50% went online “specifically to rage against a person or organization.”

Posted: July 20th

Tags: customer service, online brand, sharon michnay, social media

Wow. Take a moment and let that sink in. According to an article by Ruder Finn I read on emarketer.com that is one of the reasons half of those aged 18 – 29 go online. More than 2/3 also went online to post comments on social networking sites.

Now, while the world doesn’t revolve around real estate and this “rage” will be directed at many different industries and companies, it is something we need to consider seriously. If you listen to Matt Ferrara, he’ll tell you that this is the real estate buyer of now and for the foreseeable future.

It’s enough to strike fear into any business, especially if the furthest you’ve looked into social media is creating a fan page on Facebook. There are enough fear-inspiring articles out there, so let’s discuss something else – customer service.

Most people won’t submit a “comment/suggestion” form on your website to tell you about a problem they had with your company. They call, email, status update and blog about it to their friends. It’s not an IT issue because it involves technology. It’s not a marketing issue because it happens in a visible location. It’s a customer service issue because it specifically relates to a customer’s experience with the company.

Social Media presents an excellent customer service opportunity. Just as we have customer service staff and escalation plans for issues that come through internally, we need to further develop those for issues that rise to our attention through other locations.

Who in your company is monitoring your brand online? Who is responsible for responding to posts about your brand – both good and bad? Is there an internal distribution system based on topic? Have you had success in solving the issue behind the “rage”?

Posted by: Sharon E. Michnay, CRP, GMS, WRS, Director, Corporate Business Development, Halstead Property. Sharon is chairperson of the LeadingRE Advisory Council.

Rachael

Looks to me like a sensational headline used to illicit a quick response to a statistic that makes very little sense out of context. The headline is “one of the reasons half of those aged 18-29 go online,” according to the first paragraph. Yet how often is this group going online and for how many other reasons? I imagine it’s for a multitude of other reasons, but without a link to the original article I don’t know. (I might look for it later.)

One of our agents sent this to me as support for the idea that sellers should opt-out of allowing comments on their listings online, which it seems most of our agents recommend to their sellers at this point. I believe I stand alone in my company in leaning toward opting-in to comments, because I believe the online discussion is helpful, even if the comments are negative. Maybe I’m too optimistic, but I think that more and more people know how to handle themselves appropriately in online discussions, and that web users have some discernment regarding others’ negativity and when it’s exaggerated.

But as you say – the comments about our company are out there, and we should be responding! I think allowing the comments “in our own court” gives us a better opportunity to monitor and respond to issues.

Robin LaSure

The lesson here is that they’re talking about us whether we like it or not, and allowing this kind of commentary is not only the transparency that consumers want, but creates accountability and the ability to find out what’s wrong – whether trying to convince a seller to paint or re-carpet to be competitive, or learning that a client is unhappy with an agent because they don’t respond in a timely manner, both of which are fixable. And wouldn’t we want to correct the problem? When you go on Angieslist.com to read plumber or painter reviews, if nine are positive and one is negative, most consumers will take the one negative one with a grain of salt. We need to be thinking like consumers think, and I don’t think agents give themselves enough credit that they also have some raving fans out there – if they are doing what they should be doing – who will easily overpower any occasional criticism.