I worked on a brand* that had a recurring problem. To protect the brand, let’s just call the brand Chardonnay and say that every so often a black fly would be found in the just-opened bottle of Chardonnay (this is an entirely fictional example). Now, there was nothing Chardonnay could do to prevent the black fly occurrence. The microscopic black fly was there at harvest and only came to maturity in packaging. Needless to say, consumers FREAKED when they poured themselves a nice cold glass of Chardonnay only to find a black fly in it.
Immediately, they would message the Chardonnay Facebook Page. Quite often they would Message, Post to Page and take to Twitter as well. Here’s what we learned. The quicker we responded to the consumer, the easier it was to diffuse the situation. If more than twelve hours went by, Chardonnay received more hate. Usually, in the form of multiple photos of the fly in the Chardonnay and / or video of friends’ screaming about the fly in the Chardonnay posted to multiple parts of Facebook – Messages and Posts to Page – and also to Twitter.
However, if we responded quickly, say within minutes of the first communication on social media, it was much easier to mollify the consumer. Consumers want to know the brand cares. They want to hear the brand understands this is an upsetting experience and that the brand is very sorry. At Chardonnay, we never tried to explain that the black fly was a rare, but inevitable occurrence. We acknowledged that it was an unhappy situation and that we would like to talk to them. We then requested they call our toll free number during business hours, Monday through Friday from 9am-5pm.
It worked. Each time a black fly was addressed immediately the consumer would begin to relax and their anger would dissipate. When they called customer service, they were again apologized to and offered free Chardonnay coupons. Validating an irate consumer’s experience and responding to them quickly is the best way to respond to a bad consumer experience.
* The brand and situations have been changed to protect the brand. Black flies ARE NOT a rare but intrinsic part of an unopened bottle of Chardonnay. You should never find one in an unopened bottle.