Internet Marketing Digital_marketing_for_dummies | Page 218

to get involved in the conversation. Meanwhile, the customer should at least receive the
“You’ve Been Heard” response in a reasonable time frame. Your business should
decide what that time frame is, but remember that if you wait beyond 12 hours for any
contact with the customer, you risk causing even more frustration.
2. Empathize.
Empathy is agreeing that you’d feel the same way in someone else’s shoes. It means
you are not a robot, so canned or overly scripted responses won’t cut it here. Making a
statement of empathy — simply communicating that you realize the situation is
frustrating — can go a long way in easing tension. An example of an empathy
statement is, “We are so sorry to have caused you an inconvenience.”
3. Move the conversation to a private channel.
Don’t try to troubleshoot a customer-care issue on a public forum like Twitter or a
public-facing Facebook page. Issues are much easier to address one-on-one. Giving
customers individual attention also makes them feel appreciated and heard. Many
customer-care issues also involve private information like email addresses and credit
card info, so you want to be discreet about your customer ’s private details. Your
company decides where this private conversation takes place, whether by phone,
support ticket, or a private message on the social channel.
Any company with solid social customer service in place uses this three-step plan. Figure
9-5 shows an example of the hotel chain Best Western responding to a customer service
issue posted on Facebook and moving the conv