I just read a blog by Jeremy Blanton about the real estate company suing over a tweet. I got to thinking about what I would do if this type of thing happened to my business.

What if someone didn't like something about their interaction with me, and posted it in social media for everyone to see? What would I do?

I can think of 3 different ways to handle the situation..

1. Go after the person in a negative way, e.g. sue them, rant in a public setting, or call them a liar and a thief.

2. Ignore the situation, and hope it blows over.

3. Confront the person and do everything I can to come up with a solution.

Now that we have our 3 ways to handle bad publicity, what one do you think is better? I have a few examples for you to consider first.

Example 1 - If you sued someone for making a statement about your business that you didn't like, what good is that going to do? We all know the story of the $50,000 tweet. But what is this really going to cost this company? The lady that made the tweet, was just venting, and is now front page news everywhere. The damage done to this company is irreversible, and they will probably go out of business because of it.

Some of you have bad experiences in this business, and you write a rant. It's ok to rant, and they usually bring a lot of comments that are "I feel for you" comments. However, I would recommend you be very careful with these posts. Make sure they are members only, and no matter what, DO NOT USE NAMES, DO NOT USE SPECIFIC EXAMPLES.

This can turn into a nightmare, and once you hit that post button, you never know who is going to read it. Just because it's a members only post, doesn't mean someone who knows the person/business you are ranting about, isn't going to tell them. Did you know people can join A|R for free, and read members only posts? So watch what you say, and if you can't say something nice, maybe you just shouldn't say anything at all. Especially if it can affect your business' public image.

Example 2 - Ignoring the situation can be worse then example 1. Let's talk about the recent birth certificate debacle with President Obama. If you haven't heard, there is a group of people that say Obama is not a naturally born U.S. citizen. Obama chose to ignore the situation, because he and his advisers believed it was so ridiculous, they didn't even need to acknowledge it.

People started talking about it more and more, and eventually Obama had to have his birth certificate dug up. They actually had to take a picture of his certificate, and blast it across the web. The problem is, they acted to late. The small group of people that started the rumor, has grown, and no matter what the Obama administration does, these people will believe he is not a natural U.S. citizen.

How does this relate to you? If someone says something bad about you or your business, ignoring it can lead to a snowball effect. First it's just one person, but that one person talks to another, and that person talks to another, and eventually, if you don't address the situation, you will have lost a lot of potential clients.



Example 3 - Confront the person/situation, and do whatever you can to fix the problem. Let's use Zappo's as an example. If you don't know, Zappo's is an online shoe store, and their core prinicipal in business is customer service. They have a passion for servicing the customer, and they always put self interest at #2. What I mean is this:

Great Customer ServiceA customer of Zappo's made an order online, and recieved his shoes, but they didn't fit. The customer was furious, and called the call center. Zappo's call center is different then any other call center, in that they don't have scripts, and are not regulated for time of the call. They aren't forced by guidelines, and red tape. They have one rule, make the customer experience exceptional.

Anyways, this customer chose the size of these shoes, and it was his fault, he needed new shoes, and he was mad at Zappo's for sending him exactly what he ordered.

Instead of telling this customer to send the shoes back, and then they would send him a new pair like any other store. The represantive apologized and asked the guy if it would be ok to overnight a new pair of shoes, and he could return his shoes when he could, within the 365 days the company return policy requires.

What do you think this guy said about this company? Turned out he runs a reputable blog, and he wrote a blog about his interaction with Zappos.

He said he was puzzled. How could a company do such a thing? How could they send a completely new product, pay for overnight shipping, and ask him to return the product when he could? Wouldn't that type of customer service put you out of business? This guy went from irate, to a customer for life. Why? Because Zappo's took a bad situation, and made it remarkable. Out of business? How about more business.

Next time you have bad publicity, or you have an upset customer. Rather then ranting/sueing, maybe you should go over the top to make them happy. Instead of suing someone for complaing about your company, turn around and ask them what it would take to make them happy. Ask them, don't tell them, and you will be the company with the ramarkable customer service.



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Lisa Udy, Logan Utah Real Estate Copyright © 2009
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