MIKESTOPFORTH

I mentioned in a recent post that people love to complain. We are far quicker to pick up on the mistakes of brands and incidences of bad service than we are to compliment and laud when brands exceed expectations. This is human nature.

As a direct result my clients typically freak out when presented with the reality of social media, the tide of conversation around their brands and the idea that whether they like it or not they are going to be spoken about online. They acknowledge the need to engage, and yet are petrified at what might happen when they open up these channels of communication.

This dynamic has forced me to think carefully about why people complain, what a complaint is and what it actually means for a brand. If we strip down complaints to the core, a few key truths are undeniable:

1. There are only two possible outcomes for every complaint

   Recently I crapped all over Kulula because I received an SMS about a delayed flight en route to the airport one Friday morning a few months back. The delayed flight meant I’d miss an important presentation in Durban, and I was livid. I was on Twitter in a flash, ranting and raving and whining about Kulula’s incessant tardiness (or at least my perception of the same).

   Had I read the SMS better I would have realised it referred to another flight to Durban, also with Kulula, but three days later (the following Monday). Awkward. Once I realised my error I quickly hopped back online and apologised profusely. Thankfully Kulula had a laugh with me about my brainfart and all was resolved.

   I realised through this experience that when someone complains online there are only two possible outcomes: either the consumer is wrong, or the company is wrong. Once you’ve realised that, you can start to learn something from the experience (which brings me to my next point…)

2. Social media communities self-regulate

   If, like me in the previous example, the consumer is in the wrong, very often social media communities self-regulate around the brand. This is not always true but thanks to the open, democratic nature of the social web there is more opportunity for this dynamic to play out than any other forum.

   A number of people responded to my Kulula rants saying they agreed and that their experience of Kulula was the same. But an overwhelming majority responded in disagreement, saying they had not had such a negative experience and were in fact massive fans of the brand. The community self-regulated to the positive, normally a clear indication that a brand is doing a pretty good job and that it enjoys a significant measure of positive sentiment online. The converse is true if the community self-regulates the other way.

   time and time again I see the online community rallying around brands when consumers are truly out of line and in some instances we’ll advise our brands to step back and wait for the reaction of the community to a particularly unruly consumer.

   All that said, most often when a customer complains online it’s not them that are wrong but the brand, and when that is the case…

3. Humility and learning

   …learn from it, dammit! Brands are so defensive, and so afraid of appearing human in any way, shape or form. Let’s face it, if someone complains, and they’re not wrong, then…

   YOU’RE DOING A CRAP JOB.

   When the fit hits the shan and it’s clear you failed, surely you’d want to learn from that mistake and ensure it doesn’t happen again? When Jane finds a staple in her burger, complains to the franchise manager and he tells her “tough luck”, surely you’d want to know that so you can prevent it from happening again?

   Mistakes are the building blocks of innovation. If you never did anything wrong – if you never failed – you’d have no reason to improve as a business, you’d have no reason to invest in your brand. But nobody’s perfect, and you may as well focus on evolving when a chink in your armour is revealed.

   When you do that well, something magical happens:

4. Complaints are testimonials waiting to happen

   Google doesn’t forget – yet another reason our clients panic when they realise they’re getting talked about online. Every compliment and complaint – every engagement with every consumer – leaves an audit trail that other consumers can track, follow and judge you on. As such a paradigm shift is required when it comes to complaints. Every complaint is an opportunity for you to showcase how awesome you are at turning a situation around. Every complaint should be an opportunity for positive PR. Every complaint should be a testimonial.

   As such, approach every jibe and sneer with enthusiasm and vigour knowing that you can completely alter the perception of the brand through every positive engagement online.

   There is a worse sin than not turning a complaint into a compliment though…

5. Missing compliments is an even greater risk

   …and that’s missing the opportunity to engage with a consumer who says something good about you. Our clients are constantly scrambling, panicking about all the negative things people are saying about their brands and sometimes forget that missing an opportunity to thank a fan for their advocacy is an even greater risk. Fans are gold. Failure to acknowledge them is death. It is so much harder to win a true fan than convert an “unbeliever”, so when you have them treasure them.

Complaints are not all that bad. Complaints need to be seen as opportunities. Whether you like it or not, they’re going to happen and how you choose to see them and deal with them could be the difference between you succeeding and failing in your attempts to grow brand equity online.