Trying to get back to blogging. Here is the first thing that jumps out at me (and yes, I know this is like a month after the fact but I thought it was a great case study).
Apparently, there was a hotel out in Blackpool England, the Golden Beach hotel, on New South Promenade, that get this, threw a couple out of the hotel for posting a bad review on TripAdvisor.com. It gets better, all they were trying to do was relax after a long intense chemo therapy treatment due to his cancer. Don’t believe me? Then you should read the Blackpool Gazette because I couldn’t make that up if I wanted to.
So to start my rant, seriously! I mean, I guess I’m not sure which part bothers me more. How someone could be so insensitive to someone who is suffering and gone through so much, or how someone could screw up social media that bad!
Truth is, I think this is all a misunderstanding. We should probably be blaming the couple who wrote the review in the first place as seemed to be implied by an AOL news writer. I mean, after all, what right do consumers have to complain about the service they are getting via social media. I know, its preposterous to even think that!
Ok, so obviously I don’t really think that. But I do think the hotel manager was either: not properly trained in how to handle these types of situations, has very poor interpersonal skills, or hes just a raging psycho (I prefer to give him the benefit of the doubt). So let me offer some insight on his failed social media attempt.
Check Yourself / Look At Your Business
There is a saying, the customer is always right. Now I used to be a waiter, I used to sell cutco knives, I did lots of crazy things, and I can attest that while this age old phrase is usually not “really” true, the bottom line is you need to pretend its true even if it kills you. And if it turns out they were just obnoxious customers, they will back down fade into the night and disaster avoided. But if you actually try to find out what the problem is, and their complaint is legitimate, you look like the hero for solving their problem and giving excellent customer service. Its a win/ win situation. The trick is to just try and understand whats going on.
Who Should Watch their Mouth?
Its not the job of the customer to watch what they say. However, it is the responsibility of the business to be careful, to avoid backlash (see the current case we are speaking about). In a perfect world, yes, people would be more careful about the comments they say. But in a perfect world, customers would also get perfect service, which sadly they dont.
Customer Service Lesson from a Chinese general & Military Strategist
Social Media is not your enemy. Sounds corny enough doesn’t it. Well I’m taking this in a philosophical direction you probably weren’t expecting. You know the saying “Keep your friends close, and your enemies closer”? Yeah, well social media is your friend, not your enemy. I doubt that someone is saying “terrific! XYZ mom and pop store just joined twitter, lets see how I can screw them over”. Enough of the games. If you are a business on social networking, the underlying reason should be to give better customer service. If your reason is to increase revenue, that’s not a bad goal for social media, but I will say that if that goal isn’t met by improving customer service, and all you are doing is promoting your product, your tweets sadly are vanishing into a black hole. Sorry.
Anyway, that’s my two cents. I am sure I will more to contribute about another social media blunder another time because people don’t seem to learn. Which is fine with me. Gives me more material to blog about.