Social Media Complaining

Forums › Social networks, social media and tools › Social Media Complaining

1 | 2 | 3 | 4

29740 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#1749711 28-Mar-2017 19:59

dclegg:

I do it quite a lot. In some instances, it can be far quicker than more traditional customer service avenues. Especially if call centres are involved.

I find that many NZ companies have harnessed Twitter quite well to turn negative experiences into positive outcomes. As a customer, I think it's key to keep your criticism as constructive as possible.

It is also important to see whether this will actually be an effective communication medium, by browsing their timeline and seeing if they actually respond to to tweets. There are still quite a lot of companies that simply use social media as another channel for one way advertisements.

People who whine and biartch, happen. People manning Social media are also people, dont shoot the messenger. The issue could be slackness, bad process, bad luck, but in todays world, many try to make it better as there is so much competition, its often about service. But sh&t happens. Complain, query, but be nice.

hashbrown

463 posts

Ultimate Geek

#1749716 28-Mar-2017 20:07

While I understand this works, I can't help but thinks it's moving us towards an ugly future, where the level of support you receive is dependent on your follower count.

The Black Mirror episode Nosedive" seems relevant.

*edit* fixing BBCode

tdgeek

29740 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#1749730 28-Mar-2017 20:17

hashbrown:

While I understand this works, I can't help but thinks it's moving us towards an ugly future, where the level of support you receive is dependent on your follower count.

The Black Mirror episode Nosedive" seems relevant.

*edit* fixing BBCode

The real issue is that many of us want great service. That is really super easy, easier than easy to resolve, just man helpdesks to cover it. Then we don't want to pay the higher prices for that. So we go for the lowest price, then complain about cr@p service.

tardtasticx

3075 posts

Uber Geek

#1749733 28-Mar-2017 20:21

Unfortunately it seems like the only way to get good support from bad companies is on social media. A good company will give you equally great service on their public page and in a private email. We don't get too many posts on our company page asking for service, but when we do it's handled the same as we would with someone who emailed about the same issue because it's what you should do. I think that's how all companies should operate, and some do forget that if they're dealing with the issue privately a customer can still go and post about it on a public page later if the answer isn't satisfactory.

msukiwi

2417 posts

Uber Geek

Lifetime subscriber

#1749745 28-Mar-2017 20:38

Too many Companies are forcing the customers hand to place a complaint on a public forum such as facepalm or tw*tter due to their lack of action to email or phone!

Only then is there usually some sort of response from some of them.

It means those who "force" you to use public methods of complaint reap what they sow with their response!

If you had a complaint with Countdown as an example. would they let you use their PA system to voice your complaint to everyone instore?

How is voicing it publicly on their social media pages any different?

mattwnz

20141 posts

Uber Geek

#1749779 28-Mar-2017 21:12

msukiwi:

Too many Companies are forcing the customers hand to place a complaint on a public forum such as facepalm or tw*tter due to their lack of action to email or phone!

Only then is there usually some sort of response from some of them.

It means those who "force" you to use public methods of complaint reap what they sow with their response!

If you had a complaint with Countdown as an example. would they let you use their PA system to voice your complaint to everyone instore?

How is voicing it publicly on their social media pages any different?

It is different, because usually only your friends see your posts on social media, unless people go trawling posts, or actively read them. So social media isn't much different from someone criticizing them amongst friends on the phone or in person

Part of the problem is that many companies staff are now being insulated by a layer called a 'call center'. So it is very difficult to contact someone in charge, rather than just someone following a script.

The other thing I have noticed is people are now a lot more rude and abrupt when they email, because they have had to deal with the frustrations of call centres and poor email support. Some call centres are good, especially the ones based in NZ. But many I have dealt with aren't, especially those that send you off overseas.

MadEngineer

4271 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

#1749804 28-Mar-2017 22:00

It wasn't that long ago that Vodafone's facebook page was awash with customer complaints. (I should add that Spark also had it's time of the same)

It was very much out in the public domain and even laughed at and became so bad it was brought to everyone's attention in various forums and even news articles

You're not on Atlantis anymore, Duncan Idaho.

Equinox IT

Cloud spending continues to surge globally, but most organisations haven’t made the changes necessary to maximise the value and cost-efficiency benefits of their cloud investments. Download the whitepaper From Overspend to Advantage now.

tripper1000

1617 posts

Uber Geek

#1750241 29-Mar-2017 16:13

From the other side of the fence, the large company I work for is noisy by the nature of the business we are in and we get a lot of neighbours griping around it.

We recently received, via face book, the politest noise complaint ever - which acknowledged the necessity of the operational noise, but complained about one of the sites consistently blasting music on the radio at 2am in the morning. We agreed it was un-necessary noise, and hunted the source down, confirmed the problem and sorted it out.

I think written complaints are easier to resolve than verbal ones, with the advantage that you can reply to the complainant advising what has been done to fix the problem, completing the quality loop. Social media is a good avenue for written complaints, provided there is a PR type person ensuring the complaints are being collected and actually dealt with. I am sure some companies have social media, simply because it is the thing to do and are not using it as a productive tool.

On the flip side, some people do say some really stupid stuff, or ask some ridiculous questions, and those will get emailed around for entertainment.

TheLastTherapist

16 posts

Geek

#1752999 2-Apr-2017 07:26

Interesting the "Boycott Cadbury" page got so much attention after they shut down in Dunedin. NZ based chocolate makers couldn't have asked for better publicity.

jamiehennings

6 posts

Wannabe Geek

#1756451 4-Apr-2017 17:20

The companies do not respond to our complaint until their image not affected by it. So social media is the best tool to spread own ideas about that company and they instantly take action against it.

tdgeek

29740 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#1756567 4-Apr-2017 20:01

mattwnz:

msukiwi:

Too many Companies are forcing the customers hand to place a complaint on a public forum such as facepalm or tw*tter due to their lack of action to email or phone!

Only then is there usually some sort of response from some of them.

It means those who "force" you to use public methods of complaint reap what they sow with their response!

If you had a complaint with Countdown as an example. would they let you use their PA system to voice your complaint to everyone instore?

How is voicing it publicly on their social media pages any different?

It is different, because usually only your friends see your posts on social media, unless people go trawling posts, or actively read them. So social media isn't much different from someone criticizing them amongst friends on the phone or in person

Part of the problem is that many companies staff are now being insulated by a layer called a 'call center'. So it is very difficult to contact someone in charge, rather than just someone following a script.

The other thing I have noticed is people are now a lot more rude and abrupt when they email, because they have had to deal with the frustrations of call centres and poor email support. Some call centres are good, especially the ones based in NZ. But many I have dealt with aren't, especially those that send you off overseas.

How can you tell when the call centre is based in NZ when you call the 0800 number?

jamiehennings

6 posts

Wannabe Geek

#1766906 18-Apr-2017 17:41

Hello,

Social media is validated as a public means to share feedback to companies. Likewise, companies seek out ways to keep their image intact, upstanding and good-natured. If someone’s upset, a company’s customer service or PR team will often want to tackle any threat to their brand with the utmost of great service.

mattwnz

20141 posts

Uber Geek

#1766912 18-Apr-2017 17:55

tdgeek:

mattwnz:

msukiwi:

Too many Companies are forcing the customers hand to place a complaint on a public forum such as facepalm or tw*tter due to their lack of action to email or phone!

Only then is there usually some sort of response from some of them.

It means those who "force" you to use public methods of complaint reap what they sow with their response!

If you had a complaint with Countdown as an example. would they let you use their PA system to voice your complaint to everyone instore?

How is voicing it publicly on their social media pages any different?

It is different, because usually only your friends see your posts on social media, unless people go trawling posts, or actively read them. So social media isn't much different from someone criticizing them amongst friends on the phone or in person

Part of the problem is that many companies staff are now being insulated by a layer called a 'call center'. So it is very difficult to contact someone in charge, rather than just someone following a script.

The other thing I have noticed is people are now a lot more rude and abrupt when they email, because they have had to deal with the frustrations of call centres and poor email support. Some call centres are good, especially the ones based in NZ. But many I have dealt with aren't, especially those that send you off overseas.

How can you tell when the call centre is based in NZ when you call the 0800 number?

Usually the size and type of company. Also whether it is an overseas based company, or NZ based and owned. Luckily the number of real NZ companies that use offshore call centres is still quite small. But many of the global brands now do seem to use them, and often you end up calling either Australia or Asia.

mattwnz

20141 posts

Uber Geek

#1766913 18-Apr-2017 17:58

jamiehennings:

Hello,

Social media is validated as a public means to share feedback to companies. Likewise, companies seek out ways to keep their image intact, upstanding and good-natured. If someone’s upset, a company’s customer service or PR team will often want to tackle any threat to their brand with the utmost of great service.

You can usually contact a company via Facebook at least without posting it publically. Infact many of the bigger companies now don't allow people to post comments on their facebook pages at all. As a result you can often get people submitting complaints on the companies other posts instead. Companies can delete these comments, but you can tell when they have, because the comment count still usually shows, but when you try to view the comments, they don't load. That is never a good look for companies to delete comments.

tdgeek

29740 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#1766926 18-Apr-2017 18:07

mattwnz:

How can you tell when the call centre is based in NZ when you call the 0800 number?

-----

Usually the size and type of company. Also whether it is an overseas based company, or NZ based and owned. Luckily the number of real NZ companies that use offshore call centres is still quite small. But many of the global brands now do seem to use them, and often you end up calling either Australia or Asia.

Fair enough. You call a call centre, large company, and the person has an accent. It could be overseas, or it can easily, and I mean VERY easily be a NZ call centre, given our multi cultural population, and one of our multi cultural friends is a very call centre based country.

1 | 2 | 3 | 4