In the software world releasing applications that have bugs and then getting feedback is common yet in other industries this is not the same. Just last week I had a problem with Evernote which I use for pretty much everything, I was updated to a pre-release version (3.5 +) and it had bugs on it and could no longer use it. Sure enough I went to Twitter and posted my problem @evernote (publicly not DM) and within minutes they answered. After a few tweets back and forth they identified the problem and suggested I post it on their support forum where they could dig deeper.
I ended up downgrading to a more stable version to use Evernote so I’m still a happy camper.
The problem (me using Evernote) was solved with them presenting me alternatives but more importantly they said “I’m sorry for the inconvenience, we’ll fix this”. Perfect!
PROBLEM
Even if you don’t make software you can still have this type of interaction with your users and solve their problems instead of just ignoring them an leaving them out in the middle of the storm which is where all negative word of mouth is born and you don’t want that. Oh you didn’t help me? Well the I’m going to tell all my friends about how you ignored me. You don’t want a pissed off fan!
SOLUTION
Yes. Saying I’m sorry is very hard for companies to do and even more is trying to fix it and THAT is your biggest obstacle to social media use. You can’t handle the fact that you might make mistakes (and you will!) and that your brands reputation might be damaged in the short term because you didn’t establish some ground rules before ‘jumping’ into the water.
The truth is the ground rules are very simple, they are the same as in the offline world, you solve people’s problems but the only difference is that people have more options and you have to be where they are. All your customers want is to have their problems solved but you’re worried about fixing problems when making your customers happy is exactly what you should be doing and sometimes this means being wrong.
An organization’s biggest obstacle to social media use is reputation management hoping that a PR disaster doesn’t happen yet if you look at this from another angle and see that you’ve been doing this and will keep doing this to stay in business then you have nothing to lose and everything to gain. Say I’m sorry and help me fix my problems.
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