Bad customer service will stay online forever

A few weeks ago I wrote a post which picked up on Steve Rubel’s assertion that certain Web 2.0 jobs are on the decline. He’s now written a follow-up post looking at which digital jobs will be on the rise.

To prove his point on the importance of a Chief Customer Experience Officer he’s set up a google search demonstrating how customer service is paramount to managing online repuations.

For fun I typed in the universally griped about British Gas; here’s some telling results from the first page:

BBC – Press Office – British Gas the worst for customer service (Ouch. Not the BBC!)

My British Gas nightmare: Customer service hell

Customer service woe for British Gas

British Gas sets complaints record  (gee, really?)

Then I tried my old friends HSBC. They must have a strong search team because most of the first page results linked to official corporate guff including the heading “HSBC Retail Services: Improved Customer Service Solutions”. But peaking out at the bottom of the first page were results featuring:

HSBC customer service appears to be lacking in courtesy and respect… I will cancel my account and take my business elsewhere. …

User Rating: 1 stars. Review Summary: Avoid if you have a choice. Pros: low interest rate Cons: bureaucracy, incompetence (this made me chuckle)

When I talk with brands we often discuss managing online reputations, not with the intention to control bloggers/give it a little PR “spin” etc, but find out what customers are saying. Social media monitoring services (I use Attentio) are well worth the investment to support this type of tracking and analysis.

Q: So if there’s negative stuff online what should they do?

A: Sort customer service/fix the broken thing/don’t sell inferior product/be easily contactable/charge reasonable prices etc.

Every business will have a disgruntled customer or two out there, I’m sure it’s no joy being in a call centre and dealing with some of the idiots who phone in, but if you’re a repeat offender these things tend to appear in word-of-mouth conversations. You can’t track every person on the street to ask them so harness the web to spot the trends and react.