How to manage customer conversations

How to manage customer conversations:

At the Internet Retailing Expo I saw a panel discussion with Richard Anson from Reevoo, Anton Gething of nToklo and Chris Withers from IBM Corporation. I heard some very interesting facts about the correlation between the economy and fashion. 

They also talked about the companies that choose to ignore the constant online chatter about brands. Anton Gething said “customers are expecting to engage in a very transparent fashion”. Also, “customer conversations and reviews are shaping our businesses and there’s no choice really other than to interact.”

Amy Schmittauer wrote about how Twitter chats can help you give you brand more personality. It’s all about the ‘tone’ of voice, how promptly you answer any questions or how you deal with complaints.

On the subject of online complaints, here’s something I keep saying to everyone who’s got an brand to manage. Respond to complaints:

- immediately: don’t panic if you haven’t replied to some of them in the past, but some complaints shouldn’t be ignored. You will be surprising them and might chage their impression of your brand (especially if they complain about customer service)

- positively: say ‘sorry’, if you can offer them something to make them feel better (discount, event invitations etc), do it

- publicly: if they tweeted publicly about being annoyed with your brand, don’t just DM them – show everyone that you’d go the extra mile to keep your customers happy.

How do you manage customer conversations?