Things With Wings

It’s a fair assumption to make that pretty much everyone has worked in a bar or restaurant at some point in their younger, most probably student days. I worked in plenty, from Belgian to Japanese and from Italian to Spanish and no matter how the cuisine and tipples differed, the customer service message always remained the same – ‘Give a customer exceptional service and they may tell one friend, disappoint one customer with poor service and they will tell 10.’

More often than not, customers who receive bad customer service will not complain in person and cause a fuss, they will simply never return again. Additionally, if the business is not aware of such ill feeling, they have no way of being able to contact them or make amends.

In the social media universe, if an unhappy customer were to post a bad experience to their 500 Twitter followers or were to voice their grievance on a review site, the potential spread could explode – almost instantly. But there is an opportunity…

According to a survey conduced by Harris Interactive 68% of consumers who posted a negative review on a social network, forum or review site, received a response back from the retailer. The survey also found, that of the customers who received the response, 33% turned around and posted a positive review and 34% deleted their initial negative review. This is particularly important when you consider that nearly a third of customers research what other customers have said in the social media universe when purchasing online.

It is more apparent than ever, in a landscape where customers are numbers and are identified only by their age, sex, job and location, that retailers who treat them as humans and present themselves as humans by opening the way for a two way dialogue, are better respected and more likely to benefit from repeat business and recommendations.

Two thirds of 8 – 24 year olds access a social network at least once a day. You can watch movies on Facebookand even buy products. So to ensure you get more than the leftovers, address those negative comments and win over unhappy customers.