Customers, especially ones that are active on Social Netoworking sites want to talk to you, the business owner.  When something goes wrong or they have something to share with you, today’s consumer wants to break through the board room door and talk to you face to face (at least virtually).

Today Emarketer wrote

Americans are eager to deepen their brand relationships through social media,” said Mike Hollywood, director of new media at Cone, in a statement. “It isn’t an intrusion into their lives, but rather a welcome channel for discussion.

I’ll give you an example:  The other night I was on twitter and Paul Chaney (@pchaney ) was having a problem downloading his paypal report.  He mentioned this live and also noted “It figures, PayPal doesn’t have someone listening on Twitter.”  Hummmm,  sounds like a FAIL by PayPal to me.  On the other side of the coin, a blogger was writing about his expereince with JetBlue on Twitter and before he knew it they were following him to keep track of the conversation.  Good job Blue!

Enabling your customers to contact you via Social Networks goes a long way to personalizing your relationship with them (do I sound like a broken record yet?).  People don’t just want to buy blindly any more, they want to buy from a company that cares enough to invest in the transaction’s overall experience.  Yes, I said experience.  You want people to walk away from any transaction or interaction with your company with a smile on their face and the trust and confidence in you to share that experience with their friends.

Socail Networking tools are a proactive approach to customer service. 

Retailers have long known that customers spread the word quickly when they have had a bad experience. With user reviews and ratings sites becoming common, consumers now have the technology to spread the word faster than ever….

…One of the reasons consumers start complaining to their friends is that they do not get satisfaction from customer service.  Emarketer

How are you going to know what customers are saying about you, if you aren’t listening!