Mediaboss Marketing

Dr. Anderson Uvie-Emegbo | credits: File copy

In giving approval to its corporate communications department to officially open a presence on social networking platforms, an executive management team made it clear that they did not want their corporate social media pages to be overtaken by complaints from customers.

And they had good reasons to be worried the organisation was still struggling with customer complaints arising from interactions with its brick and mortar offices.

Though the organisation had started making changes to some of the processes that customers complained about, a significant number of customers still perceived the pace of change as slow.

The organisation was also in the process of retraining its frontline staff nationwide on customer service. At times the service transformation programme seemed to be taking one step forward and two steps backwards.

The corporate communication director certainly had his hands full. Later on in this article, we would explore how he mitigated this risk.

It is not surprising that when war is declared, truth is the first casualty. Social media is a battleground and sparks are bound to fly. Organisations would be unduly optimistic not to expect disgruntled customers to vent their frustrations using social media.

The very fact that misunderstandings can occur between the organisation and its customers only makes social media even more likely to be used by customers who regard this medium (social media) as a genuine customer touch point or as a channel to get back at the organisation.

Some organisations have also been known to manipulate these channels to de-market their competitors. Social media is a double-edged sword especially for corporate organisations.

The love garnered within a short time can be dissipated over some real or frivolous issues. Several heads of corporate communication, public relations and social media functions have had their fingers burnt from their brands misadventure on social media.

Read more here:
Protecting your corporate voice across social media channels