I read an article today about a blogger who used his blog to vent about a supplier of his that was not meeting his expectations, and another individual who posted negative comments about a company. In both cases, they were contacted immediately by a customer representative and in both cases were surprised that their postings were monitored. In this case the blogger chose to view this as “big brother” was watching him.
Isn’t this an interesting scenario? A blogger complains about a company in a public blog expecting many people to read it but not the company staff. The company responds immediately to the blogger and takes corrective action. The complaint is resolved. The blogger then complains that this response resulting from reading his blog posting is an invasion of privacy. Who out there thinks that the World Wide Web is private—a blogger of all people?
Was not the complaint that the company needs to take action, and when they do, it is a problem also to this individual? Perhaps the blogger looked at his posting as venting only—maybe he enjoyed the complaint process, being the “victim” and that was taken away from him when the resolution came so quickly. He should be ecstatic that the company was responsive!
Not all businesses can afford to or choose to monitor internet chatter about the company, whether on forums, blogs, Twitter-type media, or otherwise. Those who do and then take the extra step to take the comments, criticisms, problems, ideas for improvement, or complaints seriously deserve kudos.
If you have clients, monitoring what is happening through even a simplistic mechanism such as Google Alerts is very helpful. It is also helpful to monitor what is happening to your company as well. Monitor yourself, monitor your company, and monitor your clients. Take action to make things better if you can. Monitoring is not a 2008 version of big brother; it is good, solid business practice. Let your inbox buzz with good information.
What is your buzz about?
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