As a social media consultant, I have to deal with customers on a daily basis. The customer service aspect of social media is actually one of the least favorite parts of my job.
But today, fed up with being ignored by a brand’s representative for weeks, I myself have turned to social media and used it to get better customer service. And it worked:
Within minutes of complaining, on the brand’s Facebook page, that its representative was ignoring my emails, said representative emailed back and fixed the issue.
Social media is a powerful customer service tool because it’s public, which means it gives a lot of power to a single customer. In the past, a grievance between you and a brand was a private thing, handled via phone or email. People still shared their frustrations with their friends, of course, but that was not nearly as powerful as sharing a complaint with 300,000 fans on a brand’s Facebook page. And while some customers abuse their newfound power, lashing out at brands and forgetting that even behind a brand there are still people, I think that this power is a very good thing indeed, as long as we use it politely and only after exhausting private communication methods.
Tonight, after having an issue resolved within minutes of posting it on a brand’s Facebook page, I am very grateful for social media.
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