By: Mary Ellen Bost,
Owner Savvy Social Media
I have always heard that the best form of advertising for a business is "word of mouth." However true, nowadays "word of mouth" primarily takes place online and for the most part...it is occurring on Facebook. "Word of Mouth" can be great for your business...if it is positive. However, unhappy customers voice their opinions online at an alarming speed.
For this reason, if you own or run a business, if your livelihood is dependent upon the success or failure of your business- it is unacceptable and precarious for you to not be on Facebook.
Why?
How many times have you seen an unhappy patron of a restaurant post on Facebook sharing their dissatisfaction with recent service?
With a smartphone in everyone’s back pocket, someone can snap a picture of anything and share it with the world in an instant. Seeing people LOVE to snap screen shots, once it is posted online, it’s forever. Although you may delete it from the internet, it is not deleted from a person’s mind and/ or smart phone.
A few months ago, a patron at Juanita's Cantina here in Little Rock, posted a complaint on their Facebook page. Unfortunately, the restaurant owner was not on Facebook nor did he have anything to do with the management of their Facebook page. That responsibility was given to an employee who responded to this patron's complaint with a very rude and condescending remark.
Not long after this exchange took place, apparently Juanita's converted to a fan page. I'm still unsure exactly what happened....but apparently it disappeared from the page. All in the clear, right? No one saw it. Wrong.
Someone saw it, snapped a screen shot, and the rest is history.
Here is Kate's original post. Note Juanita's response. This is the post that "disappeared" but not before Luke was able to snap a screen shot of it.
Check out Juanita's next response below. I bet this guy is super happy no one knew who he was!
And the comments don't stop there. The post went viral. People were not happy and not afraid to voice their dismay for the entire world to see. Their true feelings came out. Anyone who has ever had a somewhat less than stellar experience there- made sure to post about it.
The first comment was made around noon on a Wednesday. 22 hours and hundreds of angry comments later...the owner of the business responds will an excellent yet belated message.
As you can see, Joe the owner had never even been on Facebook. And who could blame him? Facebook isn’t for everyone. And a couple of years ago, that would have been acceptable-even typical- regardless of your type of business. But nowadays with smartphones...people LIVE on Facebook. It is obvious here that he should- and likely does now- have someone he trusts speaking to the public on behalf of his business.
But a simple personal Facebook account, periodic monitoring of his business' page (by him or a person in charge of marketing)...would have saved him hours of angry comments, horrible publicity, and possibly a loss in clientele.
I believe in second chances (not for the idiot employee- he deserved to be fired on the spot!). But I can tell that the owners of Juanitia's truly do care about their patrons, their reputation, their business, and their customer service, and that in my mind warrants a second chance.
Let this be a lesson to all- not being on Facebook when trying to manage a company- is NOT an option. We will save the discussion about this employees behavior for a later conversation. That deserves its' own five part series. #Facepalm.
Savvy Social Media LR
501.246.0254
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