave you now with one of my inspiration. Watch this (a little dizzy at times) video to understand what I mean.

Video Credits: Dan Pink’s animated talk: ‘Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us’

Thanks for reading this post. If you have any comment or would like to share your ideas, thoughts or even to give input on how I can improve on the survey and study, do feel free to use the Comment space below.

The Age of the Halal Foodies: BuUuk and the Mobile Marketing-enabled Business

Isman Tanuri — Thu, 15 Apr 2010 22:47:40 +0000

Being the avid foodies that we are, the wife and I are always on the lookout for new food joints to satisfy our cravings. Our problem is, being Muslims, finding halal establishments in Singapore can be quite a challenge. The halal foodie depends heavily on word-of-mouth recommendations, googling the Web and physical ‘stumbleupons’ to discover new food places (sometimes food blogs such as ‘Yok Makan!’ offers great recommendation). But most times though, halal food places remains top of our Google search list.

Not for much longer though. The mobile web will save us all.

Introducing BuUuk: The Mobile Foodie App

Things have gotten easier since we discovered BuUuk for our Android phones (Nexus One FTW BTW). BuUuk is a restaurant guide utility application available for free on the iPhone App Store and also for phones running on Android (get it from Android Market on your phone or click this to dowload .apk file and install). Interestingly, BuUuk is a homegrown, Singapore-made product and has also been featured on CNN Go’s list of ‘11 Crucial iPhone Travel Apps’.

Key Features of BuUuk You Should Know

- BuUuk is a location-aware app. Wherever you are (local or overseas), BuUuk uses your GPS or AGPS location to provide you with Nearby food recommendations. This, I think, is a really cool feature, saves travel time obviously. BuUuk even tells me that I am ‘142m’ away from the Toa Payoh Bus Interchange’s McDonalds outlet (I am at my workdesk at home right now).

- BuUuk currently has a database of restaurants in 50 cities in Asia and Pacific and Middle East (including Seoul, Langkawi, Osaka, Vientiane, etc) Wherever you are, BuUuk will come to you with information.

- BuUuk has both ‘Featured’ (paid listings?) and user-added restaurant listings. You can also add a new discovery to the list. A great way to recommend your favourite chef to friends, family and all foodies out there.

- BuUuk has Best lists. Cuts decision-making time efficiently and more time to enjoy your food.

- BuUuk provides a restaurant page for the food place you are searching for. What’s great here? Cuisine info, contact number, address and directions (running on Google Maps engine). You won’t get lost for sure.

- You can also vote for your favourite foodie hangouts (or find out which joints you should avoid)

- It also looks like BuUuk has an active ‘mobile forum’ section called ‘Ask BuUuk’.

- Here’s the great bit for the wife and I: BuUuk shows if a restaurant is Halal or not. There is also a Categories feature for us to check out all the Halal food joints in Singapore and travel out to these places. ( Other categories are Hawker, German, Filipino and even Dutch among many others.) Note to the Halal Foodie: Please do a quick Google search or ask around to find out if the place is indeed Halal. As a fair bit of the information on BuUuk are user/customer-generated, error in highlighting a place as ‘Halal’ might occur. As with all user-generated recommendations, do a little more search. Start with Google.

My verdict on BuUuk: It is a very promising mobile application with great potential as long as content are fresh and relevant to service users. I would also suggest an editor to audit the restaurant information submitted by users. Nothing biggie there where user-generated content is concerned.

The Age of the Halal Foodies has arrived, rejoice!

Follow BuUuk on Twitter

(Non-marketing folks, perhaps the following might bore you. You may leave if you wish to do so.)

Part II: Why Mobile Marketing Is Important for Business, Big and Small

Can you, the Singaporean food business owner, afford NOT to be on BuUuk?

Here’s an interesting statistic featured in Straits Times yesterday: 80% of ALL phones sold in Singapore in the last 6 months are smartphones.

These are mobile gadgets that allow anyone to access the web any where and everywhere. Consumers have now been freed from the shackles of their desktop to search for content and information wherever they want and whenever they need to. From a personal experience, I have hardly needed to lug my work laptop around or access the web on the desktop computer at home after receiving my Nexus One. The smartphone meets my informational and computing needs adequately.

Where Are Consumers Heading?

Consumers are going to reach out to the nearest businesses they can conveniently reach digitally and those who have taken the effort to market and create presence on the mobile web platform. Those who do will certainly acquire the edge and headstart over others. Consumers are also making specific and targeted search, (such as halal food) and, without online content to optimise search results, businesses might be on the losing end in the long run. With location services such as Foursquare and Gowalla proving extremely popular with the smartphone crowd these days, the consumer retail industry will need to transform itself quickly to cater to these new realities.

No Love for SMS Marketing

Okay, by default, I am going to ignore SMS marketing, be it traditional or interactive. I get irritated by them for interrupting me at the most inconvenient moments. My theory is, advertisers and networks are moving (or jumping in) on the mobile marketing space because traditional advertising has failed. Mobile is just another channel for advertisers to interrupt with noisy commercial messages. I have not seen something I appreciate for ages! (Having said that, markets, such as India or Indonesia, do work and possibly have a need for SMS marketing because of the lack of mobile web infrastructure and slower technologies. Still, no condoning for interruptive tactics from me!)

Mobile Content for Consumers: Utilisable, Reusable and Shareable

The future of mobile marketing should lie in reusable and consumer-utilisable content. Only by developing content can companies capitalise on effective branding (recall and engagement) and generate long-term customer retention. Like BuUuk. I am a fan. And I am sharing with all of you.

More thoughts and ideas on mobile marketing coming to this blog. Watch this space.

This post was inspired by my 3-day attendance at the Mobile Marketing Association Forum (Asia Pacific) 2010. The Mobile Marketing Association is a global non-profit organisation that is leading the growth and adoption of mobile marketing among businesses globally. I fancy what they are doing to keep it sane and do have a read of their Global Code of Conduct (PDF) for mobile marketers. We are in good hands.

Share your thoughts and comments below on BuUuk, mobile marketing and even better still, the best Halal food joints! Let me start, where to find authentic halal dim sum in Singapore? :P

Credits:

Food image: http://www.flickr.com/photos/laruth/

BuUuk images: www.pcworld.com, iridianstudio.com

Nexus One image: http://www.flickr.com/photos/mackarus

Singapore Post Lost My Wife’s US$400 Parcel And Does Not Care

Isman Tanuri — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 05:38:01 +0000

Post Updated: 5 May, see end of post

Are we really a First World country with a world-class service industry serving the economy? Certainly not if our still unresolved issue with Singapore Post (SingPost) is a yardstick for measurement. A simple request for Singapore Post to re-deliver my wife’s parcel (containing online purchases of clothes from Forever 21) has dragged on for almost 3 weeks with no end in sight. Much worse is the customer service treatment we have been receiving at the hands of this monopolistic (we don’t really have a choice, do we?) Singaporean postal service. Truth is: no one at SingPost seems to care!

‘Parcel is Lost in Our Service’ says Singapore Post

The parcel, with a total purchase value of US$385.16, had been declared ‘lost’ by Singapore Post. And this happened while it was in its care! Unbelievable? Unfortunately, this is true, SingPost officially states so in this email and this one too. And for the record, there WAS an attempted parcel delivery to our door step on 30 December 2009 (more on this later). But it seems as though the parcel simply….vanished!

Obviously, we were deeply concerned and wanted this resolved as quickly as possible. As the lost item was a combined purchase between Elisa (my wife) and her friends and acquaintances, it is only right on Elisa’s part, as purchase coordinator, to rectify this quickly. If the parcel is really lost as claimed, then compensation must be made, especially when SingPost has clearly acknowledged losing it. Simple enough? Turns out, not quite.

Ignored by Singpost?

It is painfully obvious from our interactions that Singapore Post does not see any urgency in this matter nor does it feel totally responsible for this blunder. Despite countless calls and information request via emails, no single person at Singapore Post took the initiative or claimed any service responsibility over our case. Read on to find out how SingPost tries to ‘tai chi’ this problem away. (Note: ‘To tai chi’ is Singlish for shifting work or blame to someone else)

Since January 11, Elisa had been making periodic calls to Singapore Post’s customer service hotline to enquire about this parcel. The same mantras were repeated countless times: ‘We are looking into it’, ‘Our operation team is still investigating’, ‘The parcel is still missing’, etc. And she kept being told ‘We will give you a call’, but never heard back from anyone. Not a single call-back came from SingPost in the course of 2 weeks. Unbelievable but true.

This perceived ‘lack of interest’ by SingPost is also evident in email communication. A certain ‘Jxcqueline Lim – Senior Manager’ offered to keep a close watch on this case when Elisa spoke to her on January 22. Unfortunately, that did not happen. See the chain of emails that is still unresponded (and possibly ignored by Miss Lim) since January 22.

All Talk, No Action

From January 11 till the 22nd, this case was ‘ping-ponging’ between Singapore Post’s Customer Service team, their Investigation team and quite possibly their Claims Department. It seems like no one wanted to make any decision. If it takes 2 weeks to locate a single physical parcel, then there must be something seriously wrong operationally at SingPost.

Only on January 22, when we demanded immediate concrete action to be taken, was a police report given to us the very same evening (more about discrepancies of this police report later). We deduced it to be SingPost’s way of saying: ‘Yes, we lost your parcel but can you wait in case it turns up so that we don’t have to claim insurance and save some bucks?’

This whole episode, coming hot on the heels of the controversial Singapore Post’s "Acts of Vandalism" publicity stunt that backfired, does make us wonder the quality of decision-making business managers currently helming the company. SingPost is not exactly doing itself any favour here. And to think I had voluntarily proposed a revolutionary business idea to SingPost previously.

Next, I’ll detail a factual rundown of events that led to this blog post.

What Actually Happened

20 December: Elisa and myself left Singapore for a 3-week holiday in the Middle East.

29 December: Parcel arrived in Singapore on 29 December at 3.10pm. View the online tracking report by United States Postal Service for item CJ242179875US (Elisa’s parcel).

30 December: Delivery was attempted on 30 December by owner of mobile no. +6581461087 to our flat in Toa Payoh Central. The following are text messages (signed off as ‘S’pore post’) sent to Elisa on the same day regarding this attempted delivery:

Another text message was also sent on January 2:

31 December: My mom called on my mobile and mentioned that our neighbour, an elderly lady, had contacted her to inform of a postal delivery man at our door the previous day. Our kind neighbour had spoken to the delivery man and that she was ready to ‘make payment’ on our behalf (we found out later that Goods and Services Tax (GST) was due on Elisa’s parcel). However, our neighbour mentioned that the man was nowhere to be found when she returned to the door later with her money bag.

8-9 January: Elisa sent several text messages to +6581461087, but did not receive any reply.

11 January: Elisa made the first call to Singapore Post’s Customer Service to enquire on re-delivering the parcel. She was told that parcel cannot be located and SingPost advised that it will need at least 2 working days to look for the parcel. SingPost assured her that a return call will be made within the next few days.

Text messages and phone calls made to +6581461087 were still not answered. Gave up on that channel of communication.

13 January: No news from Singapore Post. When contacted, SingPost informed that ‘the Operations team is still trying to locate the parcel’. SingPost also mentioned that if the parcel is not found by January 18, a police report will be made in order to initiate claims. We decided to wait it out and requested to SingPost to provide a prompt update by January 18.

18 January: Again zero communication received from Singapore Post. Elisa made a call and told the same thing: ‘the Operations team is still trying to locate the parcel’.

So no police report had been made. When asked when exactly the police report will be filed, the Customer Service Officer quipped that she had just updated the system for the ‘Operations team’ to file the police report. Ping! Pong! Among other things:

Was also told that the police report would take THREE working days to complete
After which the report will go to the Claims Department to look into the matter and handle the proceeding steps Ping! Pong!
Will be updated via a phone call regarding the police report and claims

I guess Elisa and friends have to wait. Again.

The Singapore Post’s Police Report Mystery!

22 January: Still no update on a late Friday afternoon so we decided to give Singapore Post a call.

No police report had been made! The atrocity!

The SingPost Customer Service officer on the line said ‘Don’t worry, we’ll take care of it and will call you back on Monday’. ‘NO WAY!’ we protested. Eventually, by sheer verbal force, Elisa and yours truly managed to speak to Jxcquxlinx Lim (Senior Manager, Customer Service) and she agreed to file the report so that a compensation claim can be initiated as soon as possible.

Do see the chain of emails here on this. Notice an attempt to delay official action again, despite an earlier verbal agreement with Jxcquxlinx Lim. Elisa highlighted this in her last email reply.

A police report was eventually lodged by SingPost on the same evening and we duly received a copy of this report. Please do view the full copy of this police report.

Now, let’s play detective! Notice the following discrepancies in the police report:

Police report was made in the personal name of ‘Ayub Bin Hamzah’. Is this normal practice? I assume this is a safeguard so that Singapore Post, as a business entity, is likely to be absolved from any connection or responsibility in case a criminal offence had been committed.
No signature or name and details of police officer-in-charge visible in the report. The informant ‘Ayub Bin Hamzah’ did not sign as well. Extremely odd! I wonder what is the real story here. Anyone familiar with police reports?
Look again at the following text message sent by owner of mobile no. +6581461087 on the afternoon of 30 Dec when the parcel was still in his/her possession:

Notice the time and date message was sent and received:

30 December, 2.59pm

Now look at the ‘Time of Incident’ for loss of parcel as stated by Singpost in the police report.

30 December, 11.47am-11.59pm

So Many Questions!

The parcel was reported/discovered ‘lost’ between those hours when it is obvious that, evidenced through the text messages sent to Elisa, the owner of mobile no. +6581461087 still had the parcel in his possession. Isn’t this downright fishy? A parcel gone missing while being delivered? Should this not be grounds for a criminal investigation?
Who is the owner of mobile no. +6581461087 anyway? Singapore Post’s official response to us on this query is “We do not know to whom this mobile number belongs to”. ???
Singapore Post does not keep track of its own delivery men/women? Inconceivable? Apparently so.
Could the owner of mobile no. +6581461087 be ‘Ayub Bin Hamzah’?
If parcel was already ‘lost’ on 30 December, why did Elisa receive another text message from +6581461087 on January 2? What was its purpose? There was no other communication after this message.
How is it possible that a parcel, in SingPost’s care and ready to be delivered to owner, can go missing and untraceable within the space of a week? Aren’t all parcel shipments individually tagged and tracked?
There was never a ‘Request for Re-delivery’ note left behind at our door by owner of mobile no. +6581461087 or was there ever an official SingPost call made to Elisa to arrange for re-delivery afterwards. Is this an attempt to cover up something?

25 January: No call from SingPost, specifically from the Claims Department.

26 January: Still no call and no news. So Elisa made a direct call to Jxcquxlinx Lim to ask for status of the claims.

Jxcquxlinx’s reply was: ‘Oh, no staff contacted you yesterday? Someone was supposed to call you. Ok, let me try to get hold of someone from the Claims department and have them speak to you.’

We felt really numb by now. Ping! Pong!

Later on a Fxdilx called, informing Elisa that the claims process will take several days. However, Jxcquxlinx had earlier agreed to resolve the claims process by Monday, January 25. Fxdilx claimed that she was ‘unaware of this’. Com’mon, SingPost, COMMUNICATE!

When asked to speak to Jxcquxlinx, Fxdilx informed that she had left for the day and instead a ‘Miss Umx’ would be calling by 9.30pm that evening. Unfortunately, Elisa missed this call. A return call to ‘Miss Umx’ was, however, unanswered.

The Final Straw: Singapore Post Washes Hands and ‘Tai Chis’ Tasks to USA Post, Forever 21 and Us!

27 January: Elisa picked up the phone and called a ‘Miss Umxmagasvary – Asst Manager, Customer Relations’ (we theorise that the concept of calling back or following up apparently does not exist in SingPost’s operations manual). In the call, the message communicated by Miss Umx simply astounded us! Elisa asked that this be documented in an email, which was received promptly. The full copy of the email is available for viewing. Reproduced here is an excerpt from Miss Umx’s email:

Dear Ms Elisa

ENQUIRY ON USA PARCEL NUMBER CJ242179875US

Please refer to your conversation with our call center dated 12 Jan 2010.

We are sorry to inform you that despite a through search, we are unable to locate the parcel. As such, the parcel has been declared as lost in our service.

We have reported the lost of the parcel to the USA Post and have requested to liasie with the sender accordingly. We have also informed them to compensate the sender at our expense as in accordance with the UPU Regulations.

As the sender would have the prior right of claim, please advise your sender to file a claim with the USA Post.

Our sincere apologies for the lost of the parcel and the inconvenience experienced

Yours sincerely

Umx (Ms)

Asst Manager, Customer Relations, Customer Service (Business Division)

DID: 65 68456222, Fax: 65 68425114

Case closed?! This is totally unbelievable! MAJOR PING PONG!

This is as good as Singapore Post saying:

‘Sorry, we fxxked up, please help clean the mess after us’.

After 3 weeks of dealing with Singapore Post’s Customer Service and after it admitted to losing Elisa’s parcel, SingPost now wants to close off this matter by making USA Post, Forever21 and us to ‘take care of business’. How much more crazier can this get? There are even more questions now:

Why is Singapore Post getting USA Post involved in this when it is pretty obvious that SingPost lost Elisa’s parcel in Singapore? The parcel was delivered and arrived safely in Singapore on 29 December at 3.10pm. It went missing under SingPost’s watch, for goodness sake.
And why is Singapore Post making my wife do their work for them? “Please advise your sender to file a claim with the USA Post”. Not content with making Elisa constantly following up with customer service at SingPost (who lost Elisa’s parcel, by the way, if I haven’t already mentioned that), she is suddenly asked to TAKE CARE OF HER OWN BUSINESS? Nasty.
“Compensate the sender”: Whatever happened to the person whose money and time has been spent in this? In this email from Miss Umx, there is ZERO mention of claims or compensation to my wife, the paying customer. An oversight? Nah. It is likely that SingPost just does not care. Instead, the email implied as such: ‘Sorry, we tried our best but you are on your own. Now shoo. Leave us in peace.’
Is this a way for Singapore Post not to claim compensation on its insurance? Or not to fork out any money from its own coffers by making the sender claim from its own insurance, etc.? In the real world, if I were to lose someone else’s property, I should jolly well be made responsible for it.

Answer our questions, Singapore Post!

Elisa and myself have given enough opportunity and time to Singapore Post to ‘play’ nice’ and resolve this matter amicably. Yes, Elisa will probably be fully compensated, albeit in a ‘gazillion years’. But there are still so many questions that need answers, even legal ones.

Thus, we decided to bring this out to a public forum. We decided to let you be a witness and, hopefully, a commentator to this issue. We are always lamenting about our Singaporean service industry and this is probably just one of many cases you’ve heard. Now here’s a platform for your thoughts so that we can all learn from this unfortunate episode.

But above all, we would like Singapore Post to respond publicly to our many unanswered questions and the mysteries surrounding the vanished parcel, police report, compensation etc. Keeping it quiet and under wraps have not worked at all in our favour. We have stopped believing in your ‘stories’ over the phone and now we desire some real deal honesty.

On to you, Singapore Post.

5 May Update:

We thank you, visitors here who have found our story, for reading and sharing your thoughts on the SingPost issue and also for giving us your encouragement and support. We are happy to update that we had received compensation directly from SingPost for the full value of the lost package.

There are still questions that remains unanswered, including what really happened with the lost package and the conclusion of the police investigation on the matter. However, we commend SingPost for taking up our issue directly, visiting us to discuss in detail, leaving comments on this blog and keeping the conversation open. Please read Peggy Chong’s reply to us on this matter.

We hope in some ways we have helped institutions like SingPost and other exasperated consumers find a way to communicate better in resolving similar issues. Technologies and communication platforms that allow a much closer interaction between businesses and consumers have evolved greatly with the Web2.0 revolution. We hope opportunities like these will be fully utilised on both sides of the commercial divide.

Thanks again for visiting and do leave your thoughts and opinions for the benefits of others. I also invite you to read the rest of the blog if you have the time. Cheers!

Marathon Running, The Long Tail and Valuable Business Lessons

Isman Tanuri — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 09:43:00 +0000

The Standard Chartered Singapore Marathon 2009 came around last Sunday. I eventually ticked another item off my New Year’s Resolutions list by completing the 21km half-marathon, my first ever, but not without pains and frustration. Despite being able to run continuously for 90 minutes and feeling strong and tireless at the 14km mark, I had to switch to brisk walking because of a prior niggling injury to my right ankle. That meant shifting my weight to the left leg, and soon I was cramping out on that leg. One thing led to another and soon both legs were developing muscle pains.

Thinking is a Painkiller

I began writing this blog post in my head for the next 5km. That somewhat took away the troubling thoughts that I will not reach the Finish Line in 2.5 hours (my goal on the outset). In any case, many of my blog posts had been written while on my daily runs. The experts do say that running makes you smarter. I certainly like the tone of that.

As I have been reading Chris Anderson’s The Long Tail lately, naturally my mind drifted there. Observing the massive throng of people (well, mostly folks speeding past me), a theoretical connection clicked, from which more thoughts poured in.

Here’s the result of killing pain with brain juicing.

The Marathon is A Long Tail Business

In his book, Chris Anderson generally explains the concept of The Long Tail as the explosion of niche products and customers. With the digital revolution and easy access to choices, consumers are buying extensively from a range of “non-hit” products and non-traditional retail sources. We were too smitten with buying branded products, undoubtedly shaped by popular culture in the ‘70s-‘90s, but now we are buying deep into catalogues of obscure products. Amazon.com and iTunes are examples of The Long Tail business, retailers who offer unlimited product choices. Many other small- and medium-sized businesses are also thriving in the Long Tail economy, catering to an extended range of niche market segments.

In marathon running, The Long Tail theory holds water too. At the front of the pack are the well-oiled professional runners whom we can imagine as the corporations and big businesses of the world. These are the runners who will lead far ahead of the competition, dominate the race, first to the Drinks Stations and eventually winning the money prizes. But what about the rest of the competition? (Imagine sole proprietors, small- and mid-sized businesses as runners that make up the rest of the competitive field)

This is where the Long Tail kicks in. There are enough opportunities for everyone else at the back. Everyone gets an opportunity at the Drinks Stations or a banana treat. Everyone gets a path ahead to run along. Even the last competitor in the field gets a medal eventually.

To illustrate, earlier on in my career, then-girlfriend (now wife) and myself started a music label business together. Fruit Records, the label we own, was too small to compete with the bigwigs of music distribution, such as Warner Music or Sony BMG. We were also a wee player in a network of thousands of independent music labels around the world. Getting prominently ahead of competition is a tough proposition.

We decided that we needed a niche business strategy to complement our niche product genre (in this case, independent guitar pop bands) and we were very successful with it (view my Fruit Records’ portfolio.) We found customers and distribution all over the world, in Poland, Japan, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Peru, Finland, New Zealand and many other exotic locales. Our bands travelled the region to perform and, to our surprise, the long-tail fans appeared in huge numbers! When we put on concerts in Singapore featuring foreign artistes, we were equally-bewildered at the breadth and demographic make up of our audiences. It was certainly an unforgettable experience in the Long Tail economy.

In essence, just as in marathon running, as long as a business attempts to stay in competition, the Long Tail will bring its niche rewards and satisfaction, personal or commercial. Businesses must be willing to develop its own niches and audience in spite of fierce and numerous competition. Perhaps winning or dominating the marketplace is out of the question for most businesses but if they stay focused and strategise for the long-run, there are enough opportunities to grow from strength to strength into a sustainable enterprise.

Personal Learning and Business Lessons in Marathon Running

Before the 14km mark, I was pretty sure of a good finish. I felt good and my aggregate time would have put me in good stead for a sub-2.5 hour finish. Then the pains started and all plans went awry. So a new strategy was required: a run-walk trot and my goal was adjusted to a sub-3 hours finish.

If you look at my official running stats’ analysis, 1541 runners passed by me in the last 7.2km alone. Blah. Every metre of that last stretch was frustrating. I kept trying to increase my ‘trot’ speed to a jog but every 10 metres or so, I had to abruptly stop because either the right or the left leg was on the verge of cramping. After a while, I decided to listen intently to what my body was trying to tell me. I assessed the situation and managed my expectations. I told myself that if I were to get cramps, I might slow myself further and derail any hope of a sub-3 hours finish. I stopped pushing myself too hard. Gratefully, I managed to jog the last 500 metres. Sweet.

When I acknowledged the fact that I was not going to meet my original goal (sub-2.5 hours), I decided to look at the bigger picture. What is my end-objective? To complete the run. Timing became secondary and, in my head, I was already planning ahead to 2010’s Singapore Marathon in my head. Learn from the mistakes of this maiden experience and come back stronger next year.

Before the marathon on Sunday, I was frequently asked “So is this a precursor to next year’s full marathon?” Of course, the egocentric, competitive maniac in me proclaimed “Yes!” to every one of those questions. How humbled have I been since.

I have reassessed and realised that I do not have all the strengths of a marathon runner. My bulky size means I am not built for long-distance running and, because of my age, the impact of constant running may actually be detrimental to my knees and joints in the long run and limit further physical activities. That is a big consideration.

I am also not equipped with the mental confidence and conviction that I am able to finish a full marathon. Yet. Expectation #fail.

But what I have got going for me is the experience of a first half-marathon and the belief that I can perfectly manage the 21km distance. Knowing my body, I am also convinced that I can do exceptionally well in this category with better preparation and training. Therefore, with all these understanding, I choose the option to excel. So it will be the half-marathon again next year (rather than being mentally-defeated in the full marathon.)

In Summary…

As I have illustrated above, marathon running-style, there are many business lessons to be learned while distance running. In the course of doing business, I believe organisations must be willing to pause and consider the following:

Listen internally and intently to the business and the marketplace
Look at the bigger picture and plan sustainable long-term objectives
Assess situation and re-strategise, if necessary
Manage expectations and adjust goals, if required
Understand strengths and weaknesses and use this knowledge to excel in the field, rather than being an also-ran or overrun by competitors

Oh, and by the way, I managed to achieve my sub-3 hours goal. My official finish time for the 21km half-marathon was 2hrs 58mins. Next year’s personal benchmark has been set. Doubly sweet.

So now, who’s taking up the challenge for next year’s Singapore Marathon? If you’re inspired by this post and signing up for next year’s run or you simply have views on this post, would love to hear from you in the comments.

Sticky Marketing: Bridging the Brand and Mind Divide

Isman Tanuri — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 10:08:18 +0000

I think we have to agree that traditional offline marketing is still a crucial business initiative even in today’s consumer markets. As much as I am a huge advocate of bringing people online and influencing through great online content and virtual social interaction, digital alone will not cut it. Going out there with road shows, direct marketing with flyers and sales promotions are still expected by the buying public, most especially in Singapore (Great Singapore Sale, anyone?)

Which is great for the economy, especially in the current slumpish conditions. But unfortunately, most businesses want to fast track the route to cash. ‘What is the fastest way to push stock and goods?’ ‘Which shopping season will reap the most money for us?’ Hence, the customer neglect.

Segment and predict the market, yes. Understand the market, NO!

Getting Sticky With It

I am writing this post inspired by Penn Olson’s post: 5 Guerilla Marketing Campaigns Captured on Video. How guerilla marketing campaigns work is by capturing your attention momentarily and then leaving an impression of the brand and its message in the mind (however, viral is unpredictable and should not be an objective but a bonus).

In his book, ‘The Tipping Point’, Malcolm Gladwell speaks of The Stickiness Factor, the specific content of a message that renders its impact memorable. Using this concept at value, it shows how easily being top-of-mind can greatly improve your marketing and branding effort. I personally think being ‘sticky’ does not require huge and blatant impacts. It is the quality of the customer’s attention and learning that matters most and this can be attained by a carefully thought-out marketing campaign. One that bridge traditional with digital.

So I now present to you…‘Sticky Marketing’.

The Sticky Route 2 to the End Point is essentially getting into the mind of the buyer before- or post-purchase by redirecting the buyer’s attention to online digital assets such as a website or social portals (Facebook, LinkedIn, etc.) Unlike Route 1, where interaction and intellectual exchange is minimal and where the focus is on closing a sale, Route 2 provides a journey for the customer to further understand the brand and products. A sustained exposure and learning of the brand. Is that not sticky?

Watch how this German guerilla campaign is used to market the brand’s automobile paintwork repair services. A pity they did not provide any info on the ‘sticker’ on getting to the brand online, but I am pretty sure they are Google-ready. (This was in fact a viral video project as part of the brand’s engagement with the readers of its blog):

Now replace the above campaign with any of your offline campaigns, be it a road show or door-to-door direct marketing with flyers. Just remember to promote your web portals or your social media channels (please don’t do this mistake). If you are successful in leading your customers to your online assets, it is a great opportunity for sticky marketing and not merely simple selling. Long term sustainability is always better than short term profit!

So which route will your business choose? 1 or 2? Do you want to get sticky with your customers? If I got this wrong, please do tell in the comments!

Ps. Warning! Sticky Marketing is not an attempt at intellectualism. Just merely saying it simple :)

WYXXZ7XNUUS5

What Brands Ought Not To Do On Twitter

Isman Tanuri — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 14:24:03 +0000

Talk about itself. All the time. David Meerman Scott has something to say about this.

Writer’s Note: Hundred Trees is a condominium development in Singapore. Hundred Trees is on Twitter and Facebook. Please note that I have personally seen @hundredtrees reply to tweets previously (if you don’t see any in their current timeline). Credit to @hundredtrees for being social when it mattered.

So what should brands do instead?

Connect with the audience or, at a minimum, share content or thoughts beyond the peddled products. Behave and be a real person behind a computer and the Twitter account (or any social media tools). That is somehow much easier to relate to from a customer’s point-of-view. “We as humans love to project personalities on inanimate objects.” (CoTweet)

Now, this is how Royal Plaza on Scotts does it on Twitter.

Writer’s Note: Royal Plaza on Scotts is a 5-star business hotel within Orchard Rd shopping district, Singapore. Follow @royalplazatweet on Twitter or visit their Facebook Page.

If you do it well…

If Wisma Atria is on Twitter: Why a Twitter Presence is Essential for Any People Business

Isman Tanuri — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 07:33:53 +0000

Recently I was asked this question ‘Tell me why Wisma Atria should have a Twitter account’. Wisma Atria is a major mall on Orchard Road, Singapore that has pretty much reinvented itself with a facade change and cool-factor repositioning. A quick check shows that Wisma Atria is already on Twitter although I can’t be sure if that is indeed Wisma’s or a Twitter-squatter. Looks derelict to me (with 4 dubious followers) and 0 tweets.

There are many things that a business can achieve on Twitter and on social media in general, including close interaction with customers, shouting out ads, news and discounts, content distribution and much more. Brand reputation management is also a real possibility if Twitter is set up to alert.

Disclaimer: This post is written as a case study in exploring the possibilities and opportunities that may present themselves for businesses about to engage in social media. No affiliation to Wisma Atria and certainly no malice intended whatsoever although I am certainly open to further discourse and idea-sharing.

So let us focus this discussion on the overall reason why Wisma Atria MUST be on Twitter and how it will help its business and, most importantly, its customers.

Connecting.

Without a doubt, connecting with customers and listening to what they have to say about a brand is becoming an increasingly important concept. Gone are the days when product is THE focal point of a business. Not anymore, says The Customer. The internet in large parts has shift influence over to the consumer. The power to communicate and to retaliate is now in the tweeting fingers of consumers.

Just so we are clear, Twitter and social media are not strategies but only be a component social media tool within your organisation’s total marketing strategy (offline & online).

Despite the consumers’ firm grasp on social media, the possibilities are still endless for businesses to use the same set of social media tools to engage and reach out. There are many advantages to gain, especially market insights and intelligence.

So without further ado, I present..

‘If Wisma Atria is on Twitter…’

Direct Communication

If Wisma Atria is on Twitter, it can communicate directly to its customer at any time, like @rochorbeancurd does. What better way to reach out to customers other than being open, timely and with the injection of a little humanity in a brand’s persona. Especially when CSR (corporate social responsibility) is such the rage these days.

Real-Time Customer Service

If Wisma Atria is easily reached by Twitter, it can resolve customer issues quickly. ‘Just tell Wisma Atria anything on Twitter’ should be a real and implemented concept. Perhaps your customers would like to tweet to you information on that leaky washroom sink, to ask for store directions or to complain about a misleading ad.

Ask this, which one is faster for a savvy and connected customer:

1. Trying to find a customer service counter, 2. Googling for Wisma’s customer service number or 3. A direct tweet to, perhaps, @wismaonline (still available! quick!)

Make it easy and the customer will appreciate it. (Sidenote: Wisma’s online feedback tool is so buried on its website, it is like a treasure hunt!)

These days customers want to know that brands are listening to them. Like @starhubcares.

Identifying Customers and Targeting

If Wisma Atria is on Twitter, it will know that it has a prominent Indonesian clientele/customers who are active on Twitter and can be easily reached for highly-targeted sales or communication campaigns. Wisma can also find out which store is “hot!” in their mall and hype it up. When Twitter’s geo-location feature rolls out fully, it will be really fun to find out which store is really hot in real time as more shoppers are tweeting through mobile internet and sms. There are real business opportunities in that. Point being, the ability to target efficiently and precisely is a huge asset.

Celebrity Spotting

If Wisma was listening on Twitter, it would have known that 2 Indonesian celebrities were hanging out there. Could have easily
been Paris Hilton or Takeshi Kaneshiro. Real good PR opportunity. (but no celebrity stalking, please)

Sales Campaigns and Programs

If Wisma Atria is on Twitter, it can do what @DiscountHunt is doing so well with its info relay service.

And guess what? Wisma’s fans will be happy to tell all their friends all about it.

A More Effective Social Media Approach

If Wisma is on Facebook and NOT on Twitter, it is blasphemy. Your Facebook Fans would like to reach out to you at some point and Twitter is one way to grab your attention. @sakaesushi uses both Facebook and Twitter to great effect.

Facebook and Twitter complement each other:

1. Your campaigns get out in real-time and faster via Twitter to reach YOUR audience (Twitter followers).

2. As long as you have an interesting proposition, you will always have them back to your Facebook Fan Page in no time. And less risk of a Facebook ‘white-elephant’, if you know what I mean.

Competitive Intelligence

If Wisma Atria is on Twitter, it can learn of its competitors and always be one step ahead :)

And much much more…

The possibilities are endless ‘if Wisma Atria is on Twitter…’ and it could be for your business too! All business are people business.

Please share in the comments if you have any interesting ideas on Twitter use for Wisma Atria or for any retail business. Would love to hear what you think.

Find me on Twitter @groovygenie or connect with me on Facebook.