This presentation was given at the 7th Annual Marketing & Sales Summit by Juliann Grant, Telesian Technology, Katherine Persac, ProSys, and Scott Sommer, Jacobs Engineering. The discussion centered on how much is changing from an end user perspective when it comes to social media and how they purchase products and services. The presentation included results from end-user survey that was conducted in 2012, and compared to previous year's end-user surveys to benchmark changes in behaviors in the automation industry relative to researching and buying products/services.

1. Customer Engagement
and Retention in the
Social Media World
Juliann Grant, Telesian Technology
Standards Katherine Persac, ProSys
Certification
Education & Training
Publishing
Scott Sommer, Jacobs Engineering
Conferences & Exhibits 1

3. Agenda
• The Good: Creating Customers … Is social media
deriving value?
– Current Business Trends in Social Media
– 2009 vs. 2012 User Trends
• The Bad: Retaining customers… It’s not all that bad…
– Balance between traditional and web 2.0
– Some stuff is working
• The Ugly: The Challenge of Creating Loyal Customers
– What keeps them coming back?
– What the users said
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4. Everyone wants to get tweeted, liked, mentioned in a blog,
spread by email and watch the numbers
go up and and up and up…
The thing is, drive by viral traffic doesn’t convert.
50,000 visitors might end up buying just 23 items…
Seth Godin
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5. Facebook
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7. 7

8. What’s Happening with Social Media
McKinsey Global Institute:
July 2012
The Social Economy Report
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9. McKinsey Global Institute:
July 2012
The Social Economy Report 9

10. McKinsey Global Institute:
July 2012
The Social Economy Report 10

11. McKinsey Global Institute:
July 2012
The Social Economy Report 11

12. Untapped Potential?
CPG
Financial Services
Professional Services
Advanced Manufacturing
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13. FORTUNE 100 COMPANIES IN
THE US
SOCIAL TRENDS
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17. Create an idea virus, an idea that spreads.
And then, as its spreads, don’t try to make a sale,
merely work to earn the privilege of a follow up,
the opportunity to reconnect over time.
- Seth Godin
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18. END USER SURVEY
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19. End User: When you research product
information, what sources do you look for?
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20. What action have you taken in the last
week?
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21. The Bad ….It’s Not That Bad….

22. Picking Your Message
• Will you use
Social Media?
• If so, how?
• What is the
message?
• How will you
deliver it?
• Is anyone
listening?
• Is anyone
responding?
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23. So Many Choices!
• From the survey,
LinkedIn, Blogs,
Search Engines are
tops.
• But how do we
leverage these?
• What will the typical
Automation End
User respond to?
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24. User Trends: In a typical week, how many "marketing
pieces" do you estimate you are exposed to?
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25. User trends: What percentage do you usually read a
significant portion of (meaning, more than just
casually glance at)?
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26. User Trends: What amount of time on do you respond or
take action on? (action = store/save info, make phone
call, send email, mail reply card, etc.)
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27. What does this mean?
An average buyer digests only about 1 in 10 marketing
contacts
Of those 1 in 10, only about 1 in 10 lead to a follow-up or
significant action…..
1 in 100 marketing contacts
results in a buyer taking any further action!
Is this acceptable??
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28. Preferred Frequency of Contact
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29. What Are We Doing Now?
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30. Facebook…
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31. The Facebook Challenge

32. Twitter
61 percent indicated “not at all likely” to sign up for Twitter
Why?
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33. Twitter’s Secret Value: Search
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34. Linked In Groups
Global Spec: 2012_SocialMediaUseInTheIndustrialSector
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35. Linked In
Global Spec: 2012_SocialMediaUseInTheIndustrialSector
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36. LinkedIn – The Downside
• Requires regular participation
• Groups need moderation
• Spam
• Recruiters out the wazoo
• Job searching vs. technical information
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37. Best Blending
• Web 2.0 + traditional
• Trade shows
• Demos
• In person meetings
• With ongoing FB posts, tweets, etc –
• Everyone gets same information
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38. Part 3
THE UGLY
Capturing and Retaining the End User
…You Know, the Ones Who Buy Your Stuff!
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39. Who We Are Dealing With…
End Users (the buyers) are a finicky bunch.
Why don’t end users respond more
favorably to social media?
How can we identify and tickle their sweet
spot to increase customer retention?
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40. Finicky End Users
Meet Tim.
Tim is finicky.
Tim is not very happy about
having to eat his vegetables.
Tim may actually like them, but
he is not happy about being told
what to do.
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41. Finicky End Users
Meet George, the Engineer.
George is also finicky.
George is not very happy about having to
wade through 5 dozen “We Have Your
Solution” emails, phone calls, tweets,
texts, blogs and posts and having to enter
his contact information 3 dozen times just
to get a technical data sheet.
George may actually like your products,
but he is not happy about the way you
communicate with him.
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42. What does George want?
• Information
• Answers
• Data
• Technical specifications
• Quotations
• Confirmation
• Help
• A bailout

43. Where does George go to get what
he wants?
Friends?
Strangers?
Yellow Book?
Crystal Ball?
No, George is an engineer – he is going to contact the
person or organization that has the highest probability of
giving him the information, data, or answers he needs with
the minimum amount of inputs: time, effort, & cost.

44. What do we want George to do?
Come to US for the answers!
Search for data on OUR website!
Call OUR salespeople for assistance!
Buy products from OUR inventory!
…And NOT go to our competitors!
And if George does as we wish, it is probably not because
of luck…
…but because of LOYALTY!

45. What erodes loyalty?
Does not provide valuable
information
Changes in point of contact too
frequently
Offers nothing of value over long Does not erode loyalty
periods of time
Starts to erode loyalty
Do not allow you to selectively
opt-out of certain types of Somewhat Erodes loyalty
communication Seriously erodes loyalty
Send too many promotional
Totally erodes loyalty
emails
Sales person only calls when they
want something
0 5 10 15 20
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46. What develops loyalty?
Periodic Contact
• Maintain periodic contact with relevant industry-specific
information
• Lunch and learns
• Face to face team building efforts
• Calls to check and see how things are going.
– I've had a few instances where I've been buried in
work/problems. A couple instances a check up call from a
vendor has resulted in being able to provide some solutions
• Site visit every other month to meet face to face
• Being a "live" person via phone or visit or an occasional
friendly hello (how are you doing) email.
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47. What develops loyalty?
Fast, timely responses
• Respect the customer by responding to issues in a timely
manner.
• Provide quick service when we are in need of information
and correct any issues in a timely manner
• Reply quickly to requests for quote.
• Respond promptly, with accurate information that
provides sufficient detail to answer question
• Make certain that e-mails of sales/support people who
leave their company are forwarded and reviewed for no
less than 2 years – share a new email address vs.
bounce back
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48. What develops loyalty?
Have the right expertise and information available
• Have clear technical information available on vendor
website.
– Datasheets, application examples, application drawings, ordering
info, and contact info.
• Understand the requirements and specification for given
equipment
• Knowledge of his products
• Don't try to sell something that will not fit my/my client's
requirements
• Educate me about something relevant that I did not
already know.
• Know the product being represented.
• Keep me aware of new developments/products
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49. What develops loyalty?
Good technical support
• Tech support
• Provide fast and efficient technical support.
• Provide support for the product you are selling.
• Provide manuals and technical support on their website
• Offer training
• Put me in touch with the right technical support people
when I have a technical question about a product.
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50. What develops loyalty?
Keep your promises
• Give honest delivery times and openly discuss issues
• Deliver items when you say you will deliver. Don't give a
delivery date you can't meet.
• Meet promised delivery schedule.
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51. What was the last thing a supplier did that
helped reinforce your loyalty?
• Conducted lunch and learn and offered up two training
seats on software product. Provided lead on upcoming
project for which they were providing products and/or
services.
• Offered free training
• Follow up on a bid (not won) to see what they need to
improve on, outside of price.
• Account mgr introduced his successor, in person. -
Tech support person personally followed up the next day,
after extensive online/live chat help sessions)
• Confirmed the application and pricing on a specific
product even though it was not part of a pre-negotiated
product list.
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52. What was the last thing a supplier did that
helped reinforce your loyalty?
• Dropping off a piece of needed equipment on a weekend
without requiring a PO up front.
• Sent me an update on a product certification. This is a
product I have not purchased, but am likely to purchase
soon, and more so because of the update.
• Accurate quotation and on time delivery.
• Called to see how things turned out; stuck with the issue
until it was resolved!
• assisted with sizing and selection of instruments even
though they will be purchased in another country by a
different company and the local rep will not likely get any
credit.
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53. What was the last thing a supplier did that
helped reinforce your loyalty?
• Hand delivered a much needed item after hours.
• Suggested an alternate device (less expensive, cut his
commission) that saved me/my client significant cost and
better fit the device requirements.
• Paid for the shipping both ways of a part sent back under
warranty.
• He specifically will call me every 3 months whether we
have work for him or not.
• They worked over the weekend to configure a hardware
system that I needed for a client installation. On Monday
morning I was greeted with complete panel drawings and
a full Bill of Materials with pricing.
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54. Examples of Effective Web Tools
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55. Close the Customer Loop
• Get your web site in order
• Offer value
• Stay in touch
• Be visible
• Share technical information
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56. Questions?
Contacts:
• Juliann Grant
– julianng@telesian.com
• Katherine Persac
– Katherine.Persac@prosys.com
• Scott Sommer
– Scott.Sommer@jacobs.com
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