With a huge revolution in social media and its applications there is a paradigm shift in the way the companies perceive their customer relationship and grievance handling. Earlier, a few dissatisfied customers did not really matter to most of the companies, but now even a single complaint has to be addressed appropriately.
The customers also know the power of social media, so whenever they suffer due to a faulty product or poor service, they do a very hard and personal attack on the company and the brand. When the number of these customers increases above a dozen, there is an internet wave or a viral that spreads on the web against that brand.
There are a large number of reputation building firms, which take care of these reputation building and image protection drives. While shielding the company from any negative publicity these companies also boast positive aspects of the company. Hence, there is an overall development of the company’s social image.
However, are these reputation-building efforts limited to online environment and social media? A simple study of consumer behaviour will bring in the clarity into this matter. When a customer is dissatisfied, no matter how politely you reply to them on social media, unless you respond on ground, his opinion is not going to change.
To change this opinion of the customers, you need to have an offline or ground reputation building team. While in contact with the online team, the customer service and the grievance team will coordinate the operations between these different teams to ensure satisfaction of the customer.
There is a need for 360-degree approach to the problem. You need an online team to constantly monitor the customer responses and feedback and an offline team to coordinate on ground and ensure high quality of service delivery to the customers.
There is a need to have a dedicated reputation-building department that looks into these matters. If you cannot engage your workforce, you can even outsource it to a third party vendor. A third party vendor will audit the operations, refine the processes, and ensure high quality service delivery on ground while addressing to the unsatisfied customers online.
In case, you plan to keep the efforts in house here are three major recommendations for quality reputation building effort
Make a Dedicated Cross-Functional Team
A dedicated cross-functional team will have access to all departments and will swiftly take action against any grievance. Moreover, the team will look into the hindrances and the reasons that force these problems. However, keep in mind the team should be dedicated
Be Proactive
Look for review sites, hashtags, grievance emails, and product reviews etc. Instead of responding to a matter of embarrassment, it is better to address the complaints at the grass root level. This also increases customer trust and brand recognition.
Ask For Positive Feedbacks
After the complaint is resolved ask the same customer to leave a positive feedback. This will empower the new customers to entrust the brand for your commitment towards quality delivery.
The internet reputation management companies focus on building reputation on online platforms, one should understand the actual efforts are to be done on ground in order to ensure a complete peace of mind.