Forget Social Media…

It’s not the one size fits all solution. Social Media can’t fix your lousy product, your bad network that consistently drops my calls, nor can it fix the absolutely wretched customer service your company insists on spewing out.

You should know that I am currently breaking my 24hr rule. The rule that says, “when made upset, I must not open my gob about it for 24hrs.  If after 24hrs I feel so inclined, then so be it.”

When a business takes money in exchange for a product or service, there is a perceived value for the exchange. If the balance is off, the model breaks down. When a company takes money in exchange for a mediocre product and appalling customer service… the customer has a decision to make:

1.  Return everything and go somewhere else (provided the business accomodates that sort of service),

2. Put up and shut up (confiding in ten different friends later that day over dinner about the horrible experience)

3. Go social on that company’s brand.

Assuming it really is far more cost effective to keep a customer than find a new one, why are we so hell bent on throwing money after bad money on marketing and BOGO promotions to get new customers when our existing customers would return, bring friends and go up in value if we’d just get a few home basics right. Eg. Give them a little love.

• Hire people who actually like people.
• Incent your team to meet customer service targets.
• Use an infrastructure conducive to meeting the needs of your customers – Eg. a phone tree 8 layers deep is not conducive to keeping customers happy.
• I’d even settle for someone who can  smile and remain borderline pleasant at “hello”  (this applies to London England… the standard would be much, much higher in North America)

Isn’t it amazing how sometimes the most obvious is the last to be seen.