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

COMCAST: THE UN-OBAMA

While President Obama’s social media success was predicated on the critical foundation of a great product (as validated by both Electoral College and popular vote), Comcast seemed to be coming from the exact opposite end of the spectrum (if not from a product perspective; certainly from a service one)

Both, however, were able to flip the funnel—tapping into passionate customers (lovers and haters for Obama and Comcast, respectively) and acknowledging, dialoguing, incenting, and activating them in a personal, meaningful, and impactful way. Whereas Obama received attention for all the right reasons, Comcast received much attention because of its legacy history of poor customer service. (Remember the poor technician who fell asleep on a customer’s couch because he was left on hold on the phone by his own technical support department?)

Ultimately, the lesson here is that a negative can be turned into an overwhelming positive. Here are 10 ways to manage it:

1. Putting the YOU in cUstomer service.

Eliason believes that the key to being successful in this space is simply being yourself. Those engaged in customer service have to let their own personalities shine through, and their companies need to empower and allow them to do just that.

2. Measuring the unmeasurable.

Comcast management hasn’t been all that concerned with Eliason finding hard metrics to justify his efforts, which frees him up to focus on key corporate strategic drivers and provide great service ...