Beware Consumers With a Grudge

What’s the old marketing adage? “Happy customers will tell two out of ten friends. Angry customers will tell eight out of ten friends.” Consumers have more opportunity than before to complain about your brand than ever before. Check out these examples:

• Online ticket marketplace, StubHub, angered this father by switching the row and seats he originally paid for. Dad retaliated with a video on YouTube.
• Many claim that DomainUSA scams Churches and non-profits by submitting invoices for services they were never engaged to perform.
• We all know how awful it is to wait for cable/utility guy to show up sometime between 8am-5pm. But if the Comcast cable guy sleeps on your couch, grab your video camera and post it on YouTube.
• Did the mechanic really try to run over this guy’s wife?
• The news media loves to publish and broadcasts stories about big companies that irritate customers to the point of violence. Check out the grandma with the hammer who was treated rudely by her cable provider.

Marketplaces like Amazon, eBay, Epinions provide feedback mechanisms to praise or trash their transaction experience. So be conscious of your reputation.

• Make sure your customer representatives are treating customers properly.
• Always provide a solution. It’s unacceptable to say that nothing can be done. Offer choices, a discount, or a credit — anything as a means of trying to reach a compromise.
• Do your best but realize that not everyone can be satisfied no matter how hard you try.
• Try to be proactive at relationship building, not reactive.

Please share your thoughts or horror stories.
-Roland