At my house we use AT&T as our internet provider.  Lately I have been having countless issues with our connection.  I have called them to try and get it fixed but it still remains unresolved.  As most people do these days I took my frustrations and made them public on Twitter.  A simple “I hate AT&T DSL” tweet resulted in AT&T’s social media rep Carolyn to promptly reply and ask me to message her the problem.\n

\n\nSocial networking sites have become the new soapbox for people’s rants and raves about a company, service, or product.  They say 1 lost customer will tell at least 3 of their friends about their experience. With social networking in the mix that number could be anywhere from ten to thousands of people hearing about how good or bad your company is doing.  This may seem frightening but it isn’t just negative experiences that make it to status updates.   For example just the other day our President Facebook’ed about an excellent customer service experience she had during a stop at a local Staples store.\n\nWebsites like Facebook and Twitter allow you to get feedback directly from your customers almost instantly.  It is important to monitor both the negative and positive buzz associated with your company online.  If you can help a customer with a problem via social media not only will they sing your praises again, but their whole network will witness how committed you are to customer service.  This morning I was surfing the Comcast website ready to switch and now I am holding off hopeful that AT&T will fix my connection problems.  Be sure to also interact and thank those loyal customers who are raving about you. This is a great opportunity to get free market research and better understand your organization’s strengths and weaknesses. Don’t fail to take advantage of this opportunity to stay connected.