Social Media – Are You Listening?
According to Dave Kerpen, author of likable Social Media, “companies can no longer afford to ignore their customer’s specific needs or complaints when the conversation can so easily be made public. Instead they must listen, understand the issue, and respond appropriately” (Kerpen, 2015, pg.14).
Did you hear me?
Brands have an amazing opportunity to connect and engage with their customers. Social media offers a window into not only their customers, but also their competitors customers. The analytics that you can glean by listening helps you “understand how your customers use your products (or don’t use them) can help you make critical changes in your offerings and in your communications with your customers” (Kerpen, 2015).
It’s important to have an authentic approach and believe in building your customer relationships. With that you have to be prepared for the good and the bad comments and have a plan on how to address them before they become a viral social media nightmare for the brand. If you truly value relationships, honest feedback and comments should be welcomed and responded to which in turn helps build trust and loyalty.
However, we all know that not all brands are prompt in their social media responses and we’ve seen some of the fiascos that followed. One example was a customer services complaint that British Airways failed to respond to in a timely manner. Sarah Burke at getspokal.com captured in her article http://www.getspokal.com/examples-of-the-good-the-bad-the-ugly-of-customer-service-on-social-media/ the following Tweet and wrote “Hassan Syed paid to promote a Tweet complaining about British airways’ customer service after they lost his father’s suitcase”
(Burke, 2016)
“The tweet was seen by 76,000 users. To make things worse, BA failed to respond to the promoted tweet for eight hours” (Burke, 2016) British Airways responded that their Twitter feed operated between 0900-1700 GMT. (Burke, 2016) The lesson: A global company needs to be monitoring these feeds and be prepared to respond instead of allowing the tweet to go viral. This goes for small and large businesses as well and there are many tools out there to help you manage and monitor your social media sites.When faced with negative comments Carole Billingsley @YouSeekSocial listed out the top 5 ways not to respond:
1. “Ignore them: The ‘Head in the Sand’
2. Delete them: The ‘If No One Sees It, It Didn’t Happen’ approach.
3. Respond in kind: The ‘I’ll show you!’ approach.
4. Placate with a hollow apology: The ‘Gosh, Sorry You Feel That Way. We’ll Try To Do Better.’ Approach” (Billingsley, 2012)
None of these approaches will have a positive outcome. Instead she notes that it is best “to Offer an apology AND a solution: The ‘We Hear You and Value Our Customers. We Will Make This Right Immediately!’ approach. This is your opportunity to turn a disgruntled customer into your brand’s evangelist!” (Billingsley, 2012)
You can read article at http://www.seeksocialmedia.com/respond-negative-social-media-comments/
Monica
References
Billingsley, C. (2012). 5 Ways Brands Respond to Negative Social Media Comments (Hint: Only One is Effective). Retrieved from www.seeksocialmedia.com/respond-negative-social-media-comments/
Burke, S. (2016, June 14). Examples Of The Good, The Bad & The Ugly Of Customer Service On Social Media! Retrieved from http://www.getspokal.com/examples-of-the-good-the-bad-the-ugly-of-customer-service-on-social-media/
Kerpen, D. (2015) Likeable social media (2nd ed.). M
