Today, I’m thrilled to unveil the Retail Consumer Report. We recently partnered with Harris Interactive to survey consumers who shop online about their expectations and experiences with retailers in social media. I must admit—even for an industry veteran like me with 25 years of experience in retail managing customer support strategies—I was surprised and delighted by what we learned.
Prior research has shown that when consumers have a bad experience they will never do business again with a brand. Plus now unhappy consumers are turning to social media to broadcast their complaints. However, we were excited to see in the Retail Consumer Report that retailers are monitoring and responding to consumer complaints on the social web, and effectively winning back disgruntled customers.
When retailers reach out to unhappy customers, great things happen. We were very pleasantly surprised to find from the research that 68 percent of consumers who posted a complaint/negative review on social media got a response from the retailer. Of those, 18 percent converted into loyal customers and bought more from the retailer.
The study found that by listening and proactively responding to complaints on the social web, retailers are not only winning back dissatisfied customers, but also converting them into brand advocates. When consumers received a retailer response to their online complaint:
- 34 percent deleted their original negative review; and
- 33 percent turned around and posted a positive review.
Our client Specialized, designer and manufacturer of the world’s best bikes, equipment, and apparel, further validates that social media engagement can turn around unhappy customers. Specialized is using RightNow Cloud Monitor to participate in conversations being had about the brand on Twitter, Facebook and biking industry blogs. RightNow Cloud Monitor alerts Specialized when there is discussion about the brand and enables the company to proactively reach out to customers via social networks to provide authentic responses and support. By being responsive to customers on the social web, Specialized is wowing customers and converting them into “Specialized for life” shoppers.
I invite you to take a moment to examine how your organization can dial up its efforts to listen and respond to unhappy customers on the social web. Check out the new Retail Consumer Report and press release to learn more.
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