If you don’t have a strategy to deal with Internet and social media you might be in a danger of losing lot of business. Just look at this article in Detroit Free Press past Saturday. To summarize the article – a student from Western Michigan University claims his car was illegally towed from his apartment complex by the tow truck company. He created a Facebook page to fight with the towing company and attracted 11,000 “fans” on the page; who joined him in the revolt saying they too had similar complaints against this company. The result was that that towing company lost half of its commercial accounts.
Just think about this!! One college student.. Complaint.. Internet.. Crowd..Revolt.. Lost Business!! It used to be that people who were not happy with the customer service they received from a business would stop going to that place and may be tell several of their friends about it. The impact on the business would not be that big. However, with the rise of Internet and social media sites; such as Facebook, Twitter, Yelp and many others where people are gathering and sharing their stories all the time; this impact can multiple quickly. Before you know it the situation can get out of hand resulting in lost customers and sales. It may even lead to the demise of your business if you are not careful.
So what can you do so that your business does not end up in this type of situation? To begin with you need scour the Internet and particularly the social media sites mentioned above to watch out for the comments and complaints coming from your customers. You need to look for both positive and negative comments. But don’t just stop at looking at the comments. Engage with those customers in one-on-one fashion. If the comments are positive thank them for their business and promise to continue with excellent service. If the comments are negative ask them for the details and promise to take appropriate actions to correct the problems. Follow up again with those customers with some form of coupon or refund after you have corrected the problems and invite them to visit you again to see for themselves the improvements you have made.
Of course you don’t want to stop at responding to the customers on the Internet. I would argue that you need to play offense and establish a presence on the web and social media sites where customers can engage with you directly rather than complaining elsewhere. Companies like Best Buy and many others have created fan pages on Facebook and Twitter where the regularly talk to their customer throughout the day. We, at Angel Business Advisors, have our own presence. I encourage you to become our fan on Facebook and follow us on Twitter to see for yourself how you can do it too.
The bottom line is you can ignore the rise of social media sites at your own peril. You need to grab this opportunity to your advantage and not only address the customer complaints; but increase your sales and profit by interacting with them.
Do you have any stories from your business or from others you would like to share with the community? Would love to hear from you.
Great article. Waiting for more.