Social Meteor

Microblogging sites, such as Twitter and Facebook, provide a steam valve for poor customer service. When a company doesn’t work the valve, marketers must be prepared to take the heat!

Microblogging is the hottest form of online communication.   A February 2009 Compete.com blog entry ranks Facebook and Twitter as the first and third largest social networks, respectively.

Why are microblogging sites, such as Twitter and Facebook, so hot? Because it’s so easy.

Users can easily share aspects of their daily life, current events, news highlights, and random thoughts without the pressures, expectations or commitments of all-out blogging. This makes microblogs uniquely valuable to marketers.

They can be used to gauge brand sentiment and quality of customer service.

Pull steam from the stream

Companies need to watch how information about their products, services and brands are shared online. Recommendations (good and bad) drive microblogging. Microblogs are the perfect place for PC-savvy customers to vent complaints and compliments in short bursts of emotional expression.

Microblog entries are quick. They are emotional. They are forgotten — except to marketers, who need to manage posts related to their brand. Since microblog entries from Facebook and Twitter remain online indefinitely, their effects can be long lasting.

For good and bad, the impact of microblog entries are also compounded by the practice of “retweeting” — when recipients redistribute Tweets they receive to members of their own social network. Jeremiah Owyang, a senior analyst at Forrester Research, said that retweeting gives a message increased velocity: “Since content can be shared, consumed on mobile devices this information can rapidly spread faster than any other infectious technology we’ve ever seen,” he said.

Marketers can visit search.twitter.com to find out what customers are saying about their business.  Third-party tools, such as the Company Buzz tool app on LinkedIn or Tweet Deck, are also helpful.

Respond to negative sentiments

Take a glimpse. Here are a few customer-service entries with negative sentiment that I pulled from the Twitter stream since I started writing this post minutes ago:

• “23 minutes on hold for XM customer service. Wonder why they are nearly out of business?” (cycleman, 3/16/09)
• “on the phone with dell customer service. in total, i have been on the phone for 4 hours! worst experience!” (nickjvo, 3/16/09)
• “Just cancelled a large order from Lowes after some really shady customer service and wasted time. They didn’t even try to make amends.” (chrismore, 3/16/09)
• “I don’t like to throw around that nasty word “hate” but, at the moment, I’ll gladly direct it at #ATT customer service…” (gpreezy, 3/16/09)
• “Hertz really should make the return process at SFO more complicated. 40 minutes is childs play. Oh, and f**k Rusty from customer service..” (ethanllane, 3/16/09)
• “intuit does customer service a la Dell in the year 2000………….what a terrible experience.” (rmartiny, 3/16/09)
• “Tmobile customer service is not what I’d call customer focused.” (owlchick, 3/16/09)
• “On the phone with Alaska Airlines customer service. Quote: “Sir, Alaska Airlines does not make mistakes.” WTF?!?!?” (astartupaday, 3/16/09)
• “just got off the phone with at&t. when did we allow illiterate, apathetic, impolite customer service to become the f**king status quo?” (myrrh, 3/16/09)

Microblog entries provide companies with a proactive capability to track down customer service problems, correct mistakes, and learn from them.

The sooner companies can respond to negative sentiments the better the result is likely to be. A timely response on complaints expressed on Twitter or Facebook reduces customer frustration and the likelihood that negative sentiments will escalate in other online forms. It can prevent a single Twitter from becoming a series of escalating Twitters, online reviews and blog postings.

If a negative post comes from Twitter, companies should respond to each negative comment with a direct message from your company’s branded Twitter account.  (Without a Twitter account, it may be difficult to track down customers, since many Twitter members exclude contact information from their account.) It’s important for companies to be positive and constructive with feedback.

Sentiment such as “Please contact me regarding your bad experience, so we can make it right!” combined with a timely response or resolution can provide a positive outcome. Here are some recent examples:

• “@CraigTeich Hey. Work 4 Sprint. Sorry 4 bad experience. Pls e-mail details, # & I’ll help.” (JGoldsborough, 3/16/09)
• “@cjtwildcat Hi I am Steph at Qwest, is there something I can help you with, I am very sorry you are having a bad experience” (talktoquest, 3/16/09)

If negative comments are left anonymously in public areas of Facebook, this type of response can still be helpful. It lets other customers or prospects viewing the post know that a company is working diligently to resolve the issue.

Promote positive sentiment

During the same time period, the following Tweets provided positive sentiments on customer service:

• “Can’t rave enough about the lovey I got for Mikayla. http://tinyurl.com/ckce79 Awesome customer service too!” (jrsygrl63, 3/16/09)
• Apple customer service solves another problem in under 10 minutes. Thanks, cult! (hallublin, 3/16/09)
• “Customer service win – GE service appointment setup was *really* easy via their automated system, and they’ll be here Weds AM. Nice job.” (gdaniels, 3/16/09)
• “Cesar att’s DA BEST customer service rep informed me that i shud monitor my txt usage den he gave me credit! What a guy! Thx Cesar and ATT!” (rohnee, 3/16/09)
• “Getting great customer service at the at&t store in southdale. Goodbye edge, hello 3g.” (malbiniak, 3/16/09)

Companies should encourage customers who compliment customer service reps to share their positive experiences online via Facebook and Twitter. They can also reward positive sentiments when they find them. This can be done in a variety of ways. The easiest is by saying “thank you”:

• “@KDespres Thank you for the compliment on our customer service, and for taking the time to let us know!” (nduhosky, 3/16/09)
• “@relth, I thank you for the generous compliment. I’m at your service and your family’s. ” (rongraham1, 3/16/09)
• “I got my fabric order today, and a lollipop as a thank you. That’s the kinda free gift I like.” (Cheenapenna 3/12/09)

By containing negative comments and encourage positive comments on microblog sites, markets can ensure that good sentiments outpace and outnumber bad sentiments: on Twitter, on Facebook, and beyond.

The Argument Clinic

Many companies provide training to help employees deal with negative situations. Here’s a classic Monty Python skit that provides the opposite training. Enjoy!

Credits: Cartoon is courtesy of Cartoon Church.

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