Handling Complaints on Social Media
I don't like trolls. I think trolls have negative intent. This is different than complaining. True complaints, particularly on social media, are shared to achieve a certain goal, typically drawing attention to some form of perceived misconduct or misbehaviour or achieving some personal or collective goal (Einwiller & Steilen, 2015). As long as the complaint is fair and has a genuine positive intent, I am generally ok with complaint. Self-indulgent complaints driven by vengeance and self-enhancement find less resonance.
From a marketing perspective, dealing with complaints is based on some very simple assumptions:
- Satisfied customers are more likely to continue using a product or service; dissatisfied customers are more likely to not and use a competing product or service.
- Satisfied customers will tell some people about their experience; dissatisfied customers will tell a lot more about theirs.
Of course, one of key problems is that many, if not the majority, of dissatisfied customers don't complain at all. They silently move on.
Complaints on social media are different that traditional media and need to be handled differently. Firstly, it is easier to complain. Secondly, because social media and particularly Twitter is relatively unbounded, it has greater reach. Thirdly, other complaint is more transparent and therefore the observation of complaining behaviour can stimulate further complaints and possibly decrease the tolerance level. This last point is particularly threatening as it can fuel further complaints and can lead to vicious circle of complaint for brands who leave them unchecked).
In academic literature (Davidow, 2003), success in complaint recovery involves six dimensions:
- Timeliness
- Redress/Corrective Action
- Apology
- Credibility
- Attentiveness
- Facilitation (not only of the customer but empowering employees to handle complaints)
Recent research by Einwiller and Steilen (2015) based on over 5,000 complaints voiced on social network sites suggests:
- 53% of complaints received a response.
- Complaints were answered more when (i) a company a received constructive criticism, and (ii) the complaints were about products or employees and not other topics.
- For an initial response, companies took on average 7 hours to respond and quarter responded within 18 minutes and half within 54 minutes.
- Most responses involved asking for further information (60%) or expressed gratitude (28%) or regret (20%). Unsurprisingly, redress even psychologically was low.
Despite these responses, 60% of complainants expressed dissatisfaction with how the complaint was handled. Apparently, response speed does not have an impact on complaint satisfaction. Apologies and explanations alone apparently do not work well, in fact Einwiller and Steilen suggest it may lead to further dissatisfaction. What worked - redress/corrective action and gratitude.
What does this mean?
When handling complaints on social media. Response time is good but how you respond is much more important. It's hard but thanking people for engaging and correcting the problem somehow is what people really want.
Don't think about it. Do it.