A new survey concludes that, while a growing number of people are going on social media sites to complain about products and service, more than 50 percent of companies and brands are operating without strategies in place to deal with unhappy customers.
According to a survey of 1,036 marketers, social media strategists, c-suite executives and entrepreneurs by Social Media Marketing University (SMMU):
- More than 58 percent of companies receive complaints via social media "occasionally" while nearly 11 percent receive them "somewhat often" and about five percent "very often."
- Roughly 26 percent of brands' reputations have been hurt due to negative posts with 15.2 percent reporting having lost customers and 11.4 percent experiencing revenue losses.
- More than 23 percent not only do not have a strategy in place to deal with negative posts, they have no plans to develop one.
- Nearly eight percent have strategies in place to deal with negative commentary on social media that are proving to be ineffective.
"So many brands are buying into the 'friending equals spending' mentality," said John Souza, founder of SMMU, in a statement. "They want the benefits of social media but aren't truly aware of the investment of effort that's required to see a return. As a result, this lack of effort rarely produces desired results and can lead to alienation of customers, fans and followers. It can even escalate to a backlash of negativity."
According to SMMU, only 17.6 percent of brands respond to customer complaints on social media within one hour (what most consumers expect), while 52.2 percent respond within 24 hours. More than 21 percent rarely if ever respond to complaints on social media.