It’s been crazy in the Short Circuit Media world lately. I’ve always been open to guest posts – but have never outwardly solicited them as they tend to be overly promotional. This one from Daniel Vince at Corporate Gifts Co. has some pretty good ideas to help you avoid embarrassing your brand on Twitter.
Enjoy,
Aidan
What a positive idea it will make! Or so we thought! Open up our business using a Twitter account, selecting a good username and have that little bird icon added to all our corporate documentation! Little thoughts buzzing around our heads of building a social community using the World Wide Web, where all our customers talk and syndicate our chit-a-chat. Idyllic market place might I ask? So what the hell do you do when a client hits you hard with a negative Twitter like this…
When you are a commercial business, your interests in social media are based within building a trust, a presence and a clean cut, interactive image of your company. So when one angry customer decides to “flip you the bird” with a Tweet that is meant as fact, how to we bury this situation and not break over cuckoo’s shells?
Keep Discreet, message in private
A company’s loss in image through bad manners and slanging in public can be painful and costly. Your audience and users do not want to see childish, undisciplined retaliation of any sort. Make sure that if you do want to argue your case, that you conduct this in a controlled manner, via the phone, Skype or emails as this is something that your wide audience and clientele need not intrude or see.
Contact the dissatisfied customer with details of your customer service department and make sure that they are dealt with quickly and effectively. If you have received one complaint from this customer before, be wary about it; think how a poor customer service experience could provoke further Tweeting, disregarding your company.
Answer all your critics
The social media account is now as integral to many large companies much as the good old phone and email. Customers are on social networks 24/7, and when a customer thinks to complain publicly, there needs to be an employee available to apprehend them.
When a customer complains to your on Twitter, they are expecting a reply, just like someone would if they had rung up or emailed in. With this so, make sure you handle your client with a personal reply, don’t just send out the generic “courtesy” message, it won’t work.
Respond to your positive Tweets
Keeping up to speed with a company’s Twitter account feels like a hard job to maintain for some.
At Promotional Gifts we try and keep a steady hand on what our clients think of us, and encourage our customers, posting Tweets of positive comments, to add testimonials on the side. We like to Retweet these anytime!
If you serve up some good feedback to the ones that land good praise, then you know that you have Twitter working for you, on cue, it is your show, citing brand loyalty as the company milestone.
For any companies who are just starting out on their Twitter endeavour, make sure you are ready to rendezvous with the negative resistance! Make sure you have your customer service processes ready to filter a cluster of bad barks on Twitter, so you can handle complaints in a professional and effective manner.
Written by Daniel Vince of Corporate Gifts Co, Business Gifts Specialist Corporation