Dissatisfied customers in the wired world

What do you do when you've done everything right and you still have an unhappy customer?

In today's world of social broadcasting it could be very easy to have a customer, that no matter what you do, you just can't seem to satisfy. You try everything from offering discounts to free stuff or any other possibility to please this customer. Why, because you know that in today's world of social networks all you have is your name and identity to fall back on.

But what does this mean? Does it mean that your business, which is already customer focused, needs to give services away for free just to save face? How do you survive if someone can go out into the wired world and smear your name and there's nothing you can do or say without breaking the bank with legal fees?

I guess you could spend time and money monitoring every social avenue for your name to come up. How practical is that? You could just ignore it and hope nothing happens. When has denial ever served you correctly? You could get involved and participate in the conversation positioning yourself as an expert in your field building your personal, and professional, brand and trustworthiness.

So you heard about a negative review of your services and you want to set the record straight. You want to point out any disparities or untruths with your reviewers comments. You want desperately to save your business impression. So you go out and find as many places as you can, where these comments are posted, and you respond or reply. Now you feel better, right? You've just put them in their place, you've shown them that you're not going to sit their and take that kind of crap!

What have you really done? You just showed your petty scared reactionary self. You just started a he said she said. How is that going to help?

Now, let's look at how you can position yourself to be seen as an expert in your field and develop a following that sees you as a diligent hard working person that does make mistakes and has the ability to apologize, learn from it, and move on keeping your loyal customers and potential customers.

Become part of the social networking environment. With the speed and growth of the social movement you can either choose to participate and reap the benefits and rewards, or you can spin your wheels claiming not to be an author, a writer, or that you don't have the time. You don't not have the time. The world is moving on with or without you and if you keep missing the train you're not going to be able to recover in any easy measure.

At Collision Assistance Network we help collision repair professionals learn how to use and benefit from inclusion in the social media revolution.

Tags: branding, customers, discussion, networking, satisfaction, social

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Permalink Reply by Bob Sanford on February 9, 2010 at 7:49am

Social networking is defiantly an untapped market but a market that can sink you very fast. In my business we do custom & collision work, custom work is driven heavily by word of mouth and reputation and is subject to opinions and taste, what you may like is another persons dislike. We have been fortunate to have had great customers and in the social arena they can be your best defense. I do monitor certain chat boards and social networks but not for slanderous remarks but to keep current on events and try to promote my business.

Bob

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Permalink Reply by Kristen R. Felder on February 9, 2010 at 11:43am

Bob... Great point.

I was meeting with an insurer last week discussing their Facebook and Twitter presence. They do an amazing job of doing nothing! What I mean by that is their customers are raving fans and are all over both accounts. When someone does post something negative about claim service at least 300 "fans" will post comments about how great their service was. It's really great to watch it work each week.

300 raving fans beats one negative every time.

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Permalink Reply by Bill Fowler on February 9, 2010 at 3:28pm

There is another twist to this subject that you have not thought of......unhappy former employees. I had a customer make me aware of a negative review about my business that he found while doing a Google search to find my phone number.
It seems that this former employee warned the public to stay away from my business because I forced my employees to perform unsafe repairs. This same employee quit without any warning in the middle of a job and took every nut, bolt, screw and interior trim piece he could with him when he bailed. What he took was so overwhelming, I had to buy a car from a salvage yard to get all the parts necessary to reasemble the vehicle this thug left me with and pay the rental bill because of the delay he created to boot.
I appealed to Google to remove the "review" as being libelous, but my appeal fell on deaf ears. I posted my own review, pointing out that I had been in business over 13 years with not so much as one unresolved complaint and that I found Google to be complicit in the libelous portrayal of my business. They promptly took down my review but left the libelous one. It's one hell of a thing to have happen to you but one you cannot prevent from happening. The jerk who did this isn't worth the time and money to pursue him legally, so I just hope he dies very soon.