Intuit, long known for its community help forums for TurboTax, noticed that its small business clients were seeking help in a new place.

“There was a lot of conversation happening on non-owned channels,” says Mark Obee, Group Manager of Social and Community Care for Intuit on the QuickBooks brand. “The accountants were out there having those conversations without us.”

Non-owned channels included private Facebook and LinkedIn groups, which caused a dilemma for a big company like Intuit. Obee knew that these sorts of groups were private for a reason – they didn’t want big brands infiltrating with unwanted marketing messages.

Here are some key points of the episode and where to find them:

0:52 A quick look at Intuit’s products and Mark’s background

2:53 Mark discusses the QuickBooks “Social Evangelism” Program

5:04 How the brand gains the trust of a private group

7:18 Intuit’s culture of community-based solutions and how it’s evolved

9:48 How communities affect customer service staffing needs

11:11 Comparing owned communities, private groups, and social media channels

15:07 Dan talks about re-using help content

16:25 How direct messaging is playing into the QuickBooks customer service strategy

19:35 Mark shares a memorable interaction with a customer

21:44 Mark’s key learnings from his time working in social care

Intuit and QuickBooks were chosen for the podcast because of readers and listeners like you suggesting great brands who are changing the game in social media customer service. Please send a tweet to @dgingiss using hashtag #FOCS and we will try to get your favorite brand on a future episode! Subscribe to the podcast on iTunes, Stitcher, and Soundcloud.