Enlarge this image
Your money
Got a consumer complaint? Post it on Facebook
sanam islam
From Tuesday's Globe and Mail
Published
Last updated
Her outbound flight was cancelled, she had to visit three counters
before someone would print her a new ticket and, worse, an Air Canada
agent voided her return ticket. After waiting more than an hour at the
New Jersey terminal in late January, Virginia Champoux Sokoloff, a
41-year-old Montreal-based gift-store owner, was forced to buy a new
ticket for $731 (U.S.). When an agent charged her $25 for baggage, she
burst into tears.
Ms. Sokoloff’s annual trip to New York had turned into a nightmare. So, after unsuccessfully trying to complain by phone and e-mail, she turned to Facebook.
“I knew if I wrote the post with all the details, somebody was going to see it,” says Ms. Sokoloff, who posted her story on Air Canada’s and her own Facebook pages.
Within minutes of posting on the airline’s wall, she got a call from the company’s social-media representative. When Ms. Sokoloff mentioned that her Facebook post was being shared online, Air Canada refunded $731 for her ticket and offered 25 per cent off her next ticket.
(Air Canada declined to comment on Ms. Sokoloff’s experience.)
Ms. Sokoloff’s Facebook encounter is the new normal in 21st-century customer service. Didn’t receive dipping sauce with your order? Ignored by a salesperson? Whine on Facebook or Twitter, and you’re guaranteed an instant response from the company’s social-media rep.
“There’s no voice-mail jail if [consumers] reach out to a company in this way,” says Randall Craig, a social-media expert in Toronto and author of Social Media for Business. “If the company doesn’t respond, the comment is sitting there for everyone to see … and that’s a problem.”
Those who have thousands of followers have the most pull. “If they see you’ve got a large platform and that you’re very much an influencer, they want to make sure that the influence you spread is positive or at least neutral, not negative,” Mr. Craig says.
And customers love to vent on company pages. A recent survey, conducted in 2011 by NM Incite, an international social-media consulting firm, found that 51 per cent of social-media users post negative feedback.
That has made Canadian companies a little shy about social-media action. Although more of them have started introducing Facebook and Twitter pages, a recent survey by SAS Canada and Leger Marketing found that only 17 per cent of large and mid-sized companies consistently post on social-media sites or monitor them.
The ones who do make an effort are richly rewarded.
Alissa Sklar, 41, who works in social-media services at ROI Research on Investment in Montreal, posted a complaint on Fido’s Facebook page about her frustrating experience of trying to connect to the technical-support team for four hours to gain access to BlackBerry Messenger and apps. Within 20 minutes, a Fido representative sent her a private message to ask when it would be best to call her. After a few phone calls, a service agent remedied the situation.
“Instead of being angry, I’m once again a loyal, happy customer. I’ve made a point of articulating that satisfaction online on Fido’s Facebook page,” Ms. Sklar says.
Smart companies know how to step up their game.
When Jacqueline Kendall, a senior publicist at Global Television in her late 20s, tweeted Pizza Pizza about a rude delivery man who harassed her with phone calls after she complained to customer service about a late delivery, her intention was just to air her grievance. She was not expecting a dialogue. But a Pizza Pizza representative e-mailed her to apologize and offered her a $50 credit. “I was really impressed; it was a nice token on their part,” she says.
“We want every customer to come back to Pizza Pizza, so whatever it takes to make them happy, that’s what we like to do,” says Pat Finelli, chief marketing officer at the company. He says that about 55 per cent of the time, customers are offered something of monetary value, such as a credit for future orders, to make up for their bad experience.
While most companies that are active on Twitter and Facebook try to respond to all customer inquiries in a timely way, it’s inevitable that some messages slip through the cracks.
Rosa Pearson, a 34-year-old graphic designer in Vancouver, faced continuous problems with Kitchen Aid blenders from Sears Canada. Unable to get her issue resolved, Ms. Pearson (whose Twitter username is “flutterflutters”) took to tweeting: “@SearsCA I’m not impressed with total lack of customer ‘service?’ after third Kitchen Aid product fail.”
Although she received a response within an hour to ask for her contact information (which she sent), no one followed up. She had to tweet again five days later to complain, after which an executive called her directly that day.
“He was very friendly, gave me his direct number for future problems and seemed to genuinely want to help – unlike everyone else I dealt with who just said what they were told to say,” Ms. Pearson says. She says that after speaking to him, she was happy that Sears took Twitter seriously.
Lizzie Nawn, social-media and marketing specialist at Sears Canada, says one of the challenges is tracking everything, reporting it internally and making sure it’s followed through. “It’s such a new medium – it’s different from traditional methods. We’re tailoring our customer service to deal with that,” she says.
Until recently, she was the sole social-media contact person, but now there is also a team of customer-service representatives who can deal with technical problems directly.
“Social media is a small piece of the pie when it comes to our customer-service strategy, but it’s very important,” Ms. Nawn says. “The demand for social media is very high in our society, and you have to stay with the times.”
Special to The Globe and Mail
Ms. Sokoloff’s annual trip to New York had turned into a nightmare. So, after unsuccessfully trying to complain by phone and e-mail, she turned to Facebook.
“I knew if I wrote the post with all the details, somebody was going to see it,” says Ms. Sokoloff, who posted her story on Air Canada’s and her own Facebook pages.
Within minutes of posting on the airline’s wall, she got a call from the company’s social-media representative. When Ms. Sokoloff mentioned that her Facebook post was being shared online, Air Canada refunded $731 for her ticket and offered 25 per cent off her next ticket.
(Air Canada declined to comment on Ms. Sokoloff’s experience.)
Ms. Sokoloff’s Facebook encounter is the new normal in 21st-century customer service. Didn’t receive dipping sauce with your order? Ignored by a salesperson? Whine on Facebook or Twitter, and you’re guaranteed an instant response from the company’s social-media rep.
“There’s no voice-mail jail if [consumers] reach out to a company in this way,” says Randall Craig, a social-media expert in Toronto and author of Social Media for Business. “If the company doesn’t respond, the comment is sitting there for everyone to see … and that’s a problem.”
Those who have thousands of followers have the most pull. “If they see you’ve got a large platform and that you’re very much an influencer, they want to make sure that the influence you spread is positive or at least neutral, not negative,” Mr. Craig says.
And customers love to vent on company pages. A recent survey, conducted in 2011 by NM Incite, an international social-media consulting firm, found that 51 per cent of social-media users post negative feedback.
That has made Canadian companies a little shy about social-media action. Although more of them have started introducing Facebook and Twitter pages, a recent survey by SAS Canada and Leger Marketing found that only 17 per cent of large and mid-sized companies consistently post on social-media sites or monitor them.
The ones who do make an effort are richly rewarded.
Alissa Sklar, 41, who works in social-media services at ROI Research on Investment in Montreal, posted a complaint on Fido’s Facebook page about her frustrating experience of trying to connect to the technical-support team for four hours to gain access to BlackBerry Messenger and apps. Within 20 minutes, a Fido representative sent her a private message to ask when it would be best to call her. After a few phone calls, a service agent remedied the situation.
“Instead of being angry, I’m once again a loyal, happy customer. I’ve made a point of articulating that satisfaction online on Fido’s Facebook page,” Ms. Sklar says.
Smart companies know how to step up their game.
When Jacqueline Kendall, a senior publicist at Global Television in her late 20s, tweeted Pizza Pizza about a rude delivery man who harassed her with phone calls after she complained to customer service about a late delivery, her intention was just to air her grievance. She was not expecting a dialogue. But a Pizza Pizza representative e-mailed her to apologize and offered her a $50 credit. “I was really impressed; it was a nice token on their part,” she says.
“We want every customer to come back to Pizza Pizza, so whatever it takes to make them happy, that’s what we like to do,” says Pat Finelli, chief marketing officer at the company. He says that about 55 per cent of the time, customers are offered something of monetary value, such as a credit for future orders, to make up for their bad experience.
While most companies that are active on Twitter and Facebook try to respond to all customer inquiries in a timely way, it’s inevitable that some messages slip through the cracks.
Rosa Pearson, a 34-year-old graphic designer in Vancouver, faced continuous problems with Kitchen Aid blenders from Sears Canada. Unable to get her issue resolved, Ms. Pearson (whose Twitter username is “flutterflutters”) took to tweeting: “@SearsCA I’m not impressed with total lack of customer ‘service?’ after third Kitchen Aid product fail.”
Although she received a response within an hour to ask for her contact information (which she sent), no one followed up. She had to tweet again five days later to complain, after which an executive called her directly that day.
“He was very friendly, gave me his direct number for future problems and seemed to genuinely want to help – unlike everyone else I dealt with who just said what they were told to say,” Ms. Pearson says. She says that after speaking to him, she was happy that Sears took Twitter seriously.
Lizzie Nawn, social-media and marketing specialist at Sears Canada, says one of the challenges is tracking everything, reporting it internally and making sure it’s followed through. “It’s such a new medium – it’s different from traditional methods. We’re tailoring our customer service to deal with that,” she says.
Until recently, she was the sole social-media contact person, but now there is also a team of customer-service representatives who can deal with technical problems directly.
“Social media is a small piece of the pie when it comes to our customer-service strategy, but it’s very important,” Ms. Nawn says. “The demand for social media is very high in our society, and you have to stay with the times.”
Special to The Globe and Mail
No comments:
Post a Comment