Can any company with bad customer service survive in a world of ubiquitous social media?
Here’s a small round-up of the many ways in which my local train company, Twitter feed of real-time feed of passenger angst.
- Online government petition to end First Capital Connect’s franchise here.
- First Capital Connect official Facebook page (364 members).
- I hate First Capital Connect Facebook page (2,548 members).
- FirstCrapitalConnect parody site (Page 1 on Google for ‘First Capital Connect’).
Can’t help but think that as a shareholder, I’d be worried. I can’t help but think that this weight of authentic, peer condemnation neutralises any investment that FCC could make in its brand. Putting it another way, your customer service is your brand.
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Difficult one to quantify, but social media does not currently equate to mass media (despite what those of us who use it might like to think). The election showed nicely that high levels of Twitter activity do not necessarily permeate to the mass consumers of the UK.
To answer the question, I think it’s perfectly possible for a business to survive (and even thrive) in a world of ubiquitous social media. However, the costs of doing so can be high, and if you’re target customer segment has a high propensity to use social media, you can take quite a hit (just look at Dell).
But, and this is an important point, your social-media-driven brand value can go up as well as down. People’s attitudes to a brand fluctuate far quicker than they ever used to. Do something good (or at least worthy of mention) and it can have powerful effects as well.
Ironically a lot of it comes down to expectations. Modern society expects very little from large corporations. When they exceed those expectations, it can work in their favour.