Social Media Attacks

By Bob Goldberg, RSPA General Counsel

Customers have a new weapon when they do not like your service, charges, and/or policies. Posting negative comments on social media sites has become an end user tool to disparage your business. Often an end user uses these postings to elicit concessions from the reseller. Monitoring social media sites and knowing how to respond to postings is becoming a new skill set for all businesses. In fact it may not even  be a customer, but a former employee, competitor, or disgruntled employee that is posting negative messages.

It is essential that you monitor media sites so you know what and when postings regarding your business are made. An initial step however is to make it easy to communicate with you and your company. It has often been suggested that a follow-up call go out after every installation and service call. If that call establishes any dissatisfaction, it can be addressed before it becomes a war of words. Often complaints are not justified, but by satisfying the end user promptly the cost in dollars and reputation can be minimized. Accept all phone calls. Avoiding irate customers only flames their displeasure. Your website should have an easy means to contact the company and these messages must be monitored and acknowledged on a daily basis.