Remember in college/school…how we used to confront a friend when we hear something strange about them? And not go around asking others about what is wrong with that friend? Why do you think we did that? Simple enough – our friendship/relationship was that strong…that we kept such discussions and doubts within us and not take them outside.
Now, let me ask you this question – are there brands about which you won’t complain publicly, say, on Twitter, blog or on Facebook?
It could be for any reason – you may be pally with someone working in that brand organization; someone in the brand knows you well; some brands may be your professional clients; you may be working in that brand yourself (!); you may be very happy and content with the brand…and so on.
Confession: I have a few brands and organizations about which I would not complain online or vocally. At least till I’m not sufficiently annoyed at a personal level. My first instinct with these brands/organizations would be to try and sort any issue privately, via email or a phone call. Only if things go completely haywire, would I perhaps resort to public whining, for whatever it’s worth.
To be frank, I follow that for most brands since I strongly believe that public whining is a final, helpless course of action. But you see people all around you using public whining as the first step to get a brand to respond/take action.
Social media engagement, in a way, helps build trust with customers/users that, ultimately, would have them trying out personal modes of whining when things go wrong, instead of gunning for the brand out in the open. All those seemingly pointless interactions that brands have with its customers on Twitter, Facebook or discussion forums could be worded intelligently and sensibly so that it builds a connect and eventually, a trust about the intent of the brand they are interacting with.
More than those ‘thank you’ notes, those Facebook ‘like’ clicks, those self-serving positive retweets and those largely pointless discussions and engagements, it is those conversations with customers online that showcase and demonstrate intent that work for the benefit of the brand the most.
Such intent could be about anything – ‘we honestly would like to solve your problem’, ‘we are genuinely sorry about the issue caused by our product’, ‘we are truly happy that you like our service’, we’d love to see you using our service again’…these may sound like standard sentences, but add it with customer-centric intelligence and good timing…you have excellent conversation material that showcases a brand’s intent, in all honesty.
A related problem is that of scale. After all, how many customers can a brand say these to? That is largely similar to another question, ‘Can a brand satisfy all its customers?’.
The answer to both – perhaps not. Realizing that scaling is not possible unless you have a massive team or you use/re-use templates to respond to people online (at which point the intent is bound to be questioned due to seemingly mindless repetition of conversational elements) is a step towards doing what is normally possible. Even cherry-picking engagement based on some factors (urgency of complaint online, the relative influence of person asking a question, the kind of people connected with the person posing a query…) is a useful enough exercise – the idea is simply to start doing it, do it with the right words and tone, and do it consistently so that it builds an image.
If there are brands about which you would not complain online/publicly, which are they and why won’t you complain? What were the triggers which led you to consider other, private modes to complain? Have you ever felt like tweeting something negative about a brand only to stop at the last second because of one of the reasons in paragraph 3?