An article from MarketWatch says social media will get you heard and result in some action for your service related issues. But, it’s not necessarily because of all of your followers and friends that see your complaint. The author says that people who use social media are much more likely to tell their friends about the problem than people who don’t use social media. So, word travels fast and companies definitely don’t like negative talk about their brand.
Personally, I love the idea of using social media to tweet about a problem or post it to Facebook. If I haven’t received good service I would want the company to know about it as well as my friends whom I don’t want to experience the same headache. Of course, this all has to be done with good manners. After all, not everyone is perfect and we should give the company a chance to resolve the problem.
Interestingly, the author of the article says that employees that are responsible for addressing online complaints typically have a lot more power than customer service reps on the phone. This is good news to me. I’d much rather tweet my problem than call a phone number, talk to a computer and be routed to someone that doesn’t have any authority to resolve the issue, provide a discount for my troubles, etc.
Before you tweet your next complaint or post it on Facebook, let’s consider a few guidelines. We all know picking up the phone and yelling about our issues doesn’t really get us anywhere and sometimes will result in a “click” from the other end. So, to get the most out of social media customer service complaints consider these ideas -
- Be courteous. Don’t yell in all caps or be overly negative. You’re looking for help here and no one wants to help a complainer or someone who is rude.
- Don’t post too often. Get your complain out there in a kind manner and then wait for a response. In other words, don’t tweet every 5 minutes about your issue.
- Find out where the company is most active, such as on Twitter or Facebook, and target that social media.
- Technical tips from the article -
- On Facebook you can type an @ sign before the company name and then click the drop-down menu so the name gets highlighted.
- When using Twitter tag the company using the @ sign and their Twitter handle and/or a hash-tag with the company’s name.
Have you posted a customer complaint using social media? If so, please share your results with us in the comments.
Source: Social media offers sweet revenge for bad service
About Jason Price