Customers Are Talking About Your Brand, Are You Listening?
Pin ItBrands across the globe make headlines for their successes and failures everyday. The difference is some have blatantly disregarded their customers, while others have gone above and beyond to make customers feel appreciated and their reputations reflect it. Companies can quickly gain a poor reputation as a result of negative customer reactions online through social media platforms and review sites. Customers are paying attention, and they are talking – are you listening? If not, you might be in for a wake-up call.
If companies have not yet learned to listen to their customers online, they will once a big mistake is made. Verizon has recently learned this lesson. A few weeks ago, Verizon announced that it would be charging customers a $2 convenience fee for online or mobile bill paying. As you can imagine, customers were not too happy about this – it even became a trending topic on Twitter. It took less than a week for the outpouring of customer frustrations online to convince the giant mobile provider to withdraw the fee. Talk about power of the masses!
Verizon is not the only company responding to customers. Domino's Pizza has completely turned around its reputation by “facing customer criticisms head on.” A few short years ago it was no secret that customers did not have a high opinion of Domino's Pizza. Rather than hiding these negative reviews, Domino's decided it was going to listen, and faced its critics head on. Their head chefs did a complete makeover of the Domino's Pizza recipes with new, fresh ingredients. It used the makeover to create a new advertising and awareness campaign called “The Pizza Turnaround”. Customers definitely have noticed and appreciated the improvements. As a result of their reputation turnaround the first three quarters of 2011 has provided Domino's a net income of $10.8 million more than the first three quarters of 2010. It definitely pays to listen!
We touched on this story in a recent blog. Check out the video below for the complete story – it's pretty impressive.
The bottom line is listen to your customers, especially online where they are most honest. If they are talking negatively about your brand, rather than taking it personally, do something about it! Prove to them that you value their opinion and are using it to improve their experience. Once customers feel valued they will become your biggest advocates.