Social Web Is Outlet For Consumer Complaints

By: Jon Njos
VP/Partner/Media Director

It’s the nagging question for all businesses. Should we be involved in social media and, if so, how do we use it? The whole concept is hard to get one’s mind around and, because of the immediacy of it all, it is a huge undertaking to maintain current reactions and input. The social platform is thought of as an avenue to engage consumers on a positive level by asking and answering questions and allow consumers to talk to each other about your products or services. What is forgotten is that there are negatives about this platform and those negatives are in the form of bad reviews. Whether you’re aware of it or not, conversations are going on about your brand, and this has become the new reality.

The Retail Consumer Report, commissioned by RightNow and conducted online by Harris Interactive in January 2011, reported that U.S. adults who shopped online and had a bad experience will not come back to that retailer. Moreover, those disgruntled customers head straight to online outlets to vent their frustrations and provide a bad review. Retailers can’t ignore this trend as it grows, especially as more and more online shoppers rely on customer reviews before deciding on a purchase.

Follow-up pays off

The good news is that, when retailers respond to such criticisms immediately and make it right, they can win back some customers. The survey found that response to the negative reviews turned 33% of them into positive reviews and caused 34% to delete their negative reviews. This is shown by the fact that 68% of those who post a negative review don’t expect any response or action.

All in all, we see it more every day that the consumer is in charge. For anyone who has had to navigate the gauntlet of the phone tree through the customer service caverns of a large company and talk to an indifferent customer service representative, social outlets have empowered consumers. Retailers can’t hide anymore and wish for individual problems to go away. So more than ever, retailers need to pay attention to the social web world and prepare to react and participate to maintain a positive customer experience.
Some control can be realized if retailers take it head-on and embrace it for what it is. It isn’t feasible that any one company can possibly monitor all avenues of discourse, but being proactive can go a long way. Here’s how you can initiate a plan and become part of the process.

• Get familiar with the social communities that have relevance for your brand
• Use free alert systems like Google Alerts that will notify you of specific words or phrases being used
• Identify yourself when entering conversations and don’t use sales-speak
• Use transparency and honesty and don’t be defensive - if a bad review is correct, then fess up and ask for consumer input
• Invite people to give a review - this will usually produce more positive reviews than not
• Create your own brand focus groups with incentive-based marketing - this kind of input can help you identify where current problems exist

With all of this activity going on, retailers have plenty of avenues to discover and respond, thus turning negatives into positives. Participating and controlling brand buzz will help you control the flow of information and build more brand advocates along the way.