David Teicher, writes in Ad Age, (What Marketers Can Learn From Starbucks’ Foursquare Stumble) about a recent experience he had trying to use his coupon for being a Foursquare Mayor at his local Starbucks.

Late last year I asked the simple question — Are Your Frontline Employees Part of Your SM Strategy? With all of the well placed emphasis on delivering better experiences online, it’s now time to put some focus back into the offline world. As I wrote in my original post:

For far too many retailers, the frontline staff is treated like a necessary evil. Something they have to do, but wouldn’t if they could figure out another way to accomplish their goals. They don’t train them well and they don’t seem to care if they’re there or not.

But in an age of social media, how can companies be spending time, effort and money to create online social media engagements and then spend so little time figuring out how to create a social engagement in the physical stores? After all, each day, thousands of people walk through the doors of their stores, theoretically to spend money and buy their product. Yet, too many store employees act like having us in their to shop is an imposition.

If they want us to keep shopping, stores are going to need to beef up their in-store experiences to match the SM experiences they’re creating online.

We’ll see more stumbles, we always do. But brands need to really step up their in-store game in the SM world we live in. As I wrote several years ago, thanks to SM, everyone’s a critic now. I don’t even have to leave your store to be telling people how bad (or good) your experience is.

Are Your Frontline Employees Part of Your SM Strategy? – Polinchock’s Ponderings.

Image source: mdanys

Original Post: http://blog.polinchock.com/2010/07/are-your-frontline-employees-part-of-your-sm-strategy—polinchocks-ponderings.html