70% of Companies Ignore Customer Complaints on Twitter
Posted on 11. Oct, 2011 by Jay Baer in Blog, Small Business Internet Marketing, Small Business Marketing, social crm, social listening, social media monitoring, social media operations, social media research, Social Media Staffing and Operations
Despite increasing numbers of customers using Twitter to publicly complain about brands, the vast majority of companies respond in the exact same way….with the quiet of contempt.
New research from Maritz and Evolve24 of 1,298 Twitter complainants found that only 29% of those tweet gripes were replied to by the companies in question.
This is a dereliction of duty, in my estimation. As we discussed in The NOW Revolution, brands must look at these new channels as the “social telephone” and ignoring these 140 character cries for help is a flawed decision for two reasons.
First, responding to Twitter complaints can turn lemons into lemonade. The Maritz study found that 83% of the complainants that received a reply liked or loved the fact that the company responded. This is irrespective of how, when or why the response came. Think about that. Just the fact that the company acknowledged the problem and showed it was listening improved customer psychology 83% of the time.
“What is striking about these findings is the strong degree to which consumers want to be engaged online to have their issues addressed,” says Anthony Sardella, senior vice president and managing director at evolve24. “They are clearly seeking to have a greater voice in the customer service process and see social media as a streamlined means for resolution of their issues.”
Second, the people that are using Twitter to complain are already disproportionately upset. Previous research from ExactTarget called Twitter X-Factors showed that fewer than 1% of customers use Twitter as their first stop in problem resolution. In almost every case, the people complaining on Twitter are doing so because your company already failed to satisfy them in one or more traditional customer service channels.
Let’s see if I have this right. Angry customers just looking for a sympathetic ear, shouting about it in a public forum. That does not seem to me to be an equation that 70% of companies should ignore.
Why The Social Telephone Goes Unanswered
In my consulting work with mid-sized and large brands, I find two primary reasons why companies purposefully ignore complaints and fail to answer the social telephone.
Fear. Companies literally believe (and I hear this exact phrase all the time) that they’d like to get involved but are afraid the conversation will turn negative in social media, and that answering gives greater exposure to complaints. Here’s the deal. If your company sucks, Twitter is the least of your worries. Social media doesn’t create negativity, it puts a magnifying glass to it. Twitter doesn’t make people more upset, it makes them less upset (if you respond) – especially women 35+ who are disproportionately delighted to get a response on Twitter from a brand.
Resources. It’s true that social media doesn’t close at 5pm, and in fact many customers use social media during the night and on weekends, when it may be inconvenient for you to monitor and reply. But your corporate convenience is not the prism through which you should be gazing upon social business. There was a time when grocery stores closed at 10pm, catalog call centers weren’t open on the weekend, and the only companies that had websites were in porn. But the world has changed – not to throw a wrench into your carefully crafted staffing and resource allocation model – but because the needs and desires of your customers have changed.
Customer Satisfaction with Operating Efficiencies
Also recognize that while you may need to expand your “paying attention” windows to meet the new customer expectations social media has wrought, you can also handle customer issues with greater efficiency. Sure, you only have 140 characters to reply, but your customer only has 140 characters to gripe. Do you think Comcast does Twitter customer service solely because they are nice guys and/or want to get newspaper coverage about doing so? They do Twitter customer service because it’s more efficient than telephone or email customer service.
This isn’t that hard. This is not out of reach for 70% of companies. You need to listen, respond, and triage. I know they just look like tiny little heads floating across your computer, but these are real people. They are your customers. They are pissed off. Your silence is deafening.
70% of Companies Ignore Customer Complaints on Twitter
Posted on 11. Oct, 2011 by Jay Baer in Blog, Small Business Internet Marketing, Small Business Marketing, social crm, social listening, social media monitoring, social media operations, social media research, Social Media Staffing and Operations
Despite increasing numbers of customers using Twitter to publicly complain about brands, the vast majority of companies respond in the exact same way….with the quiet of contempt.
New research from Maritz and Evolve24 of 1,298 Twitter complainants found that only 29% of those tweet gripes were replied to by the companies in question.
This is a direction of duty, in my estimation. As we discussed in The NOW Revolution, brands must look at these new channels as the “social telephone” and ignoring these 140 character cries for help is a flawed decision for two reasons.
First, responding to Twitter complaints can turn lemons into lemonade. The Maritz study found that 83% of the complainants that received a reply liked or loved the fact that the company responded. This is irrespective of how, when or why the response came. Think about that. Just the fact that the company acknowledged the problem and showed it was listening improved customer psychology 83% of the time.
“What is striking about these findings is the strong degree to which consumers want to be engaged online to have their issues addressed,” says Anthony Sardella, senior vice president and managing director at evolve24. “They are clearly seeking to have a greater voice in the customer service process and see social media as a streamlined means for resolution of their issues.”
Second, the people that are using Twitter to complain are already disproportionately upset. Previous research from ExactTarget called Twitter X-Factors showed that fewer than 1% of customers use Twitter as their first stop in problem resolution. In almost every case, the people complaining on Twitter are doing so because your company already failed to satisfy them in one or more traditional customer service channels.
Let’s see if I have this right. Angry customers just looking for a sympathetic ear, shouting about it in a public forum. That does not seem to me to be an equation that 70% of companies should ignore.
Why The Social Telephone Goes Unanswered
In my consulting work with mid-sized and large brands, I find two primary reasons why companies purposefully ignore complaints and fail to answer the social telephone.
Fear. Companies literally believe (and I hear this exact phrase all the time) that they’d like to get involved but are afraid the conversation will turn negative in social media, and that answering gives greater exposure to complaints. Here’s the deal. If your company sucks, Twitter is the least of your worries. Social media doesn’t create negativity, it puts a magnifying glass to it. Twitter doesn’t make people more upset, it makes them less upset (if you respond) – especially women 35+ who are disproportionately delighted to get a response on Twitter from a brand.
Resources. It’s true that social media doesn’t close at 5pm, and in fact many customers use social media during the night and on weekends, when it may be inconvenient for you to monitor and reply. But your corporate convenience is not the prism through which you should be gazing upon social business. There was a time when grocery stores closed at 10pm, catalog call centers weren’t open on the weekend, and the only companies that had websites were in porn. But the world has changed – not to throw a wrench into your carefully crafted staffing and resource allocation model – but because the needs and desires of your customers have changed.
Customer Satisfaction with Operating Efficiencies
Also recognize that while you may need to expand your “paying attention” windows to meet the new customer expectations social media has wrought, you can also handle customer issues with greater efficiency. Sure, you only have 140 characters to reply, but your customer only has 140 characters to gripe. Do you think Comcast does Twitter customer service solely because they are nice guys and/or want to get newspaper coverage about doing so? They do Twitter customer service because it’s more efficient than telephone or email customer service.
This isn’t that hard. This is not out of reach for 70% of companies. You need to listen, respond, and triage. I know they just look like tiny little heads floating across your computer, but these are real people. They are your customers. They are pissed off. Your silence is deafening.
5 Reputation Management Lessons from Prince, Dell and Beyond
Posted on 30. Aug, 2011 by Geoff Livingston in Blog, Guest Posts, Reputation Management, Small Business Internet Marketing, Small Business Marketing, social media books, Social Media Crisis, social media operations
Excerpted From Welcome to the Fifth Estate
Difficulties arise. Mistakes happen. Reputations become tarnished — this is the way of the world, particularly when an error occurs after a company brand achieves a leadership position or a human being becomes famous.
As we’ve seen time and time again, when a problem is avoided or “hushed up,” the blemish becomes more pronounced. But when the setback is embraced, reputation damage can be ameliorated and in some cases, even reversed.
While an enraged Fifth Estate creates accelerated brand damage for organizations, conversational media can mollify angry customers or perturbed fans with direct interaction. Further, demonstrating responsiveness can help reputation management via online searching. When people see response to criticism and a commitment to resolve issues after public outcries, they are much more likely to believe the company cares about its customers.
Perhaps the most storied example of this is Dell’s magnificent use of its blog when laptop batteries were literally blowing up, setting their laptops on fire. By embracing the issue, Dell went a long way toward resolving the matter and defusing anger directed at the brand. Robert Downey Jr. and MC Hammer (an online media star in his own right) are great examples of individuals who recovered their reputations after being tarnished.
On the other hand, failure to engage creates its own issues. Pop icon Prince found out that the worst way to handle these situations is attempting to force fans (and commenters) to retract statements. Message control in social media environments doesn’t work; two-way conversational capabilities have permanently closed the door on that strategy.
Prince Hears No Evil?
When Prince tried to shut down three united, fan-generated sites to protect copyrighted material, fans dug in their heels. One fan wrote to prince.org:
“The more I think about it, I say just drop him, remove all content, let him have his way. It’s obvious he doesn’t want us as fans anymore, so why should we want him?”
Instead of quelling the storm, actions like Prince’s attempts to control the use of his image and media tend to incite increased hostility.
When a crisis occurs, successful communication efforts employ factual, timely updates. Organizations admit their fault and take public steps to address the issue. Such times can offer a company the opportunity to shine and actually build goodwill with its community.
Some of the lessons learned from all of these incidents include:
- Respond promptly.
- Acknowledge wrongs or problems and the steps taken to correct them.
- Publish a co-joining statement on their blog or website.
- Don’t apologize and then repeat your errors.
- If someone is complaining, and the company can’t effect change, acknowledge their remarks. Make them feel heard.
Days are too long when minutes and hours can create an uprising on the Internet.
Remember that smaller members of the Fifth Estate matter, too. A common mistake is to ignore remarks on blogs and social networks with less traffic, assuming they’re too small and don’t matter. What if a more influential blogger or a journalist reads a small site and picks up the story? Influence is also determined by who reads the post, not just by quantity of readers.
Note:
Since writing this chapter, it has become clear there is a new type of reputation issue that occurs in our increasingly polarized culture. Those are the bonafide critics who exist in every circle. They will never or likely rarely agree with you.
It is a mistake to simply say haters are going to hate. Because critics are not trolls, they cannot be ignored. Just as President Obama has to acknowledge Tea Party criticism, it is wise to address issues raised by the opposition. You may feel personally opposed to this, but your customers may not be able to delineate between you and your critic’s perspectives.
Like engagement with a negative commenter, state the facts, and if you believe you are in the right, simply let it stand. In marketing a brand, an overtly strong defense can signal complicity. Address questions, be right, be confident, and move on.
An excerpt of Welcome to the Fifth Estate was reprinted with permission by Geoff Livingston and Bartleby Press. All rights reserved
Nobody Said Social Media Should Be Simple
Posted on 28. Aug, 2011 by Jay Baer in Blog, Small Business Internet Marketing, Small Business Marketing, social crm, social media marketing, social media operations, social media strategy
Simple isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.
Social media is unique in that it is the only medium yet conceived where companies are playing in the exact same sandbox as we’re playing personally. Your employees and customers aren’t making TV ads on the weekend. Nor are they making their own magazine ads for fun at night, while watching Real Housewives of Omaha (a new show where everyone is sensible and nobody wears makeup). But indeed your employees and customers ARE messing around on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and blogs on their free time, the same space you’re trying to invade (and admit it, profit from) for corporate purposes.
That’s never happened before, and it puts marketers in the strange situation of not just littering the airwaves with TV commercials, or blighting the roadways with billboards, but of peeing in their OWN cheerios, of gumming up their OWN newsfeed with company messages of oft-dubious intent and relevancy.
Which Side Are You On?
I know the economy remains tight. I recognize that marketers are challenged with feeding leads and opportunities to the sales team like a mama bird regurgitating worms. But we have a once in a generation chance to set the trajectory for a new medium, and we’re blowing it.
Why? Because fundamentally, doing social media “right” with equal doses of speed, caring, delight, and panache is not simple. It’s both difficult and incredibly resource-intensive. As Gary Vaynerchuk said in a keynote once “Giving a shit doesn’t scale.” And he’s right.
Every time we opt for simple by pre-programming tweets, by purchasing likes, by turning our Facebook wall into nothing but a coupon machine, by using marketing automation software to auto-contact prospects in social media, we are flying in the face of what we know other social media users would prefer.
It’s up to the social media practitioners to fight back against this trend toward simplistic social marketing automation, the invitation avalanche, and buying love instead of earning it. We are trying to force social media marketing into an automated, customer acquisition focus that it wears like a suit of armor at a nudist colony. You can put a stop to it.
Killing the Culture of Simple
At every turn, you need to be communicating to your management that while indeed social media can generate incremental sales and leads, it is – at its heart – a loyalty and retention tool. You need to be communicating to your management that even though social media happens fast, benefits accrue slowly and cumulatively. You need to be communicating to your management that that numbers you need to be paying attention to are lifetime value of customers connected to your company via social media, not your total number of likes. You need to emphasize that none of this is simple.
Are those conversations easy to have, and is the instant gratification mindset taking hold in social media easy to dislodge? Nope. But the surest way to not change attitudes is to not talk about it at all.
NOTE: I’m not part of the social media unicorns and rainbows brigade. I’ve said forever that if you’re not profiting from social media, why are you doing it at all? But I’m also a lot older than many of the other social media gadflies, and I’ve seen this new medium movie before. I’m trying to make companies understand that social media is a long-term play about turning customers into advocates, rather than a short-term play about creating customers out of thin air with magic tweets.
Ask Yourself This Simple Question:
At the operational level, you can make a day-to-day difference in how social media unfolds and unfurls as well, just use this simple test:
The next time you’re thinking about what to put on your Wall, or how to get more likes, or what blog posts to green light, or anything else related to social media, ask yourself a very simple – but critically important – question:
“I use social media all the time. Would I personally respond to that? Does it make me care about this brand more?”
If no, then find another way.
Marketing has been historically hamstrung by the fact that the people doing the marketing were often intellectually and socio-economically different from the people to whom the marketing was directed. Today, that’s less true than ever. As social media reaches ubiquity, and we continue to use the same tools for business as we use for pleasure, your own ability as a marketer to define “effective” vs. “pointless” shouldn’t be discounted.
Run your social media decisions through that filter, and you’ll be amazed at how different your outcomes can be.
I grant you, none of this is a layup. But settling for simple is how we got here in the first place. Remember, nobody said social media was easy, just that it was awesome.
Are you ready to take a stand against simple? Can you?
The Fallacy of Round the Clock Social Media
Posted on 30. Jun, 2011 by Jay Baer in Blog, Chris Hall, Guest Posts, off madison ave, real-time, Small Business Internet Marketing, Small Business Marketing, social crm, social media customer service, social media operations, social media staffing, Social Media Staffing and Operations
Guest post by Chris Hall an interactive content specialist at Off Madison Ave who specializes in writing for humans, not robots.
It’s 11PM and the world around you is getting ready for bed. As a mobile obsessive, you instinctually check your Facebook, Twitter and all the rest of your social media accounts while you brush your teeth, only to find that someone has interacted with your brand. The world stops – you must answer.
That’s the way my world has become at least, because in my mind brands don’t sleep. How could they? On Facebook for example, there are people awake at all hours of the night that may have a great questions, and the only way to provide the “human” experience that brands crave oh-so-much is to respond to them as if
they are talking to you directly – no matter when they happen to be communicating.
But how does this look to the other guy – the guy that is talking to your brand in the middle of the night? What your nighttime response does show is that your brand is willing to respond at all hours of the night, but is it really worth it?
Does Faster Matter?
Let’s say that this guy, who I’ll call Mr. X, is an average Facebook user. On a normal weekday he hops onto his page periodically and probably writes a couple pieces of content, probably in the form of posts or comments on other’s walls. Each of his posts probably gets 2-5 comments/likes, with 50% percent of those coming from his friend Joe who is inexplicably online 14 of the 17 hours that he is awake. Each time Mr. X receives a comment, there’s a little rush – a feeling of acceptance. And this feeling will be the same whether the comment is made that day or that week.
So let’s say that your “toothbrush response” gave Mr. X a slight feeling of brand satisfaction. He goes to bed thinking that your brand cares, but by morning life continues on like normal. He’ll go to work, eat some lunch and watch the seven YouTube videos that his friend Joe sends him on a daily basis. Looking back on the situation, do you think that Mr. X’s feeling about your brand would be any different if your response had come at 9AM rather than 11PM? Isn’t it likely that Joe’s feeling of brand satisfaction would be practically identical?
Give the Brand a Break
Brands are allowed to sleep. Obviously there are some brands that are exceptions to the rule, but the majority of brands out there should try to keep consistent hours… you know… to sleep and stuff. Keep alert in case of emergency, but when Mr. X asks a simple question, just let it go.
While social media is fast, consumers really can’t, and don’t, expect social media to answer any faster than an email or phone call would. What they want is real human interaction – and the only way to seem like a human is to act like one.
(Flickr image by Joi)
(Off Madison Ave is a Convince & Convert client)
Speak No Evil – Why Trust Isn’t a 4 Letter Word in Social Media
Posted on 20. May, 2011 by Jay Baer in Amber Naslund, Blog, decentralized social media, rashard mendenhall, Small Business Internet Marketing, Small Business Marketing, Social Business Design, social crm, social media operations, Social Media Staffing and Operations, social media trust, The Now Revolution
Now is the summer of our discontent. It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. For social media, one hand giveth (instant spread of the Bin Laden news) while the other hand taketh away (seemingly daily stories about a company or person doing it “wrong”).
The most egregious occurrence of late was Rashard Mendenhall (running back for the Steelers, for readers who may not be sports fans) firing off a few tweets that were far outside the boundaries of mainstream American thought with regard to 911, Bin Laden, justice, and so forth. The Steelers disavowed his statements, and Mendenhall eventually apologized.
The belief in decentralized social media and every employee being in marketing is taking root in America. The more companies I talk to, the more I recognize that once they have the official company social outposts humming, organizations want to socialize other parts of the enterprise. This is gratifying, as this is the core premise Amber Naslund and I put forth in The NOW Revolution – that social media is about people not logos, and it’s everyone’s job to represent the company on the social Web.
Trust Is Not a Four Letter Word
But there’s a huge obstacle preventing many of these companies from executing on this plan. In short, they don’t trust non-marketers to represent the brand appropriately. The people who oversee social media in companies are afraid that other employees will pull a Rashard Mendenhall and do more harm than good, leaving the “professional marketers” to rush in like a bucket brigade to douse the flames and pick through the smoldering ashes of the brand.
I understand the concern, I really do. But, I have two problems with it as an excuse.
First, it contains a substantial amount of unspoken conceit to presume that marketers are inherently better at social media than non-marketers. Social media success is more about being social than it is doing social, and while knowledge of the tools and tactics are helpful, common sense and good judgement is not the sole property of a department, educational or vocational background, or any other circumstance.
I’ve been in meetings and heard these exact words spoken, “It would be great if we had a lot more people active on Twitter, but we’re scared to death to encourage sales reps to set up accounts.” Seriously? These are the same people that communicate for a living, persuading people to part with hard-earned cash to purchase whatever magic elixir you purport to provide. They build rapport and overcome objections for a living, and given that they often do it in a commission-driven environment, they have more at stake in their ability to do so than most marketers ever will.
Second, nobody is disproportionately bad at social media, it’s just that social media missteps are public. Let me give you a challenge. I’d like you to work with your IT department so that you can read all of the emails sent by your employees to non-employees. Not forever, one day should suffice. I guarantee you will FREAK OUT. Your employees are saying all kinds of crazy stuff via email right now as you’re reading this. Insensitive. Poor grammar. Too salesy. Not salesy enough. It’s all there for you to obsess over. But you don’t because it’s not easy or culturally appropriate to read all those emails. Or to listen in on phone calls, for that matter.
You don’t think Rashard Mendenhall has been sending wacky emails for years, that if published in a newspaper wouldn’t send alarm bells ringing at Steelers headquarters? Wake up and smell the keyboard.
At least on Twitter you only have 140 characters to give people the impression that you’re stupid. In an email you have limitless space to confirm the notion.
As Amber so succinctly and eloquently says, if your employees aren’t “good” at social media, you don’t have a social media problem, you having a hiring problem.
So when you’re ready to expand your social media program beyond @companyname and get everyone on board, set aside your biases, engage in rigorous training with all participants, and recognize that social greatness can come from anywhere.
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