How To Deal Effectively with Customer Feedback via Social Media

Great interview on eMarketer with Pete Blackshaw, vice president of Digital Strategic Services at Nielsen, and his colleague, Maya Swedowsky on how to deal effectively with customer feedback via social media.
I thought the interview was very interesting, especially around how to deal with negative feedback. Excerpts from the interview is below:

eMarketer: What causes negative buzz to escalate into something big?
Mr. Blackshaw: It depends on what you might characterize as “plausible believability” or the extent to which others feel like they have direct or relevant experience, even something that approximates it. So a lot of what you see is, in fact, consumers seconding the emotion. They can relate to that issue. In some cases, it may move in a really irrational, sometimes unfair, direction. But quite often, especially in retail, there are quite a few consumers who truly have relevant experience. So if they feel like they can relate to the emotional pain, they’ll pile on. Now, if the criticism is unfair, it’s not uncommon for other consumers to call that out. There is a bit of a self-correcting mechanism when the issue goes too far.
When you do have a consensus of negatives, that’s a big watch-out. We typically will take that data and go back to the clients and often ask really hard questions about company operations, mismanaged expectations, depth of training of employees, because sometimes that can trigger a lot of the negatives. We do look at this with the assumption that there typically is an issue that needs to be resolved.

eMarketer: Do consumers post negative comments online other than to get a direct response from a retailer?
Mr. Blackshaw: A lot of times they’re not looking for a response. Again, that’s what’s so important, even curious, about the social media space. We sometimes have this stereotype that consumers are just looking for coupons or free stuff or handholding by the company. There’s definitely a lot of truth to that. Today, consumers get a lot of validation and satisfaction and a sense of community with other consumers around a common experience. Marketers really need to understand that. It’s one big reason why the CRM space has pushed into this more informal zone of feedback where consumers aren’t necessarily providing direct feedback, but they’re talking around the company. It still merits interventions of sorts, but it’s a completely different dynamic. It’s really important to understand what is truly motivating that consumer.

eMarketer: What factors should retailers consider in deciding how to respond to a negative comment online?
Ms. Swedowsky: If that person has come to one of the company’s social media outposts, like Facebook or Twitter, to make that comment, that the retailer should respond to that and should try to respond to really most comments that are posted directly on the Facebook fan page or directed at their Twitter account, because it’s clear that that person is making their statement or their stance known and presumably wants a response. But there are conversations happening everywhere.
So companies like Best Buy are really at the forefront of proactively monitoring with their Twelpforce customer service program. They really are one of the first retailers to be so proactive. At the same time, even if they have 1,200 people, let’s say, doing that, they can’t necessarily answer everyone. So they need to prioritize. If it is someone who had a very specific negative experience at a store and they’re complaining about that, then that person might be more straightforward to address versus someone who’s just airing general negativity. At some point you need to prioritize simply because there is so much discussion happening.
Mr. Blackshaw: It’s all how you provide context, how you measure the influence. If it’s an issue where you historically have shown volatility, you may want to dial up. Sometimes there’s a real cost of not engaging and responding. Sometimes the response is just how you make sure that your Website has content that might thoughtfully deal with their issue.

eMarketer: How are retailers using YouTube to respond to consumer complaints?
Mr. Blackshaw: Brands are leveraging every available communications outlet to clarify and correct issues, whether it’s an auto manufacturer seeking to deal with a recall or whether it’s a retailer dealing with all sorts of nasty-grams because they got things wrong on Black Friday. What’s powerful about rapid response tools like YouTube is they can often speak to emotion. You’re looking at the executive. They’re giving a very heartfelt apology or clarifying an issue. Facebook is a 24/7 platform. Twitter is always on. So they afford you these additional outlets to deal with the issue.
Keep in mind that most companies have call centers that are living in the Neanderthal age where they close at 5:00 p.m. They typically don’t operate in the off hours. That’s not good enough in a world where the consumer doesn’t care. They will throw the nasty-gram at any time of the day. So making sure that you hedge your bet and have these opportunities to engage and respond across all these different platforms 24/7 is a really good strategy.

source: social-media-optimization