“Damned if you do, damned if you don’t.”
I think that phrase sums up how many marketing and brand managers feel about social media. If you are a company of any size, you HAVE to have a presence in social media – it is kind of, well, table stakes. Social media is where the conversation takes place. If you don’t respond, you don’t care. If you respond with “fill out a form” then you are pretending to care. And if you respond too late – like three days later, then it shows you aren’t paying attention. Who wants to buy something from a company that isn’t paying attention?
Like I said – you’re screwed either way.
I’ve had two very bad experiences with large companies over the past couple of month. The first was with a credit card company that decided to reject a preorder I had made of a new (and expensive) piece of technology because, well, it was an online order and they had no “signature on file.” The second was with a company that processes requests for VISAs for foreign countries.
In the first instance the response when I recieved on social media was an impersonal canned response, and in the second instance there was – no response at all, even after I called the company’s incompetence out directly, by name.
So, I am no longer doing any business with either organization – I pulled all of my debt from the credit card company and transferred it, and with the second company I will avoid using them in any and all circumstances.
Keep “experience sensitivity” in mind
Whenever many people have a bad experience with a company, they are going to “message” their frustration to the world though their online “channels”. When you look at social media sentiment about a company the negative experiences are discussed much more often than positive ones. People use social media as an outlet, to complain I would say the ratio of negative to positive comments is, based on my unscientific survey, two to one.
As I have stated preciously, you are not just competing with other companies in your industry, you are competing with the last best experience that people had.
Respond quickly (and be real)
Users have very high expectations – especially millennials. Not because they are self-centered, but because they grew up with instant access to information and their baseline expectations are that issues should be addressed and resolved quickly.
If someone calls out your brand on social media, they expect a response – and that response needs to be personal and real. Don’t interrogate the customer, be real and direct.
Give away (mostly worthless) loyalty points
I often say that, when I work with my team, that the only currency I have is praise. Well, if you are a company who has any sort of loyalty program, you have another form of currency – points. These points have very little real world value, but when you give them to customers there is a perception of value and compensation for being wronged.
But make this process seamless. Don’t force the user to work – they are the wronged party – or at least, they perceive themselves to be the wronged party. One company I had an issue with asked me to fill out an online form to get points to make up for their screw-up… And of course, I had very little time or interest in doing so. Points lost, but that company also lost me as a customer.
The right way is to just ask what the loyalty program number is, issue the points, and thank the customer for his loyalty and patience. Easy peasy.
Be kind
It’s sad that I have to actually explicitly state this as guidance, but in the Age of Trump, I must. If your customer is complaining about a situation, come to the conversation from a place of kindness. Don’t respond to anger with anger – it does you (and your brand) no good.
Again, it’s sad that this has to be overtly stated.
Apologize
I’ve engaged with more people in my professional career than I can remember, and sometimes these people came to the conversation frustrated and angry about something that I had absolutely ZERO control or influence over. They were in a dark place.
And I apologized.
Again, I had nothing to do with it, but I responded with a “sorry that happened – let me know how I can help.” Almost all kindly refused any help, but many times I saw they felt a little better about their situation, because someone else CARED enough to apologize. Empathy goes a LONG way.
When you are the social media presence for a brand, you will be perceived as THE cause of the misfortune or inconvenience – So the least you can do is say that you are sorry this happened. That is the MINIMUM BAR. If you can’t do anything, at least you expressed some level of caring – and didn’t dismiss the complaint in a perfunctory manner.
Don’t respond at all (if you can’t do it right)
In the second situation I detailed below, I was mad that I did not get any response… but at the same time, if they had sent me a canned automated message that had nothing to do with what actually happened I would have been even angrier. And yes, that happens – there are multiple software packages that allow companies to respond to any mentions of their brand and send automated replies.
Which don’t work. People who are distressed need to know that someone in the company cares. Machines don’t.