The old school and still very
prominent snub, is in my book one of the worst customer service crimes and can
offend a customer in many ways, take a look at the examples below:
- In order to avoid dealing with you the receptionist ignores
your presence and picks up the phone before you reach the counter
- The bartender who serves all of the pretty girls/guys around you
without even acknowledging your existence
- Or the team members who are so fully ingrained in their
conversation to even realise you are there and need their help
A snub shows blatant disrespect
and is the biggest way to lose customers, resulting in them bad mouthing you,
and sending them directly to your competitors without you ever having the
chance to win them back or apologise.
Now the snub has gone online, and
is in fact even worse in this form as there is no hiding from it. The
disrespect you dish out here is in public and that can hurt a customer and you
much more.
The problem is that is can be so
easily done. With so many companies engaging in Social Media without a
solid plan, strategy or system, it is quite easy for posts to slip through the
net, or remain unanswered for long periods of time
So what is a Social Media
snub?
When a post is not answered
on a social media site, whilst the page still responds to other questions, adds
promotional posts or interacts with other users.
A social snub is worse than those
detailed from the above as it is public, people can see that you have been
snubbed and that hurts.
There is no mistaking it.
With some of the examples above the age old excuse of “sorry sir
I didn't see you there” can be used. The same can’t be applied
on Social Media.
Other posts are being answered,
which in all terms and purposes makes the customer feel that they are not as
important as others.
All of the above can have a
hugely detrimental effect on your brand, not just from the person you snubbed
but also from all of the other people who may now not post due to other posts
on your page not being responded to.
6 Ways to avoid the Snub:
-Just answer the question
- If you cannot answer it just
say
-Empower your followers to answer
the question
-Acknowledge the post and say you
will find out the answer soon
-Say you cannot answer the
question but give them the details of the person who can
-Ask them to Direct Message you
with their details and get someone to call them who can help them
Falling into the trap of thinking
that Social Media is cheap form of Marketing or for SEO purposes may mean you
are taking the eye off of the ball and alienating customers in the
process. All of this reinforces the need for a defined Social Media
strategy for businesses of all sizes, working out a schedule and allocated team
members to deal with posts, questions and complaints, alongside engaging in
conversations and posting interactive content.
For more
information on Paul you can follow him on twitter @paulsonso email him on paul@soandsomarketing.co.uk and visit www.soandsomarketing.co.uk to
find out more on measuring Customer Service and Experience.
So and
So Marketing is a full service marketing and design agency based in Weymouth,
Dorset and covering the South of England, Wiltshire, Hampshire, Somerset and
Devon.
