By simon | 22 October
I thought I'd talk about this as this has cropped up three or four times in the last few weeks whilst I was talking about Social Media Marketing.
In all instances it was food or entertainment-led venues that were worried that customers that might have been ejected, or stood in line waiting for too long for a table would turn to social media to complain, and that complaint would be echoed across the internet convincing customer to forsake their business. In particular it was the mobile app 'Gripe' that had triggered one question, with the app pointing out that with friends and friends of friends, the average Facebook user could effectively 'gripe' about a venue to 50,000+ people. A negative aspect of social media marketing and a scary thought, eh?
But all is not lost. And irrespective of your type of business, disaster can be averted by following the social media marketing suggestions below.
1. Treat Them OnLine As You Would In Real Life
Yes, I'm sure we'd like to tell them to bugger off, but in real life we don't. If they have a complaint, we'll calm them down, talk to them reasonably and do our best to manage their issues. It's no different online. There's no point engaging in an argument backwards and forwards via social media marketing - or react to their flaming - you're best to just offer them a solution and allow them to take it. We all know that when customer service is really, really good, even the most angry of us tend to deflate in front of a caring business.
2. Respond & Reply
You could sit there with your fingers in your ears and shout 'na na na na na na' at the top of your voice. But again, you wouldn't do that in real life, so don't do that when it comes to social media marketing. Respond and reply. Acknowledge their issue and reply to it. And reply to it in a way that will negate their continued complaint. After all, if you deal with their complaint instantly, they won't be going on to tell 20 other people about how bad your company is. In fact, they may even go on and tell people how great you were at dealing with complaints.
3. Don't Delete
Never delete complaints you receive through social media marketing. I mean, feel free to delete them if they're threats, abusive, swearing and so on. But if they're a genuine complaint, allow them to stand. No business is infallible and we recognise this. We all go back to Telstra time and time again despite their consistent ability to botch things up. So don't be afraid to show them that you're not perfect all the time. If you think of Westpac's 'I'm having a bad day' tweet, then you'll know that a glimpse of a chink in a brand's armour can humanise the company to the customer. And humanising a giant corporate brand via social media marketing isn't a bad thing at all.
4. Let Your Community Defend You
If you're going a great job of building your online community, you won't even need to defend yourself, your community will do it for you. If you had 100 Apple fan boys in a room and allowed them to mingle, should a Microsoft advocate wander in and start criticising Apple, you'll probably watch as they're torn from limb to limb. Social media marketing can be so powerful that the community you create will take such ownership of their brand that they'll move from brand advocates to brand militants.
5. Monitor
Listen. Or in the case of social media marketing, read. There are lots of places people can complain, from Facebook to Twitter, even now places like TrueLocal.com.au. Make sure you keep an eye on them and respond quickly. Leaving a complaint about your food sitting on your Facebook page for two weeks is like leaving the phone ringing for a day.
It its true that with social media marketing, you are more in the firing line for customers, but you do have more of a control on what is said, where it is said and how you respond. As Virgil once said, 'fortune favours the bold', so don't be afraid of social media marketing, embrace it and use it to your business's benefit.
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