Photo Credit: Stephanie Canciello, unali artists

Craig Newmark is the founder of craigslist.org and a self-proclaimed nerd.  According to Compete.com, this company of 34 people receives over one half billion visitors a month.  Craig holds no managerial position at Craigslist. He is kind of unique as a founder of a company.  Most founders when their company grows either stay on as CEO, get pushed up to chairman or get totally pushed out.  Craig took a different tack.  He decided he wanted to work in customer service.

On this week’s podcast I talked with Craig about:

1. Why he works in customer service instead of a management position at the company he founded.

2. Why so many companies just pay lip service to customer service and don’t do it very well.  Craigslist’s major value is “to treat people like you want to be treated.”  Why this is so important.  (He mentions on how Best Buy does it well!)

4. How he thinks self-service websites and social media have affected customer service.

5. What are the first things a company needs to do if they are to be truly focused on customer service.

6. Craig is one of the most accessible founders of a company out there.  People can tweet you or email you and get a reply.  Why is this important to him.

7. What “Nerd Values” are and why they are key in business.

7. We also talked about what the future holds for Craig outside of Craigslist.  His answers may surprise you!

Listen now!

Craig is interviewed after Barbara Rozgonyi, PR and Social Media Guru.  She talks about how to increase your influence on LinkedIn. For those of you that are stuck and don’t where to go with the number 1 business networking platform, listen in!  (That includes me!)  You will learn a lot about the importance of profiles, key words, groups and answering questions.

Listen now!