Writing in a recent Businessnewsdaily.com blog (Read it Here), Nicole Fallon highlights a significant consequence of social media and mobile technology – the ability of your customers to broadcast their experiences (positive and negative) to the world. Customers are increasingly using this new found power to share their thoughts about your company and their experiences with it. Left unaddressed, these experiences form a picture of your company that you would rather not see.
To address this, Fallon, highlights three issues and consequent strategies to take on board.
- Customers are in control – and that’s how it will stay.
Irrespective of how good you think your company is, or your products or services, it is the customer who decides and shares their experiences. They also have the internet available to them 24/7 and 365 days a year to give voice to their story. You need to be there too, and to resolve whatever issues are raised in that space - Quick, personalised responses in social media will continue to be a service benchmark.
Ignoring social media is pointless – it is a reality and it is here to stay, so you need to be monitoring it. When issues are raised and you can deal with them quickly you will often be heralded as a champion. Customers understand that mistakes are made; it is how you deal with them that count. Personalised and not generic responses are important in this. - Collaboration will be the key to improving service.
This essentially means all the units of your business coming together to solve the issues raised. An even better and becoming more common approach is for customers to help themselves through feedback forums etc.
Customers are sharing their experiences with your company on the internet and social media. It is going to increase. You need to be in that space with a strategy for engaging with customers and especially dealing with any negative comments. When prospective customers search your business on the internet, what they find is up to you.
The Avondale Business School can advise your organisation on being effective in these areas – find out how by contacting Warrick Long at the Avondale Business School.
P: 02 4980 2168