How Social Media Can Turn Problem into Opportunities

when customers have a good experience, they may tell five of their friends about it. But if they have a bad experience, they’ll

tell everybody.

So how does a business committed to good customer service respond to that?

Fortunately, today we have social media marketing to help turn bad situations into good ones. Now, with all of the digital tools available to merchants, it’s possible to respond – in real time – to customer concerns in ways that can quickly turn negative opinions around.

1065 U.S. adults who engaged in 2010 holiday shopping were surveyed by Harris Interactive and RightNow in January, 2011.

One of the most impressive things the study uncovered was the fact that 68% of consumers who posted a complaint on sites like Facebook, Twitter, Yelp and Citysearch were contacted by the retailer!

We find that statistic to be an excellent testimonial to the power of social media networking, because that kind of response rate simply wasn’t possible before the advent of social media.

For that matter, before social media it also wasn’t possible for consumers to have such loud and audible voice, either.

On the negative side, if 68% of the retailers who received bad reviews reached out to the complaining consumers, it means that 32% of the unsatisfied ones were ignored.

The survey points out that of those consumers who didn’t get a response, 61% of them would have been “shocked” if they did.

But for the proactive merchants who bothered to reach out, the Harris study further revealed that after unsatisfied customers were contacted, 34% of them deleted their original negative review or complaint.

Another 33% followed up with a positive review, and 18% placed orders for more merchandise.

Imagine that. Simply by responding to negative feedback, retailers were able to convert 18% of complainers into repeat customers!

That’s what we call turning lemons into lemonade.

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