Manage your Customer Service and Reputation all at once!

Once upon a time, I worked for Spencer Gifts. Part of the training package for new employees was a cartoon video that talked about customer service. The video talked about how customers experience Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt when it comes to making certain purchases. Having good customer service can help overcome the “FUD” factor.

The training continued with data that told us that a happy customer will tell 2 people, while a dissatisfied customer will tell 10 people. This was in the days before cell phones! Ten people spreading news about your business could ultimately damage your business’ reputation. So, customer service and reputation were tied together at the hip. But who are we kidding, customer service and reputation have almost always been tied together.

Enter social media. Those days of someone who is dissatisfied telling 10 people number has now multiplied by hundreds, thousands or millions. Depending upon the audience of the person who is posting, how active or passionate about a topic the followers are, a simple statement can raise up an item or make it crash and burn. That is how virility with a YouTube video, Facebook post or Tweet gets going. The reality is, most companies don’t know their Customer Expectations, and they get it wrong. Millennial’s, for example, want an immediate response with an immediate outcome.

Remember this story – United breaks Guitar – turned out alright after the fact Read more. But that video and example is used quite a bit in how customer service and responsiveness are so much more important now, then ever before. There are now over 14 million views of the YouTube video of an event that happened in 2009. All someone has to do is create a video, share it on their social media channels, and have a couple of key people share the posts before something spins out of control.

If you need to know more about managing your customer service and reputation through social media, check back. I will cover reputation management in my next article.