Can We Talk About LinkedIn?

This week we returned our focus to the world of social media. Often, when people think about social media, they think of Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. LinkedIn is kind of the red-headed stepchild of the social media platforms. It is no less important, however, and for the business world, LinkedIn is often a better time investment than anything else online. Given all of that, you might be surprised at the very unprofessional content you can run into there.

Before we talked about LinkedIn this week, we looked back on those happy golden years of 2010-2012 or so. It was the heyday of social media, you might say. Why? Because people actually talked to each other. You know, they socialized. What has happened to all of that "engagement" that used to be the core of social media? We have some opinions here.

LinkedIn, as per the above, was our topic on Wednesday. We asked a simple question. Do you know what your employees' LinkedIn profiles look like? I was doing a little research and discovered some profiles with über professional titles like "head dufus" or "ugly." These kinds of jokey profiles don't only make you look bad, they can also reflect poorly on the whole company. If you have a LinkedIn page, those employee profiles can be just one click away. Read more here.

We introduced something new this week on Tuesday. We're calling it #10Tuesday and the idea is that we will gather up 10 of our favorite blog posts by OTHER people that we think are worth your time. You can read the first curation extravaganza here.

Filling In the Best Part of Customer Service

When our family moved to the small town of Marietta, Ohio, one of our first tasks was to line up our local healthcare professionals. This can be traumatic. For instance, we had had the same dentist for many years and now we had to find a new one.

A colleague at work recommended her dentist. I figured I would give him a try. I was surprised and amazed at their state-of-the-art equipment and the complete dedication and professionalism of the entire staff, from the hygienist to the nurse assistant to my dentist.

So why am I telling this story in our marketing enewsletter? Because it has to do with customer service. I went in for a simple prophylaxis and a small procedure to fill a cavity. No big deal except the tooth was in the upper right in the furthest back of my mouth (I believe they identified it as #2). I normally have no issues at the dentist and this visit was no different but it was clear that when the team works on a tooth this far back, many patients express a fair amount of discomfort.

That evening around 8:30 PM, my cell phone rang. I had the ringer turned down and so did not hear the phone ring. When I listened to the voice mail, it was my dentist (not an assistant) making sure I was OK after the procedure and informing me that if I had any issues whatsoever that I should not hesitate to come in or call him personally on his home phone number, which he provided. I was so surprised by this message since I had never had a follow up call from any doctor checking how I was. Now I don't think I was special. I think it is his policy to call all of his patients who he sees in a given day to check up on them. But that is just the point. Who does that today? I was so taken aback at this level of service that I called my daughter who was looking for a new dentist, told her the story and recommended my dentist because "a dentist that takes the time to make a call like that is special."

Now whether you are cynical and believe he makes these calls more for the PR value rather than the bedside manner value, I still contend that this man understands customer service. It bonds people together. It is so easy to do and has such lasting effects. Each of these calls takes him around 15-20 seconds but what an impression it leaves.

Think about that the next time you want to leave a positive impression with a client.

It's really just that easy.

Clayman & Associates // 27811 State Route 7 // Marietta, Ohio 45750 // 740.376.1470