Why Brands Should Put Their Money Where Their Mouth’s Are.
I heard this statement recently. “The first level of care is showing interest“. Ergo the first step for a business providing online customer care is to show interest in its customers. The very first way a brand can show interest in its customers is by showing interest in the ideas it’s customers are talking about. What does this look like? Responding to comments on your blog, responding to tweets, providing input on industry discussion lists, reaching out to grieved clients via email…get the picture? But that’s only the beginning.
Responding to customers online in itself may not always be sufficient.Nestle responded online to customers during the Green Peace ignited fiasco earlier this year. I suspect customers didn’t feel particularly cared for [I didn’t participate in the fracas]. BP’s handling of the oil spill didn’t evoke warm fuzzy feelings either. Their response to the media, the military, politicians and the public was sub-par. I got the feeling they didn’t care. Toyota’s handling of the faulty accelerators didn’t work too well for them either. The public were no longer sure just how much Toyota cared about them and their safety.
Online or offline, brands need to be consistent in communicating interest to their customers and following it through with actions. Having great social customer care but poor shopfront service will only turn your forums, Twitter timelines and Facebook pages into forest fires.
If you say you care (you probably even said so on your tagline), then it’s time to put your money where your mouth is. Before you jump onto the social networking bandwagon and create profiles for your brands, consider whether your organization has a culture of showing interest to customers offline. An anti-social offline culture won’t automagically turn into a super social online one all on its own. Some hard work awaits you.
I can think of two ways a business can go from showing passive interest (responding to comments and tweets) to showing active interest;
- Be specific. It’s always a great start to address the customer by their name (or handle) and respond with specificity at first contact. An automated reply or one that is too general signals inauthenticity and sounds the death knell for future interactions.
- Be involved. This takes some planning. Involvement means follow-up, it means creative ways of compensating aggrieved customers and it means educating your client on the product they purchased and the problem (if any) they are facing. It takes planning because there have to be clear processes internally for catching complaints, escalating them and following them up to the customer’s satisfaction.
Can you think of more ways a brand can take it’s caring to talk to the next level of caring action [in the online context]?
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