It is commonly believed that consumers are much more vocal about complaints than they are about recommendations and, in an age where one negative tweet can send a company’s popularity into free-fall, businesses fear bad reviews and public complaints more than ever.
However, the boom in social media usage since the millennium has turned us into a ‘like’ generation, with networks such as Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn providing users with a ‘like’ button to show appreciation for posts and photos. Of the 1,000 UK consumers surveyed, over a third (38%) said they post about positive experiences with a company on social media.
| If I have a good customer experience with a company I usually tell my friends and/or family | 89% |
| If I have a bad customer experience with a company I usually tell my friends and/or family | 84% |
| If I have a good customer experience with a company I usually post something about it on social media | 38% |
| If I have a bad customer experience with a company I usually post something about it on social media | 31% |
These results clearly show that it would be a mistake for businesses to focus solely on social media, as a far greater proportion of people tell others about their good experiences (89%) than post it on social media. This is reflected across all age groups, whether respondents are in their twenties or sixties.
However, there is less consistency across age groups when it comes to sharing experiences online, as younger age groups are more likely than their older peers are to use online channels. As a large segment of consumers is expressing feedback away from social media, a deeper analysis of customer sharing is required to produce commercial gains.
Graham Ede, chief commercial officer at Yonder Digital Group, comments, “We are now a society that shares good experiences and bad ones, so new techniques need to be developed to remind customers to share and to make sharing easier. To start with, companies need to gain a better understanding of the different communication channels used by their customers, if they wish to encourage more feedback that is positive.
“It is crucial to offer customers a range of channels – both live and automated – for getting in touch. Pioneering organisations that understand each customer’s individual mix of channel preferences – email, mail, phone, social, webchat, and so on – are more likely to achieve excellent customer service and secure top-rate reviews as a result.”
