The
thing that I found most intriguing in this week’s readings is the fact that
companies must now maintain a social media presence in order to keep in touch
with their customers. The concept of responding to customer unhappiness is
certainly not new and especially not new on the web. The difference with social
media is the speed and ease with which this occurs as well as the sphere of
influence.[1]
I think we’ve all had a bad
experience at a restaurant, a specialty store, or with a large company that we felt
compelled to share with our friends via Facebook or Twitter. The last time my
husband and I took the kids out for dinner, we had such an awful time that I
began complaining about the ridiculous wait time in my status updates. I
frequently use websites such as TripAdvisor and Yelp to both look for
suggestions and to rant about my experiences. Not too long ago, after posting
several bad reviews of local restaurants, I received an email blasting me for
my complaints. The sender claimed that I was being unreasonable in my posts and
tried to blame me for what happened. It was blatantly obvious that the email
was sent by an employee of one of the restaurants. As Qualman said, “Ineffective
companies that aren’t in touch with their customers view negative posts as
nuisances. These companies approach negative feedback by attempting to figure
out how to technically scrub or manipulate it by means of posting bogus ‘good’
user comments.”
Effective companies and people
relish critical online feedback. They use this information to make themselves
more competitive by improving their products and services in the eyes of the
consumer. These companies don’t waste their time attempting to manipulate
online systems; rather, they spend their time trying to resolve the issue with
the disgruntled customer and learning from it.[2]
Sometimes complaining about a company online can lead to good things. A few
months ago my family ordered pizza from Papa Johns. When the order arrived,
they had sent the wrong breadsticks and none of the sauces that we had
requested. Rather than call the store and complain, I took to Facebook to air
my grievances. I wrote a post on the Papa Johns page detailing what was wrong.
A few hours later the company replied to my post and sent me a link to fill out
an online questionnaire. The next morning I received a phone call from the
manager of the local store to apologize for the mix up and wanting to make it
up to us. The store sent us coupons to get our next order entirely free, and
they then called to make sure that everything was alright when we used the
coupons. Did this change our feelings about Papa Johns? Absolutely! By showing
that they cared about our business, the company not only kept us as customers
but also gained free advertising as I shared my experience on my Facebook page.
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