I'm especially interested in a drill-down on Hivelist as this is the first time I've heard of it (thank you!). As for other stuff…
Customer Support
I think customer support is an integral part of marketing. Though not everyone agrees. In any case…
Old School
- Letter writing
- Phone calls
- Fax, telex, or telegram depending on the age of your school
Web2
- Help desks
- Forums
Where I believe the ultimate online customer support is provided by giffgaff, the UK mobile network (run by you). Long story short - they pay customers to support other customers.
Web3
- My Hive version of the giffgaff approach. Whenever I get time to start it! (You heard it here first)
I didn't mean it's run by alonicus! "run by you" is something like the giffgaff slogan.
Thanks for the reply !
You're right about customer service, I guess it's something that is so integral (and essential) to what I do that I tend to forget it's also a marketing tool. I just think of it as something I do, because small businesses do customer service and large ones tend not to !
GiffGaff is something I hadn't come across before. I can see it working really well for some businesses, is it still effective for businesses in a niche where queries need accurate technical answers ? I look forward to seeing your Hive version - maybe co-ordinate with Reverio (which is like a Hive Quora) to feed Q&A back and forth.
Letter writing and phone calls are a good one. I tend to think of them as maintenance for existing customers rather than a way to get new business, because I'm a great believer in getting informed consent before contacting people.