Just the other day, I encouraged brand leaders to look at social media as a listening platform. This is an area that many small businesses think larger, more established brands can outperform them.
Quite the contrary.
As if on cue, I witnessed the following transpire in real time, and was disappointed at the (lack of) response by a national brand.
Exhibit A:
.@SEARS lost a lot of respect 2day. Took today off, scheduled service repair never showed up. Called 800 # & no one can help either #fail
— Bryan Kramer (@bryankramer) October 22, 2014
@bryankramer sad this still happens in 2014 – when will brands learn?
— Adam Fraser (@adamf2014) October 22, 2014
@bryankramer @SEARS they also seem to pay a lot of attention to their social media mentions.
— Shaun Nestor (@ShaunNestor) October 22, 2014
@bryankramer Bryan, we would like to try to help with your service issues. Can you please confirm if you were able to reschedule?
— Sears Cares (@searscares) October 22, 2014
There are two glaring opportunities here. First, Sears can ramp up their social listening efforts and be attentive to the needs of their customers.
Secondly, smaller brands can use social monitoring to take advantage of blatant missteps made by the giants of the industry. For example, some large brands turn off their customer service monitoring after 5pm.
@HVSVN Sorry for the delay in responding, our twitter feed is open 0900-1700 GMT. Please DM your baggage ref and we'll look into this.
— British Airways (@British_Airways) September 3, 2013
How can your brand take advantage of this? Simple: Listen.
Monitor, even after hours, for terms and hashtags like: #fail #CustomerService or #BadsService and your competitors.
If you are a local business, pair these terms with geofencing within your service area.
Step up when the other brands fall short.
