Nielsen Online’s Pete Blackshaw gave a keynote speech on Friday, November 14^th, at the WOMMA Summit in Las Vegas in which he stressed the importance of companies’ staying grounded in the “bread and butter,” the core values and core issues of their businesses, and not just focusing on the hottest CGM buzz words. These core objectives, especially customer service and product experience, play a critical role in motivating consumers to spread positive or negative word of mouth buzz.

One brand working hard to improve its customer service and reverse the negative perception that currently exists in the minds of some consumers, is Nielsen Online client, Comcast. During Pete’s keynote speech, he enlisted Frank Eliason, the Director of Digital Care at Comcast, to provide examples of the interesting work his team is doing to improve customer service at Comcast. Comcast’s approach includes a five tier feedback platform including:

1. Comcast Central (email, phone, website)
2. Comcast Customer Connect (Facebook, Twitter)
3. Communities (Peer-to-Peer help)
4. Corporate Blog
5. Blogging on Other Sites (Consumerist, etc)

A few of the important takeaways from Eliason’s presentation:

• Listen to Your Customers
• Create a Rapid Response Culture
• Learn From Everyone in Your Organization

Afterwards, Pete reviewed the six drivers of credibility he outlines in his new book, “Satisfied Customers Tell Three Friends, Angry Customers Tell 3000″ and did a quick round of consulting in front of the symposium audience. (Pete heads Nielsen Online’s Digital Strategic Services). He then highlighted some of the key areas of credibility in which he thinks Comcast is winning with consumers and areas that Comcast has yet to master.

In case you missed it, you can read more about Pete’s keynote and see video highlights at the links below:

http://blog.futurelab.net/2008/11/video_highlights_from_womma_su.html

http://johnbell.typepad.com/weblog/2008/11/womma-approachi.html

http://search.twitter.com/search?q=pete+blackshaw

While at the annual WOMMA conference in Vegas I had the pleasure of attending the first of two WOMMA keynote speeches given by Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh (the other will be given by Nielsen Online’s own Pete Blackshaw). Hsieh discussed in depth the importance of having a strong, rewarding company culture, and how Zappos has created just that.

Hsieh told the audience about the company’s philosophy of truly empowering the Zappos “customer loyalty reps” by asking them to: be themselves, take the initiative to go above and beyond their normal job duties, and do whatever they can to satisfy customers. And Zappos does not limit them with formalized scripts. Strong customer service reaps rewards for Zappos - 75% of Zappos customers are repeat buyers, and this winning strategy generates tons of positive word of mouth buzz for the company.

A Few Highlights from Hsieh’s Keynote:

• Culture is Branding: Company culture and branding are in fact one in the same. A strong company culture in turn provides strong branding, which creates positive word of mouth buzz.
• Strong Culture Starts With Hiring: Zappos won’t just hire new employees for having relevant experience or great technical skills - they need to pass the “culture test” and be a good fit for the company’s culture.
• If You Aren’t Good for the Culture, They’ll Fire You: Come review time if you aren’t helping build a strong culture, Zappos will send you packing. It seems a bit extreme, but Hsieh contends that the more exceptions that are made, the more it tarnishes company culture.
• Training: All new employees, even C-level ones, go through customer service and warehouse training, and all employees must have a passion for excellent customer service, no matter what their position.
• 10 Core Values: Zappos has 10 core values (one is “Create fun and a little weirdness”) all of which received considerable employee input before they were finalized.
• Ask Us Anything: A Zappos “Ask Us Anything” email newsletter encourages employees to ask management anything, no matter how threatening or silly (”Can vegetarians eat animal crackers?”). Zappos management tries to answer all questions.

Hsieh’s take on building a strong company culture which in turns builds positive word of mouth buzz is an interesting one, and a philosophy that all brands should be aware of.

Recently the Nielsen Online Automotive Team developed and released to clients the premiere edition of our “Monthly Automotive Industry Overview.” In the wake of the surprising announcement that Chrysler will no longer offer vehicle leases, it seemed appropriate to focus our hot topic analysis on consumer discussions about leases.

We discovered that consumers rely on one another when researching vehicle leases online by asking questions, sharing lease experiences and directing others to Edmunds.com for more information. Our Association Map revealed that luxury brands and vehicles have the strongest association to lease discussion, while Chrysler and Cerberus emerge in late July as a main topic of lease conversation. Additionally, GMAC and Honda Finance are the only two financial institutions that are closely correlated to lease discussion.

In the coming months, each edition of the “Monthly Automotive Industry Overview” will include staple features such as top blog posts, most-cited online news articles, “buzz” trends of the top six automotive manufacturers, as well as the key topics that are influencing online discussion about the automotive industry. It will also showcase Web traffic metrics and a “hot topic” section designed to highlight the biggest news or emerging issues in the automotive industry for that month.

If you are interested in a copy of this first “Monthly Automotive Industry Overview,” we would love to share it with you. Please contact Larry Black at 562.947.2360 or larry.black@nielsen.com for a copy. Please remember to check back here each month as we continue to update the blog with news about our latest automotive hot topics.