Technology is a means to achieving your business goals and offline
interaction is often reflected in online feedback. PHOTO | FILE
By SANTINA NYAGAH
In Summary
- Used well, social media platforms can turn the most critic customer into your brand’s ambassador.
After my last article on how social media is going to
be a game- changer in the expanding retail market in Kenya, I received a
lot of feedback from online readers.
Most of the comments centred on the fact that businesses do
not like negative feedback appearing on their social media pages and
therefore have a tendency to disappear from social media very fast. The
reason behind this is very simple and entirely human and understandable.
None of us likes negative comments, even brands do
not want their reputations soiled on social media. Yet negative feedback
is great and definitely better than no feedback as it allows you a lot
of room for improvement.
Nothing will have a customer singing your praises like proving them wrong.
That said, what do brands or businesses need to do
in order to reduce negative feedback that has become almost endemic on
social media platforms?
First, be authentic. Technology is not the end of everything, it is just a means to achieving your business goals.
If you are true to your business values offline, it should show in the way you interact with your online audience.
Be as true to your values and core business as you
can. Care about the people on the other side of technology as much as
you care about the ones you meet face to face.
Your customers are the reason you get out of bed every morning, so let your online interactions attest to this.
Second, be helpful. Technology when used mindfully
and properly is a great tool. Rather than seeing social media as a
public relations tool, use it to provide solutions your customers are in
need of as they make use of your products or services.
Rather than ignoring negative comments and
feedback, businesses would benefit from investigating complaints and
taking prompt corrective measures if necessary.
Third, acknowledge comments. It is exhausting for
customers to keep posting feedback on social media platforms with no
sort of acknowledgment.
Customers feel like they are talking to a brick
wall and we all know how that feels like in our relationships. It is
courteous and speaks volumes about the way you think about your brand
and customers when you take time to acknowledge receipt of any sort of
feedback.
Lastly, be thoughtful. Being on social media is
like having a megaphone that you can use any time you want but you
really do not have to.
If all your posts or updates are self-promotional
then your online audience will quickly get exhausted with all the sales
chat. Be thoughtful with your use of communication.
Humour your customers every so often and let them see the human side of your business.
Final word: You must have seen or experienced social media
shaming. This is what disgruntled customers resort to when they have
complaints against certain business practices. They go to social media
to make an example of these brands or businesses by publicly shaming
them.
This then spawns off an outpouring of outrage from
other seemingly outraged customers and it then forces the business
owner(s) to withdraw a product or service or change the terms of their
offers. At its worst it has seen businesses offering public apologies
for their wrong doing.
Social media shaming need not happen if businesses
started taking their business (pun intended) seriously and valuing their
customers.
As for customers before you get on Twitter and
Facebook to summon everyone to express your dissatisfaction, think like a
business owner, what if this was your business?
The first course of action needs to be a well written private email to the company expressing your disappointment.
Businesses need to be more prompt with their
responses to customer complaints, they need to care about their
customers and show it.
Great businesses are the ones that have a reason
that goes beyond money and profits for their existence. They need to see
themselves as adding value to the communities they operate in.
And just because technology has changed the way we
interact with each other, we need not throw out the rule book on good
behaviour.
Nyagah is lifestyle blogger.
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