Is Customer Interaction An Opportunity Or a Cost?

Pandora believes customer interaction is an opportunity and this belief is one of the reasons you’re still listening to them today.

Tim Westergren, Pandora Founder and Chief Strategy Officer, spoke with Cincinnati Social Media Breakfast attendees and detailed how Pandora came to be, future plans and how their customer focus came to their rescue.

Grassroots Investment Pays Dividends
When Congress was recently considering new policies that would have tripled music royalty costs, Pandora reached out to users and asked them to write/fax Congress.

According to the Washington Post, Pandora was making its last stand. The influx of requests to save Pandora was larger than those requesting Congress end the war in Iraq. The overwhelming citizen response forced a second round of negotiations with Congress.

This return on investment provides an obvious reason to focus on the customer. But consider that Pandora’s customer base expands by 40,000 new listeners – each day. Most companies with a rapidly increasing customer base could just as easily see interactions with them as a cost. Some consumer goods companies traditionally would hide behind a byzantine phone menu and/or outsource live support to a call center. Pandora takes road trips across the United States and has town meetings with users in cities big and small.

So while the number of customers might have brands considering economy of scale when it comes to interacting with them, consider Pandora.

Inspired Audience Creates Content
This was just one of the stories that Westergren shared at the event sponsored by Lucrum and hosted by LPK. Here are related links if you’re interested in learning more about Pandora and Westergren’s engaging presentation.

Net radio entrepreneur visits | The Cincinnati Enquirer

UStream Video Feed | Thanks to VAE, we streamed the event and recorded portions of it.

Lucrum Podcast | David Bowman and I discuss Pandora and the Social Media Breakfast events.

SMB Rocked The Hizzous with Pandora | Krista Neher blogged the event and snapped pics.

Pandora Comes to Town | Michelle Lentz covered the story for Bub.blicio.us.

CincySMB5, Social Media Breakfast, Cincinnati 027 uploaded by kristaneher
tags | Cincinnati | cincysmb5 | social media breakfast | Pandora | Lucrum | Tim Westergren

Comments

[Brianna]

Interacting? A cost? I don't think so. As most companies are finding and what the Superbowl ads proved: everything is becoming user based. Not putting in the face time will cost companies tons of money. Love the post!

[Phill Barufkin]

With today's marketing tools, particularly related to web, it is easier than ever to talk to and with consumers. And this is a great example of what a business was able to do because the company was and is actively involved with their audience. Great post! Phill Barufkin

[common Japanese words]

It is definitely an opportunity.

[Promotional Products]

Customer interaction must be looked at as an opportunity. Even if you spend money to keep or satisfy a customer, the word of mouth advertising they can provide can be far-reaching and very beneficial.

[Abe Johnson]

Customer interaction is definitely an opportunity. But with a cost, mind you. It's a necessity. That's the reason why business companies don't mind spending substantial amount on call center services, to preserve good communication and relationship with their consumers. Without customer relationship management, there's no business success.