The old adage is that a satisfied customer will tell three people and an unsatisfied customer will tell 10. However, with the advent of blogs, Twitter and YouTube, disgruntled customers share their rant about a company with the whole world. Consumers are taking their complaints online and your Better Business Bureau advises that responding to complaints is necessary if a business wants to maintain a reputation for great customer service.
In early July, a musician said United Airlines damaged his guitar on a flight and was so fed up trying to get reimbursed that he wrote a song, made a video and posted it to YouTube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5YGc4zOqozo). Titled “United Breaks Guitars,” the video has been viewed more than 4.6 million times as of Aug. 1. As a result of the video’s popularity, United contacted the musician and offered to reimburse him for his guitar, but the damage was done.
In the same way that an online rant can damage a company’s reputation, successfully handling complaints can showcase a company’s dedication to customer service, setting it apart from the competition. Companies like Comcast and Zappos.com, for example, continually receive praise for maintaining Twitter accounts to respond to tweets from happy — and unhappy — customers.
Customer complaints can be found on customer review sites like Yelp.com and CitySearch.com, blogs, Twitter, YouTube and in comment sections of online newspapers. BBB offers the following advice to small business owners on responding to customer complaints:
- Continually Monitor the Online Conversation. Access online tools to monitor who is talking about your company. For example, Backtype.com and Google Alerts send e-mail messages when people post comments or if your company is mentioned in the news, respectively. One of the easiest ways to monitor the conversation is to do an Internet search of your company’s name every couple days, keeping an eye out for new results.
- Pick your battles. Depending on the size of your business, it can be extremely
time-consuming to address every blog post, comment or tweet. When choosing complaints to respond to, look for ones that are less than a few days old, on prominent sites and are about problems that you can solve.
- Offer full disclosure. When defending your company online, don’t pretend to be an unbiased consumer. Tech-savvy individuals can easily deduce who is behind comments so it’s best to be honest and admit upfront that you represent the company.
- Take the conversation offline. Some companies have made the mistake of hashing out disputes online for everyone to see. Instead, keep online responses polite and direct and ask the customer if you can contact them directly by e-mail or phone to discuss the specific details of their complaint.
- Don’t say anything privately that you wouldn’t want public. Just because you’ve taken the conversation offline doesn’t mean that your e-mails and phone conversations won’t end up on the Internet. Always remain polite and professional.
- Follow through. Don’t drop the conversation when resolving a dispute and always follow through on promises. Consider providing a little extra perk, such as coupons, after the issue has been resolved.
- Know when to walk away. There’s no satisfying some angry customers and at times a small business owner can only offer a sincere apology and walk away from the conversation.
Start With Trust. For more BBB advice on providing great customer service both online and off, visit wynco.bbb.org or call 970-484-1348 or 800-564-0371 for reliable consumer tips and information.