The Power of the Blog: Customer Service Improvement
If you’re a business blogger, you might want to pay attention to this story. If you’re a business owner, and think blogs are silly new-fangled things that will pass and you don’t need one, by God, you definitely need to read this.
Last week, a reader blogged at the Seattle Post-Intelligencer website of a very disappointing experience she had with a local spa who refused to honor a gift certificate that had “expired” 11 days prior. She recounted the snippy, rude receptionist’s response (I especially love “I’m not sure what you want me to say”), and expressed her disappointment. Now, business owners, pay attention - she didn’t even name the spa. That’s a classy blogger, you’re thinking. Well - maybe. But she had zero obligation to be that discreet, and many other bloggers wouldn’t have been that nice. They’d have disclosed the name, location, name of the receptionist, time and date of the call, and address.
There was a happy ending, of sorts. The blogger updated that readers had encouraged her to call back and speak to the manager, which she did, and although the manager wasn’t “exactly chummy,” she did agree to honor the certificate until the end of the month.
Now what is the outcome for the spa? It’s tempting to think it won’t be impacted. After all, it wasn’t identified, and even if so, it did the right thing in the end, so what’s the harm? The harm is that this is already out there, and it’s a bell that can’t be unrung. Every potential customer is thinking, “That could be me. And I don’t go to a spa to be treated like that.” In fact, it might even be worse that the spa wasn’t identified. Now, every spa that offers gift certificates or used to is suspect. Is that a risk you’re willing to run for your business?
You’d better be aware that your business, and every single one of its employees, is on display for public consumption, and what used to be minor customer service scuffles that you could quickly rectify and sweep under the rug are now going to be immortalized on the web forever.
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