Social Media Changes The Way We Communicate With Businesses
It is certainly true that social media has changed the way that we communicate with businesses, but how?
I don't know if you remember, or are old enough to remember the days before social media. The good ole' days, of wired, and "wireless" phones that were connected to hard lines and you had to be home to use. You know, 15 years ago?
In those days, the best way to communicate with a business was to call their customer service line, or show up at their physical location if there was one near you. Those days are all but gone in most cases. Now, we can simply log into twitter and tag the business in a post and will usually get a response.
Before, things seemed very amorphous with large corporations, but now they have teams dedicated to personally interacting with their customers. This has been great both for the consumer and the business. The customer get's their problems handled easier and faster, and the business gains important data about the customers needs, wants, and desires.
Customer Reviews, The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly
Customer reviews on your product or service can make or break you in the age of the internet. On one hand, they give you social proof that your customers are looking for before they buy. On the other hand, that social proof can destroy you if it is negative. As someone who has sold on Amazon, I unfortunately know the dramatic effects that even 1 bad customer review can have on a business, even with plenty of other great reviews. I also ran a business that Yelp was the reason for most of our customers. We advertised on Craigslist (water heaters) and the proportion of people who first checked out our company on Yelp was huge.
I keep that in mind when I review products and services, and always start by giving them the benefit of the doubt. I encourage you to do the same.
How to Respond Positive and Negative Reviews
When receiving reviews, it can be difficult to know how to respond, or IF we should respond. Let me clear that up right now. YES! We should respond.
Positive Reviews
On positive reviews it is good to acknowledge, and thank the customer for taking the time to leave a review. They didn't have to, and as I stated earlier in this article, it really does help business. I also like to add something short and personal that lets them know that I read their review and care about their experience.
Negative Reviews
The good thing about negative reviews (There is something good?) is that they are actually very valuable real estate on a listing page. Why are they valuable? Because everyone looks there first before buying.
Therefor it is critical that we RESPOND and respond properly in this situation especially. I like to show off my excellent customer support in situations like this, offer a full refund, ask them to reach out, let them know in a long, well thought out response that the company cares about their experience, and are willing to go out of our way to correct the pain they have felt.
When prospective buyers see how much care we give for people who have had a bad experience (no one is perfect) they are far more likely to buy. It is also my opinion that they might even buy BECAUSE of the bad review response. It's called, "Turning a problem into an opportunity."
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