Today’s Monday Marketing Meeting is about leveraging your greatest advantage as a self-representing artist. To your clients, they know your face. They can associate it with your work.
This is your advantage. You, as the artist, can personally reach out to your clients. Does the average Joe get an email from the Amazon or the eBay CEO? No. If the odd situation comes up, you don’t have to go through corporate to make a change in policy. You just do it.
Take United Airlines misstep. A passenger’s guitar was damaged by baggage handlers. When he complained, he was left to wallow in the proverbial red tape. Rather than addressing probably a relative easy customer situation, albeit probably a routine occurrence, the situation escalated to United’s chagrin. The client took his dilemma to the Internet, to YouTube, to be exact.
A relatively small outlay of $3,000 would have forestalled a viral YouTube video, with well over 3 million views with the message that United doesn’t care. This type of bad publicity is deadly, especially for United at this particular time. United can’t afford bad publicity in a situation where United is clearly at fault.
The episode gives power back to the little guy. Corporate America, without a strong grasp of the power of social media, is at a clear disadvantage with a user who knows how to get his message across. So, take away this message: customer service is vital to your business. Address client concerns as soon as they occur.
