As social media becomes consumers’ preferred method of interaction with brands there are several directions to take and it’s easy to get lost. Social Media Club of Kansas City’s June breakfast featured Carla Meyer and Joshua Kennedy from Garmin discussing how they navigate the world of social to engage consumers as well as for their customer care.

Carla Meyer kicked off the social media portion of the presentation by sharing Garmin’s keys to social success for any campaign/content:

• Evaluate – Ask yourself how this impacts your strategic goals? What is the call to action? How will you measure success? What is your timeline and budget?
• Strategize/Plan – How does this fit in the big picture of social strategy? Build a plan to support the strategy.
• Execute – Think like an agency; nimble, creative, take calculated risks. Communicate across the organization what you’re doing and why. Show off, brag about what you can do.
• Build – Show data to stakeholders in ‘snackable’ reports, easy to digest. Educate others on your goals and how you’re accomplishing them. Build your strategy in a way that is scalable. Involve others, make them feel invested in your success.
• Refine and repeat – Learn and evolve after every campaign. Continually improve.

Carla was followed by Joshua Kennedy who manages customer morale on Garmin’s social channels. Morale? Not satisfaction? That’s right. Garmin’s goal is to measure morale rather than satisfaction. Satisfaction is a feeling at a fixed point in time. Morale, on the other hand, is a spectrum of emotion. Managing morale gives a brand the ability to cultivate lifelong customers.

Kennedy’s keys for success include:

• Manage external and internal morale – customers need to be happy and so does your team. Teams with high morale show in their engagement and work.
• To manage external morale :
  • Acknowledge and validate customer concerns, this doesn’t necessarily mean apologizing
  • Engage where and when you can add value
  • Look for positive resolutions
  • Be consistent with follow through
• In any communication:
  • Choose words carefully
  • Be mindful of mood
  • Know when to disengage, some customers will never be satisfied
  • Keep your happy customers

While Garmin’s approach to social and customer care may seem like common sense, these basic practices can be lost in the drive to always be doing something new. Doing the little things right, consistently, builds a platform and customer base receptive to new things.

You can view the full presentation HERE.