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TELL ME YOUR STORY- I'm Listening!  

In the past, consumers who wanted to communicate their complaints would speak to the manager, write a comment card (Kerpen, 2015), or tell their story to everyone they knew! 

In extreme cases, the media would get involved to help create awareness of a problem. Dave Kerpen, author of Likeable Social Media, states “If you have a negative experience with a company, you can fill out a “comment card” from your smart phone and immediately share your comment with hundreds” (p 80). The online review or negative post is a powerful, tool many businesses too often underestimate or ignore.



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The “Do-Not-Delete” concept is one which   I agree with.  From a “netiquette”1 perspective, deleting a comment is equivalent to saying “I don’t care what you have to say”. Wow! What a negative statement directed at your customer and the others watching online.

In face-to-face personal communication,  you would never say that to your customer.  It’s the equivalent to using all caps on a post – yelling online to get your point across. 

 

According to Maxine Kamin, author of Customer Service Training, “The bottom line in customer service is that customers want to feel cared about and respected, and they are more likely to return if these conditions are met”( Kamin 2002).
 

There are however, situations  when the “Do-Not Delete” rule should not apply. We had a situation last year when a customer accused his brother of fraud. This was a volatile situation. In our industry, there is no greater accusation. The online comments contained no obscenities, no vulgar or private information was disclosed. It was just a family disagreement that escalated to cyber-space. We took the incident offline, and worked with this customer to address his issues. His accusations were false and unfounded. After we exhausted all other options, we blocked him from Facebook. We eventually had to get our lawyers involved with a cease and desist order. In this case, we absolutely deleted the comments and blocked him. His comments and accusations crossed the line and bordered on libel and bullying. 

 

Learn more about the “upside” of customer reviews at : Forbes.Com http://bit.ly/2kkjMZ4

BRAND AMBASSADORS – Your Brand Groupies

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Brand ambassadors are the people who love your organization. You could call them your company’s groupies! Word-of-Mouth marketing has always been good but today the ability to effectively and efficiently utilize it through social networks is an unparalleled” (Kerpen, 2015). 

These customers “love your organization no matter what” (p 98).  Your loyal customers already love you and your brand, so why is it necessary to treat them better than your other customers with special offers, incentives and the like? 

Loyalty incentives, which could be available for all customers, would be a more appropriate way to reward all your customers each time they make purchase. I think a company could recognize a loyal member each time an incentive is reached via social media. This approach demonstrates to existing and prospective customers how loyal customers are treated to build trust and loyalty with the organization.  Since their loyalty is organic, and not paid, I think  it’s more genuine.  Kerpen in his book “Likable Social Media dedicates a chapter on transparency and authenticity. In my opinion, paying someone to talk about your brand or company erodes the genuineness of your message.  When I see a celebrity endorsement on TV, I don’t always believe what they are saying because they are getting paid for promoting the product.  There’s a stigma attached to paid endorsements.  There’s a significant difference between asking people to like your page, or to give you a review and giving them money or incentives to so.  

 

Quote of the Week:  Building Trust and Loyalty 

 

It’s not enough to let customers post reviews–you have to let them truly speak their minds. Bryan Eisenberg, founder of Future Now, Inc., which helps businesses optimize their online marketing efforts, says he sees the same mistake all the time: “Businesses put up reviews, and they’re all positive.” (Iverac, 2009)

M. Kamin,(2002) Customer Service Training,  ASTD Press, USA

Iverac, M. (2009, 08 04). Forbes.com. Retrieved from Forbes.com: www.forbes.com/2009/08/04/bad-customer-reviews-entrepreneurs-management-ebags.html

Kerpen, D. (2015). Likeable Social Media. United States of America: McGraw-Hill .

 

 

1 Netiquette: The rules of etiquette that apply when communicating over computer networks, especially the Internet. (Dictionary.com)

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