In recent articles we’ve been raising the profile of social media complaints handling.  There is growing evidence that customers are increasingly turning to Twitter and Facebook to vent their frustrations at having their complaints ignored.  Online campaigning is becoming a power tool forcing businesses to fix unresolved complaints.

News from Australia recently featured the consumer group Choice which said its members were using social media to air their complaints.  Choice was encouraging businesses to monitor what people were saying about them and as a result, rectify complaints more quickly.

Ingrid Just, a spokeswoman for Choice, said consumers were finding that Twitter and Facebook were successful in getting results after receiving the cold shoulder from customer service departments or generic email responses.

“Many businesses monitor what people are saying about them online and some are taking proactive steps to rectify problems by directly contacting those who are posting comments,” Ms Just said.

Ms Just said companies were reviewing their service standards as a result of online activism.

”Vodafone revised its service and network model as a result of consumer complaints on vodafail.com” Ms Just said.

There are plenty of other examples, including a man who used Facebook to complain that replacement parts for were not delivered.

Within a day some twenty employees of the supplier had seen the complaint and the company’s national director of sales emailed the customer directly to say he would sort out the problem.

So you can see that getting your complaints handlers comfortable with dealing with complaints from the world of Social Media is an essential part of good complaints handling.

Alison Miles-Jenkins
Training To Achieve