Delivering Effective Social Customer Service: How to Redefine the Way You Manage Customer Experience and Your Corporate Reputation

Chapter 8

Reputation and Crisis Management

“ACKNOWLEDGE! So much about social customer service is just about your customers being heard. If you acknowledge their posts and tweets you are more than half way there.”

Michael Pace, Head of Customer Care and Cultivation, PerkStreet Financial

So what happens when a disgruntled customer decides to take to social media and berate your brand in full view of the world? Let's start by taking a step back to understand what can trigger this.

People get upset when an organization fails them in a way that matters. A few years ago, MIT Sloan Management Review offered a fascinating analysis as to why normally balanced people lose it and start to rant uncontrollably online. They discovered that when organizations significantly fail to honour their side of an agreement made with a customer over a service failure, things get bad. But things go ballistic when it occurs more than twice. At that point there is volcanic eruption from the sense of betrayal. And it takes a long time before that person can be reasoned with again.

This is the extreme of how we can react. Of course there are lesser injustices that can still make us feel the need to attack a brand. To this end it is important to keep a constant look out for your “high influence” customers, celebrities and super users. These are usually those with high numbers of active followers. But be warned, this will not safeguard you. You cannot give “bend-over-backwards” problem resolution to only this ...