Liz Strauss.com

I ended the article, Do Not Fear the Negative Comment, with

That is unless we’ve so burned our customers, we have to prove that we’re not just telling them stories. But that’s a different blog post.

This is that different blog post.

Whether we made the situation or inherited it, sometimes we stand at the foot of a customer disaster or worse at the ruins of a completely burned out customer relationship. Things said and done in the past have been allowed to simmer and get worse.

No sales rep worth his or her paycheck would walk into a customer’s situation without knowing the history and having a plan. An organization with a customer and a serious problem, would expect the sales rep to know both the problem and what might be done. Yet in a strange and curious fashion, that same organization would worry over how to handle that exact issue when running a blog.

A blogger needs to be the same effective strategist when a customer shows up with a problem or a complaint to air. He or she needs to find out the details — the atmosphere, the problem, and the relationships — before he or she writes the first word in response. In other words, listening is the best action to any problem, long before trying to find a solution.

If the situation the blogger is walking into is a new blog to serve customers that have been ignored or abused, then the first post needs to explain how and why things are changing and to state clearly the promises they can rely on.. Everything the blogger does has to live up to those promises. Every word and action must be about regaining trust and credibility. There is no other way.

Of course, that would be the only choice that the sales rep would have too.

People trust people who earn their trust.

People who have been treated badly give their trust slowly.

Bloggers who want to win back customers are willing to earn that trust with patience, grace, always responding in good faith and honesty.

Eventually customers see the consistency and the loyalty to the new promise. It’s the result of the strength of a blogger’s commitment to prove that the customer was worth waiting for. Showing customers that they’re worth listening to. That’s the respect that they lost in the first place.

Liz Strauss

Schools, families and friends ought to take a look at the launch of VOX by SixApart, the makers of Typepad, Moveable Type, and LiveJournal. At the preview I attended last night at Chicago’s Metropolitan Museum of Art, Mena Trotter described it as “putting the fun back into blogging for those folks who want to blog without all of the people.”

The ease of use and the ability to integrate sound, video and pictures make this an ideal way for families and friends to keep in touch across long distances. The interface takes away the need to know HTML to get your pictures where you want them and adds in a layer of privacy that can be split for different elements of the same post — you can let everyone read about your vacation, but only certain readers see the pictures of you in that swimsuit you bought.

VOX truly is a unique addition to the blogging marketplace. SixApart has carved out a specific personal blogging niche and made a product just for that group. That’s what Web 2.0 is all about. Currently VOX is by invitation only.Email me if you want an invitation or know someone who does.

Liz Strauss

Anywhere that folks congregate these days, we can’t help but listen. It’s an effort to tune them out. They follow us with their conversations and cell phones into the most remote places, bathrooms, airplanes, and elevators find me hearing about how Fluffy the cat is doing, when I really could care less about the information.

Social networking sites have sprung up in the virtual world to feed this apparent need folks have to feel “dialed up and plugged in.” I’m not sure where the data for this Social Networking graphic comes from but it looks like it works the way human nature does. So let’s start with the premise that there’s a valid study behind it.

The graphic shows that people at social network sites break into four quadrants or types. They divide first by their need to know about the world or friends, and they divide again by which group they want to share with. So the four quadrants become these:

Relationship Builders want to know and share with friends only. They want to go deep with very close friends. They’re probably hard to reach customers.

Social Networkers collect people and want to know everyone socially. They communicate in everyway, including anonymously. They want to be where the people are and the action is happening. They are consumers who are willing to pay for social entertainment at a premium price, even if it is fleeting and superficial.

Content Consumers consider close friends a priority, but they have an interest in everyone. They share their lives with friends and family, but enjoy reading about the lives of others. They use the Internet to find information and use the cell phone to stay connected to those close to them.

Content Creators have close friends at heart, but also enjoy feeling like an expert. The ability to publish their thoughts plays into their belief that their knowledge is worth something and worth sharing. They use the Internet for spreading their message and discovering information. Cell phones are for staying connected.

A blogger at a social network site would probably not bump into the Relationship builders. They would stay in their own social circle. To meet them one would have to get permission from someone within the circle to join the conversation.

If the blogger is looking for active listening would quickly sort the other three. The Social Networkers could very well contact the blogger within minutes of his or her arrival at the site. If the blogger has a product or service they need. It’s a lucky day for the blogger. They’re the buyers of all four quadrants.

The Content Consumers might check out the profile the blogger put up, but not leave a message. It would be permission for the blogger to follow them home. The blogger still might get the sale, but he would have to work a bit harder to make it happen.

The Content Creators could very well wait until the blogger contacted them. But the blogger could see right away who they. They are the ones who are trying to get the blogger to read their blogs.

Ah, but which would be the reader/customers the blogger is after?

It could be any or all of them. That’s where more listening comes in.

Liz Strauss

Possibly the greatest fear that new corporate bloggers have is the infamous negative comment.

Yet, organizations deal with negative comments successfully in many ways already. They get complaints via customer service, white mail, package inserts, blow-in cards, emails, comments given to reps on sales calls, and even folks who approach representatives at conventions — in the trade booth, walking down the hall, or even in the washroom, if the employee’s badge is visible. Most organizations have no problem handling negative conversations under these circumstances.

The same skills and responses are the ones that work in handling negative comments that might happen when blogging.

When we respond to comments on a blog, it’s easy to be generous, if we remember that one individual wrote the comment based his or her experience. Though eye contact isn’t possible, authentic interest and recognition of the individual most certainly is. All we have to do is listen and let the person know we are. Listening is the first and most powerful response we have to offer.

If we use the blog to listen and answer with respect . . .

If we let the commenter know that we heard . . .

If we are transparent about looking for a viable solution, one that is reasonable and tilted slightly to favor the customer when we can . . .

If we let customer know we always do that . . .

Then,
we don’t need to solve every problem. We can be honest about the times when we don’t have the resources or power to change the past — that our best solution is to offer a sincere apology and move forward.

Customers understand that there are limits to what can be done and what cannot. If they are treated with respect and if we let them know we’re working on our problems, they’re willing to give us the time that they would want if the situation reversed.

That is unless we’ve so burned our customers, we have to prove that we’re not just telling them stories. But that’s a different blog post.

Liz Strauss