7 Websites to Answer All Your Questions

In our generation no one has any difficulty in finding a reply to any question. The first thing everyone does is Googling the question. If there is no exact answer, we turn for help. No, it’s not our friends, neither encyclopedia, it’s all about Question and Answer websites. Although you need to register to become a part of the community to ask or answer any question, it doesn’t take much time. So you can choose the best websites, register once and use them for years.

When you become a part of the community, it becomes so interesting not only ask questions, but also give answers to the questions you’re sure to have the exact reply. So try to be active in both asking and answering.

But can we rely on any answer given in the internet? To say the truth, I doubt that all of them are trustworthy. In general I try to search one and the same question in different websites, accordingly made a list of the best Q & A Websites I used to participate to share with my readers too.

I am a member of Quora for years and I always describe it as a professional platform where you can get great solutions to your questions. Quora is created, edited and organized by its community of users; it aggregates questions and answers to different topics. Users can collaborate by editing questions and suggesting edits to other users' answers.

While being in marketing you should be aware of everything spoken about your company. I had no choice, but register in some more question-and-answer websites not to miss anything from my attention.

Yahoo!Answers – another big community that allows users to both submit questions to be answered and answer questions asked by other users. The site gives members the chance to earn points as a way to encourage participation.

Answerbag – “Every question deserves a great answer”- a website you can find in all the lists while searching for best Q&A websites. Users ask and answer the questions. Instead of the one question—one answer model, multiple answers to a given question are presented, in descending order of user ratings. A user who has created an account can ask and answer questions, comment on answers, rate questions and answers, and suggest new categories. Users have profile pages where their points and submissions are reviewable by other users.

Askville -  another research site founded by Amazon.com. A place where you can share and discuss knowledge with others by asking and answering questions on any topic.  It’s a fun place to meet many people with similar interests and a place where you can share what you know. Every day you can learn something new or help and meet others using your knowledge.  It’s all about sharing—what you know and what you want to know.

Answers - “Real people are looking for answer” really like the slogan on the website! This website includes WikiAnswers, ReferenceAnswers, VideoAnswers, and five international language Q&A communities. 

Stackexchange – “Expert answers to your questions” - another fast-growing network of 109 question and answer sites on various topics with 4.2 million users. High-quality questions and answers, focused on the most important topics in each area of expertise. 

Answerbank – a real bank of questions and answers!  Choose a topic, ask a question and contributors will supply you with the answer.  If you’re a new member, you can watch an introductory video and start your banking.

All the above mentioned websites are free and all include “technology” category I was mostly interested in. Be active, help yourself and others!

Kindle on Fire – Mayday Needed!

While chat solutions exist for years, Amazon decided to make a customer service revolution. It announced about a new support service available on Kindle HD products called Mayday.

Many people know what Mayday is, but I’m sure not all are aware about its being an emergency word used internationally. It derives from the French expression “venez m'aider", which means "come to help me".

“It’s a little odd when a company selling a new gadget says one of the most exciting features is its “help” button”, mentions “The Seattle Times” tech columnist Brier Dudley. Yet it’s a revolutionary new functionality, which will change Kindle’s future and… why only Kindle’s?

Will this button really help Amazon sell more stuff? In general opinions differ and it’s a normal procedure: some are happy to have a virtual assistant like “Amy” helping them; others express their negative feedback and make many people alter (Amy's real name is actually Amy - Amy Paffrath).

How “Mayday” Works

It’s so simple: you just click on the “Mayday” button and an expert connects with you and it is 24x7, 365 and totally FREE. The goal is – 15 seconds response time. The expert will ask the user to verify his identity before offering to help. You can see the expert on your screen. While some may be concerned about privacy, Amazon assures that the experts will not be able to see you. It’s up to the user to allow the Mayday expert control the screen and even change settings.

From Negative to Positive

People cannot think the same and if opinions don’t differ our life won’t be so interesting. First I’d like to mention negative sides: the Mayday functionality works only with Wi-Fi access and there are people who don’t want to see the expert and more...

• “I am not sure if this is a feasible solution because it would cost the provider a lot of money to provide this level of support for free” (source - Quora)
• "Mayday" is a pretty poor choice of a name for a product/service” (source - Commercialsihate) 
• “I don't want Amazon CS accessing my tablet and looking through my internet history” (source - NeoGAF) 

In opposite to the above said some intriguing software enhancements:

• “This feature is amazing and needs to be in every piece of tech”
•  “As the tech head in my family I wish every single electronic device came with this goddamn button" (source - NeoGAF) 
•  “What really caught my eye is that not only she can help you by telling what to do but she can point stuff in your screen” (source - Youtube) 

• “Just got my Kindle Fire HDX and am trying out the #Mayday feature. Now THIS is customer service. Wow!”(Facebook comment)

And with this “Wow” opinion let’s take every innovation for granted.

"Knowledge is true opinion" Plato

More Calls – More Sales!

Many companies are embracing new technologies in an effort to attract more customers today. Click to Call is one of those technologies becoming more and more popular day by day.

Click to Call turns a website click into a phone call. It makes easy for a website visitor to connect with the company representative and solve the problem immediately.

As stated in the Infographic below “88% of visitors are more likely to contact a company that provides Click to Call solution”. Nowadays Click to Call is widely used in different industries like: technology, shopping, business, health, finances, travelling and more. Let’s see what makes many companies trust in Click to Call solution:

Present Face of Advertising

It was so funny to read about Radio-Television-Internet evolution. You start to realize how much has changed during one decade. It took 38 years to reach 50 million users via Radio, 13 years via Television and… only 4 years via Internet. Today there are lots of families who don’t watch TV at all or listen to the radio. They can find everything in the internet – latest news, films, music and even relatives and friends (although I don’t like the last part “relatives and friends” as it leads to a lonesome life, but I’ll speak about it in one of my future posts).

It’s become easier to target and reach an audience directly, and the traditional television, radio and magazine commercials advertising changed to different channels, like mobile, social networks which target a much more broad audience, raising brand awareness in a short period of time. Old methods are no longer essential in the ever-growing digital world.

Now we deal with tech-savvy consumers who are more in control. As a result, it became more difficult for advertisers to keep consumers interested in the brands. They should come up with innovative strategies creating messages that grab the attention of the audience. Add this is not at all easy – find right consumers, create a right message, choose the right time, and finally provide a great customer service.

“74% of today’s customers use at least three channels when interacting with a company for customer service”, according to Ovum. After all most companies are still using stand-alone, single channel experiences, which irritates many customers, they want to be heard instantly.

Note that 90% of all purchases are subject to social media influence. So let’s be active, creative, interesting and outstanding but at the same time realistic - here what our customers want from us!

You Can Hardly Meet Every Customer’s Needs

Every time when we speak about customer service or customer loyalty, it seems there is nothing easier than satisfying customers. Be polite, be attentive, be patient, be respectful… But can a rep meet every customer’s needs? Not sure…

There are different customer types and various solutions to satisfy them. Gone are the times when customer couldn’t reach a company. Besides an email or a phone call, there are also different social channels to connect with the company and solve the problem in no time.

But today’s customers became more difficult to deal with. People are more aggressive and they think if they pay for the service they should have no problems at all. They may cry loudly at the rep and never respond to excuses – “An ill payer never wants an excuse”.

It’s even worse while dealing with chronic complaining customers – they are never satisfied and will always find something to complain.

The most dangerous customers are those which never complain to the company, but post a comment in social channels. But even here where is a way out. The rep should take the customer offline through direct messaging or an email and clarify the problem as quick as possible.

And finally the best customer type - the ones who want a good service and are ready to pay for that. Their complains are reasonable and they are much interested in the results.

For sure customers cannot be always right, but anyway they should be treated with respect and sympathy. As the proverb says: “He who pays the piper calls the tune”.

It’s a reality - “Your customer makes your product”, so let’s at least try to meet their needs.

Be Where Your Customers Are!

Gone are the times of waiting on the phone to talk to a rep or waiting for an email response. Multi-channel marketing replaced many different activities and positioned in the first place.

“72% of online American adults now use social networking sites” (PewResearch Center)

Is it really so important to be where customers are and why?

The reason is that you should be in all the places where your customers are searching for information and help them find it, answer all their questions and do this as fast as possible. Customers raise their issues through social media and they don’t like to wait. If you’re late, you lose your customer – that’s the reality.

25% of consumers who complain about products on Facebook or Twitter expect a response withing 1 hour (AmericanExpress OPEN Forum)

Being on social platforms not only gives you direct access to your customers, but also gives your customers direct access to you.

“97% of customer issues can be resolved by proactive social intervention. On top of that, 40-50% of those customers end up saying positive things about the company online” (Dell Investigation).

Whether these are social media channels, different forums, blogs, comments section of articles written about your company, you should be everywhere and be ready to take action.

And which social channels to use? Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn are must-channels for nearly every field.

“Facebook has 1.11 billion monthly active users ” (Facebook)

“61% of social media users primarily use LinkedIn for professional networking” (Lab42)

“Twitter has over 550 million users” (StatisticBrain )

From my own practice, I can say that I made great relationships with many authorities in my field via Twitter  and I become happy with every new thousand followers I have.

I cannot ignore Google+ too, as once I noticed to have the most link clicks from this channel.

“70% of brands have presences on Google+ ”(Simply Measured)

Pinterest? Yes, it also became a very popular one and the number of users is rapidly growing.

“Pinterest has around 50 million users” (Reuters)

To conclude I’d like to say that social channels are not only a must, but should also be something like “useful and pleasant” – that’s the secret to your success!

Make Your Customers’ Day or They Will Make Yours!

“Make your customer’s day”- a well-known statement used for all customer types. And many people will agree if we don’t make our customers happy, they can make our lives complicated. What can be worse than a negative word-of-mouth? Lost customers not only affect your business, but also prevent from attracting new customers.

But keep in mind that unhappy customers are like competitors, they give you an opportunity for change and improvement, they can even give birth to new ideas. Win back every single customer or it will cost your business lots.

In evidence to this I’d like to share an Infographic with some stats on poor customer experience and its cost: