14
Publicized Customer Service
COMPANIES ARE ACCUSTOMED to one-on-one customer service. Call centers, e-mails, and help desks are all based on the idea that you need one employee interaction for every customer reaction. What social media allows is for businesses to have these interactions in public. This kind of public customer service can be both good and bad for your brand. Good, because it allows people to see that you are listening and engaging and care about customer service. Other customers who share these concerns or questions may potentially solve their own issue without having to ask you individually after seeing the interaction online. The bad can happen if the business account is run by someone not skilled at customer service or when complaints are ignored.
A great example of the benefit of public customer service comes from Tufts University in Massachusetts. They have three cafeterias all with Twitter accounts. Their primary function is tweeting out their daily menu for students to see, and more importantly listening to what students are saying about them—as the following tweets show:
003
As you can see, she is using Twitter like a lot of people do, to vent. This is usually where many companies do nothing and either the tweet dies (yet always lives on Google) or she gets even angrier. Smart organizations pick up on this and realize they have a chance to not only solve an issue, but to build a reputation.
004
Within a few hours, the cafeteria mentioned responded with the above tweet. As you can see, they showed that they were listening, that they cared, and that they wanted to do something about it. What happened next is very important to see:
005
Notice from her first two words, “It’s ok,” that she is already backing off and the situation has potentially been diffused because of the cafeteria’s acknowledgment. It could have been left at that, but they decided to ensure her experience would be as good as it could be after this mistake.
006
Here they again acknowledge her and own the mistake. They could have gone another route and just said, “Fresh fruit goes bad, that’s life,” but they didn’t.
In general, people are understanding and forgiving if a company simply acknowledges them and owns their error. They didn’t even have to offer her another apple or fruit, just the fact that they listened and engaged with her makes them already stand out above the rest. If this same dialogue occurred over the phone or e-mail, the customer service ends at one person. This way, it allows exponentially more people to experience the one act of customer service.
So if we have to talk about return on investment in social media, what would it be worth to you to have to take less customer service calls, have fewer people talking negatively about you, and more people seeing that your company cares about its customers?
As I told you, things do not always go this well. With the wrong person managing your social media account, one negative customer service experience may also exponentially grow. A perfect example of this is the experience April Dunford had when she complained about one of her local coffee shops, Dark Horse Café.
You run a cafe. About 50% of your
customers are working on laptops. You
have one electrical outlet. I’m talking
about you Mr. Dark Horse.
10:44 AM Jan 15th from Tweetie Reply 1
007
April is doing something that many Twitter users do: Posting a concern about service she is getting at an establishment. She does not direct the concern at the Dark Horse account, simply rants a little about wanting more outlets.
Hey @darkhorsecafe, check it out:
http://twitter.com/aprildunford/statuses/7791578235 (via
@aprildunford)
10:46 AM Jan 15th from TweetDeck
008
One of April’s followers on Twitter sees the complaint and directs it at the Dark Horse accounts, stirring the customer service pot. A few hours later, Dark Horse sees the complaint and replies. Remember how well the Tufts University cafeteria handles their critics . . .
@aprildunford that’s awesome... we are
in the coffee business, not the office
business. We have plenty of outlets to
do what we need...
4:09 pm lan 15 th from wab in reply to Reply R
009
As you can see, there is no acknowledgment by the café that they have done anything wrong. They do not demonstrate understanding at all. You should know that many of their customers are entrepreneurs who do work while they enjoy their coffee and food. So needing an outlet would likely have been a common customer concern. They do not leave it here, deciding to send April one more tweet to make sure she understands how unimportant her issue is to them.
@aprildunford maybe you should just
enjoy the cafe and take a break from your
computer for a few minutes... enjoy the
space you are in.
4:12 PM hn 5th from web in reply to aprikenford Reply Retv
010
I am pretty sure this reaction is the worst possible thing that the Dark Horse could have done. They had a huge opportunity here, a point of contact with a customer in public. They could have ignored her, which would have been significantly better than this. They could have simply said they heard her, understood there was a problem, and appreciated her feedback. They could have taken the point, perhaps used Twitter to ask some of their other customers if they shared the concern, and improved their service.
Here is April’s reply, which by the way is considerably kinder than mine would have been.
@darkhorsecafe Sorry I mentioned it.
Sometimes I show people stuff on my
computer (over coffee). Please ignore
the cust. feedback.(gee whiz)
9: 15 pm lan 15 th from uwt witter in reply to decharmde Reply
011
You know the next time I am going to go to the Dark Horse Café? Never! This message reached a lot of people, not only April’s followers, but through retweets as well. You need to take advantage of the potential for great public customer service that social media can allow—but you also need to know what can go wrong. Another potential of public service happens when you watch your competitors’ interactions online. If I owned a café near the Dark Horse, I would have had an outlet with April’s name on it, taken a picture, and tweeted it out to her with an invitation for a coffee on-the-house. People are online right now talking about you and your competition. Are you listening?
To pick a fight, or say hello to April, go to www.RocketWatcher.com.
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