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THE POWER OF
SOCIAL
NETWORKING
The customer is always right. are to make a importantly, they also began taking the
If there had been any doubt call to the feedback they received through these
about the truth of this ad- company's contact centre. Further, channels and made significant
age, social networking has these customers are less likely to visit changes. These changes included the
eliminated it completely. While deliv- the site again or buy online from this creation of website to encourage user
ering a satisfying experience has al- organization. feedback and ideas, changing how cus-
ways been important, social networks tomer service representatives' perfor-
make it more vital than ever. When ignored, just one customer can mance was measured, and more.
make a service hiccup a very public
In a very short time, social networks failure. A well documented example is Ultimately, by leveraging social
have fundamentally changed the way the 'Dell Hell' episode from 2005. Frus- channels, Dell has been able to
many customers expect to interact trated by issues with his laptop and strengthen their service levels. In this
with businesses. In recent years, if a the service he had received and with way, Dell's experience represents a
customer has a support question, the no effective way to interact with the vivid illustration of both the negative
person would typically refer to the sup- company, a blogger posted a series of and positive potential of social media
port site and, if the answer wasn't easy articles documenting the frustrating engagement.
to find call the contact centre. Now if experience he had.
a customer goes to the company's sup- A similar situation arose at a Cafe Cof-
port site or customer forum and does This one blogger spurred thousands of fee Day (CCD) outlet in Chennai a few
not quickly get the answer, the satis- comments, his site received links from years back. This CCD outlet demanded
faction level dips and the person will a host of other site, and his story a 'cover change' from a group of social
search elsewhere to see if others have ended up receiving mainstream media media enthusiasts that had organized
encountered the same issue. coverage. As the firestorm grew, Dell a 'tweetup'. They left but soon after
was largely silent which only served to there was a social tsunami of negative
At this stage, customers usually turn to provide the company's outspoken crit- tweets with a #ccdsucks tag.
social platforms or forums, which are ics with more evidence to support their
the biggest source for such answers. claims of Dell's indifference and slow CCD immediately reacted to the situa-
The negative impact of dissatisfaction response. tion and the management acknowl-
with the online experience cannot be edged the problem and promised to
overstated. If customers are not satis- To Dell's credit, this experience ended resolve the issue. They even went to
fied with the information they find up being one from which the the extent of using the #ccdsucks tag
while arriving at a business website company's management team learned themselves to offer their apology. The
first time, they are more than twice as a valuable lesson. Dell not only begun
likely to visit a competitor's site as they embracing social networks but, more
Change your thoughts and you change your world.
16 PR COMMUNICATION AGE August 2015
