“Mom, how tall is the tallest man on Earth?”
“I don’t know, but go and Google!”

“Christine, do you know that guy?”
“No I don’t, but go to Facebook or LinkedIn and try to find him there!”

Are such conversations familiar to you? Have you ever suggested anybody to search in Facebook or LinkedIn in order to find out someone’s identity or simply receive more information? I have done so and it has also been done with me.

It’s alright that in case you don’t know your customer personally you want to have more information about him or her. However, you should remember to use social media carefully. LinkedIn, for example, informs people about who has visited their profiles. So if you haven’t had time for proper introduction yet, I don’t suggest you going and visiting customer’s personal profile. It feels kind of strange when you as a customer are expecting a call from the project manager, but instead of that you receive a notification from LinkedIn that he’s investigating your personal profile.

I started a new project recently and ordered some services from abroad. As it was my first contact with the company, I only had a hope, trust and expectations for smooth cooperation. Today I only have the first left. Why?

The magic word “communication”

or in current case “lack of communication”

Being not physically in the same place with the service provider or customer, excellent communication becomes even more vital. To keep your customer happy (even if you haven’t fulfilled the tasks agreed, yet), one should be in contact with him / her and keep the customer regularly updated with the fulfilment of the task.

When for some reason you’re unable to fulfill the task according to the agreed schedule, make sure the customer is informed as soon as possible. It breaks all the trust, when you leave the customer un-notified about the risen obstacles and don’t suggest solutions. When I finally managed to reach my service provider, I was told many things, but none of them were important from the perspective of my project. Your customer doesn’t need to know all the details. All he / she needs is to know how is the project taken care of, when for some reason you can’t proceed according to the agreed terms. More than that, your customer, as well as you, most likely has the Internet Tools handy, too. In this particular case I found my service provider’s “excuse” pretty odd thanks to social media. Ok, I was told that my web designer was attacked. Still he was in such a good health that was able to update his status and have a good time with uploading videos and photos. And I had no idea what’s going on with my project. Nothing, as I can assume by now.

So, is social media your friend or betrayer while using it? It depends on which one you “feed”. One thing is for sure – if you can build the trust, speed up the process and bring effectiveness to your project, use it!

by Aide Tõnts