Flip the Funnel: How to Use Existing Customers to Gain New Ones

CUSTOMER SERVICE HAS A NAME, AND IT IS FRANK

This is the story of Frank—Frank Eliason, Director of Digital Care at Comcast, to be specific. Frank’s job is to serve as brand ambassador in the social media space. However, his journey to this point was serendipitous in many ways.

Frank began in his original capacity by simply identifying those seeking help online and, if possible, reaching out to solve their problems. His approach was somewhat different than most: He was both fishing where the fish are—namely, speaking to them using the same channels they were using—and utilizing a decidedly social toolkit, led by Twitter.

People—in particular bloggers and social media natives, but soon enough mainstream media outlets—started noticing what Frank was doing. They began drawing attention to his efforts, which caused the company to suggest Frank do the job full-time.

If success begets success, then proactive and social customer service is both self-fulfilling and addictive. So when TechCrunch’s Michael Arrington took notice and reported on Frank’s Twitter presence, it inspired or motivated Eliason to begin tweeting regularly. Over time, Frank began to highlight repeated, recurring, and/or relevant customer questions in a regular newsletter and continuously looked to find new ways to serve customers.