How Taco Bell Utilised Social Listening to Reach an Audience of 20 Million People
How Taco Bell Utilised Social Listening to Reach an Audience of 20 Million People
So what is social listening? Social listening involves the business monitoring and responding to customer service as well as maintaining a positive reputation online. For example, responding to and navigating customer complaints, customer feedback and any questions customers have. Social Listening is extremely beneficial to businesses as it helps them get a better idea of what their reputation is like, and what customers expect and want from them, and it makes performing and conducting customer research easier.
A prime example of a brand that has demonstrated effective social listening is Taco Bell, an American-based food chain that serves a variety of Mexican-inspired food for the world to enjoy!
Meaningful connections with customers
A great example of a company that has successfully implemented a social listening campaign is Taco Bell. The customers want to be heard and seen by the brand. So, instead of receiving feedback from focus groups, Taco Bell utilises social media to create connections to have real relationships with their 20 million consumers online. Taco Bell retweets everything cool said about them and interacts with their consumers for fun too (see image 1).
Not only that, but Taco Bell also partakes in banter with other brands and their customers to keep their brand relevant and entertaining (see images 2&3).
Real-time customer service
While they do love to engage with their fun side, Taco Bell does take customer complaints and feedback very seriously. Taco Bell does have a section on its website for complaints specifically, but social media seems to be the way to go for most customers. For example, a customer had a terrible experience at one of the Taco Bell stores and reached out via Twitter (see image 4).
Taco Bell has expressed through social media how much they truly care about their customers and their experience eating with them. Customers' concerns are dealt with in a professional manner and even compensated for their bad experiences (see images 5&6). By doing this, they reassure their consumers that their needs matter and that they are not invisible. Taco Bell conveys through their customer service that they genuinely care about having high-quality products and services for their customers to enjoy.
Overall, Taco Bell has successfully used social listening to their advantage by creating an online community that assists them with monitoring and maintaining their online and instore reputation. Taco Bell has also implemented an effective strategy to ensure they have a vibrant presence online, whilst making sure their customers are satisfied with the food and service they receive.
With their customer complaints, they ensure their customers are satisfied with their customer service and even compensated for their bad experience. This balance seems to make Taco Bell more of a friend than a brand, and more approachable to contact as well.
