Issue #4

Any company wanting to penetrate social networks should be aware of the consequences negative feedback can have on their image. Customers may enjoy posting information and responding to promotions, but if the site suddenly became a place for customers to voice nothing else but negative comments: its spells a public relations nightmare for any business. More than ever cyberspace has allowed information to be distributed rapidly and virally. The implications of a post gone wrong are tremendous, and any organization wanting to market on social networks should count the costs before they venture forth.

There are different approaches to dealing with negative feedback, and it’s hard to decide which avenue is best. British Petroleum, for example, takes and censors customers who are vulgar on their page. One has to understand that much of the outrage against BP was over the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, though. In this instance, no amount of consumer complaints would have shut the well down faster. But had the situation been different and BP had still ignored consumers when it had the ability to respond to their needs in some way, I believe that would have been a direct offense to the people providing feedback. If a customer walks into a business and tries to make a complaint, and employees ignore them or censor them in some way, it’s not right. BP didn’t try to do this, but a company should address customer needs even if they are voicing their concerns over cyber space.

AT&T did a great job of personally addressing thousands of negative comments on its Facebook page after sending out a mass message. It certainly succeeded in making customers feel like their voice matters, and kept them from going somewhere else and voicing negative commentary about AT&T. But it establishes a precedent that AT&T has to be able to maintain: That a customer can have their concerns addressed over social networking. AT&T could easily find itself dedicating more and more manpower to this media outlet and not see any return. It’s hard to make everyone happy and Facebook is probably the wrong place to address customer issues. But at the same time it is in AT&T best interest to maintain a positive public image, so it must maintain some level of response to customers.

Regardless of the consequences, addressing customer needs is a staple to maintaining a positive public image. Letting customers have a voice is important and it allows them to feel valued. A company simply needs to find a happy medium on how much power consumers have on their site. Disney and McDonald’s use this approach on their sites and I consider it the more balanced, favorable way to give customers a voice.