The @ Reply: Why Engagement Is Crucial
Digital. Engagement. Social. Proactive Customer Service. The list goes on. Many buzz words are circulating at the moment, and companies are under pressure, more so than ever, to be present on social networks. Have you caught yourself in the last little while saying or at least thinking ‘Well I tweeted insert brand an hour ago and they STILL haven’t replied’. Exactly. There’s no question about it, online engagement is important. However, how much presence and engagement strikes the right balance? When is the right time to bow out gracefully or exit a conversation? These questions are important because you could quite literally be at it for hours thanking, double thanking, and triple thanking everyone for every mention and @ reply.
@ The Whole Organization
Online engagement could be the result of a whole host of reasons with benefits that will cut across the enterprise. Whether you are launching a social media campaign and tracking its performance, handling a PR disaster, building a community or just simply providing another avenue for customer service a subject Guy Stephens a resident expert on Social Customer Service blogs about extensively, some of the basics will remain constant. You will likely want to encourage promoters and on the other hand address detractors, setbacks or complaints. However, when do you stop and is there such a thing as over-engaging?
Let’s start with vocal detractors. Regardless of whether in our personal or our professional lives we’ve most likely all had a disagreement or two at some point. The same goes for brands, and while we may well feel that the customer is always right, or within their right, there are numerous ways addressing a particular issue can play out. The last thing a company wants is bad press or for something to go viral. In some instances a helpful brand might simply never satisfy a disgruntled customer and every attempt made at a resolution remains futile. These cases occur but they are usually not the norm and Jason Falls has some great thoughts on the subject as well.
Before you turn your back you want to ensure that if someone has a concern which they have voiced online, that first and foremost you have acknowledged the issue and explored the issue fully. Taking the high road will almost certainly only be appropriate as a last resort, so in the first instance you’ll need to ensure that you are listening to online conversations and following up with any inquiries or complaints. In many cases a simple usability question can be resolved, in other cases it may take a little bit longer and require some internal changes and realignment. For the latter it tends to be more fruitful to steer the conversation offline to allow for a more comprehensive exchange on the issue. This does not mean that you neglect any online engagement however, and similarly as you wouldn’t simply hang up the phone, you don’t want to leave someone hanging online. Finally, as is always the case with service issues ultimately they can help make your company or organization better so addressing and taking action on prompted or unprompted feedback is key.
Think It Through
When it comes to engagement, action and speaking (tweeting/ blogging etc) can be interchangeable. Corporate social media in its infancy has been the stage for some quite appalling examples of companies lashing out at their customers online. As a result, even satisfied customers may witness such behavior and think twice about doing business with the company. In some cases lashing out may not be vocal but take on different forms, censorship, for example. Some companies have attempted to mute negative conversations about them by attempting to delete posts or comments. Again this is counterproductive and a proper outreach strategy should be explored and implemented rather than a counterproductive quick fix. If an incident does go viral, the most appropriate solution may not be to engage with each individual but rather posting a public letter of acknowledgment/or apology may help to pacify the crowds.
Guidelines and policies can be a helpful way for companies to set the standard for engagement, and equally important, when not to engage. Training similarly is key, as well as ensuring that staff are well equipped to represent the company publicly. However, and possibly above all, the same professionalism, courtesy and manners which apply in the ‘real world’ should apply to the online world. Ultimately, over-engagement likely isn’t a problem, it is more about routing conversations appropriately, ticking the right boxes as and when appropriate and ensuring you’ve crossed all of your T’s before you close off any conversation.
How do you deal with promoters and detractors online? Feel free to share your thoughts and experiences with us, we’d love to hear them.
Tags: customer engagement, Customer service, Guy Stephens, Jason Falls, Social Etiquette, Social Media, social media engagement
When I owned my online retail business (until last year, but mostly before FB and Twitter were in as widespread use for business), there were about a half-dozen to ten Internet forums I frequented as well. While negative shopping experiences occurred, they were infrequent, mostly because I was militant about customer service, and resolving issues before they blew up. To that end, I had my phone number and email address posted everywhere on the website. If someone couldn't get ahold of me, it's because they didn't try.
So when the occasional less-than-pleasant experience would pop up, I found that addressing it quickly, professionally and thoroughly did more to alleviate problems than anything. Apologizing they weren't satisfied, telling them how to return an item to me, what I was going to do to resolve the issue were my SOP. I did it all out in public, except for any private information about the customer.
(Of course, I didn't post that the customer wasn't satisfied because they ordered item X, which I had advised them wouldn't work for what they wanted to do with it, but sometimes, life serves up a nasty sandwich and you just gotta grimace and take a bite)
Because I was quick to address it, laid out all the options for resolution, and apologized for the error, it took the wind out of their sales in nearly all cases. In those instances it didn't, the membership of the forum knew/commented that this customer always complained about something, all the time, and was never satisfied.
Where I saw competing companies fail…to my benefit…was trying to downplay the error, ignore the error, try to get the issue deleted, etc. It backfired on them…"what are you hiding?", "why can't you admit you screwed up?" were common themes when they did so.
Again, this isn't rocket science. Keeping customers happy (to the extent you can) should be goal 1 of an enterprise…because w/o customers, you've got nothing.
There were warranty issues that should have been resolved with the manufacturer that I exchanged with the customer because I knew I could get it resolved faster than the customer dealing with them…my rep hated me, but never told me not to do it. That's how much CRM meant to me….I'd risk eating the cost of the item to keep the customer happy.
There are a few retail outfits that will go to this end, and many who won't. Guess which ones I purchase from?
Appreciate you sharing your experiences with us Tim. Agreed, without customers you have no business so ensuring that they remain loyal and satisfied with your service is paramount. I do believe that as part of that hearing and addressing their complaints is of utmost importance and this includes doing so using social media if this is the avenue they chose to communicate on.
Cheers,
Olivia
Thanks for the article. Some good ideas/advice. Would love it if you had a follow up article about this topic, perhaps exploring the question of "How much is enough?" "When/How to gracefully exit a conversation".
Another, possibly related, question would be "How to prioritize the conversations to join?". This would be important as it is often/usually not possible to respond to all conversations. Could also be an area where you could highlight if/how the Radian6 Insights platform might help users.
Thanks.
Jim, sometimes you have just say you are sorry that you cannot help the customer and perhaps give them advice on other techniques to help them.
If you have to say you are sorry, then you might want to read Customer Satisfaction Tip: Four Steps to say You are Sorry. http://wp.me/pB3CF-H8. It covers 4 steps to take and 5 soft skills to minimize the blow to the customer.
Another interesting blog post called "The embarrassment of being wrong" talks about the kinds of blindnesss companies that allow them to rationalize rather than seeing things from the customer's perspective. http://wp.me/pB3CF-13Y
If you need to apologize for a major crisis, Be first to announce your situation. Check out http://wp.me/pB3CF-GN
Thank you Jim, those are some great idea and I'll make sure to incorporate some of those in my next post!
Adele, thank you for sharing some great points.
Cheers,
Olivia
"…similarly as you wouldn’t simply hang up the phone, you don’t want to leave someone hanging online." This might be one of my new favorite quotes. It's such a great analogy, and it helps bring social media into a perspective that everyone can understand.
Thanks Emma, glad that the post resonated with you
Cheers,
Olivia