Creating Exceptional Customer Relationships, Lessons learned from Kellie Parker of Sega,
By Dawn Lacallade, Conference Chair, Social Media and Community 2.0 Strategies Conference

I often find myself trying to explain the importance of Community Management and relationship building as a cornerstone of Community Strategy. Those of us that have been doing this for years, can cite examples and practices that demonstrate what it looks like when this is done right. It is absolutely inspiring when you find an outstanding example.

Yesterday, Kellie Parker gave an inspired presentation on how the Sega team does exactly that. What started with an overflowing Marketing closet, became the “free stuff Friday”. While this is a great engagement technique, this is not the remarkable part. The beauty in her example was the execution. They choose several items to give away each week. They video tape the items early in the week. They use video to personalize the community management team. They begin videotaping as the team sets up in hope of catching a moment worthy of including in their blooper reel. The focus on these team members as ambassadors and going on that next step to personalize them with the bloopers… that is the art of community management.

These same community managers, that are aligned by product vs tool, do all of the community management. They are the face of Sega to their customers. They are gamers. They are genuine. People connect with them. Kellie and her team look at it as their job to not only help the customers be loyal to Sega, but to help the employees be loyal to the customers. To do this, the team has erected a “Wall of Awesome”. The Wall of Awesome is a display of comments, art, fan letters, and funny stories that are intended to remind employees that the customers are the reason we are all here.

Kellie also gave great examples of how they had a great UGC video creation contest and an equally impressive viral hit. But central to the success of all of these endeavors was these same Community Managers. Way to go Julian, Aaron, David, Laurie and Craig. Thanks for being a great example of exceptional!