RELO Roundtable…a gathering place

Earlier this year, I jumped head first into a conversation on MovingScam.com about the benefits of responding to customer complaints online. My views on social media are undoubtedly progressive, but I was still surprised at the resistance I encountered from other movers in the popular, consumer-oriented forum.

For days I wondered if I should have said anything at all. Did I get it wrong? Is the domestic relocation business and international mobility service industry so unique that proven online customer service tactics won’t work?

Looking back at the thread today, I’m glad I spoke up. Prior to joining the full service moving and storage industry, I practiced my craft alongside social media experts at a well known strategic public relations and marketing communications firm.  There they taught me that every company, in any industry, can make it or break it in social media.

If moving companies want to reap the benefits of online media, then they have to learn how to take the bad with the good. Ignoring customer complaints when and where they happen is akin to playing Russian Roulette. You may dodge a bullet once or twice, but the cumulative effect of unanswered complaints will eventually take you out.

Why aren’t movers more open to engaging with customers online? Here are a few of the answers I hear most frequently:

• Movers will always have a terrible reputation

• Addressing it online will only aggravate the customer and extend the negative conversation

• Complaints are best handled offline, so we prefer to acknowledge it with the customer in private

• Defending ourselves against a customer complaint only makes us look worse

• We can only appease customers within the guidelines of our tariffs and federal and state motor carrier and consumer protection regulations

• We would have to get human resources, IT and legal involved if we wanted to answer a complaint

• Handling a complaint can be a long process that we don’t want blasted all over the internet

Clearly, fear and a lack of understanding about how to address online negativity and public criticisms in the virtual marketplace has prevented movers from being more responsive. Here are some tips to help you get started down the right path:

• Clean house. Like it or not, we are living in an online world and that means nothing is a secret. Before you encounter (or uncover) a complaint on the internet, it’s important to be honest with yourself. If someone pulled back the curtain of your business, what would they find? If there are skeletons in your closet, focus on cleaning house BEFORE engaging your customers or the moving public online.

• Be brave. Negative comments happen. People are more inclined to vent online about a bad experience than a good one. It can be scary to engage with an angry customer in a public forum, but if you respond nicely you may be pleasantly surprised.

Most customers vent because they want to be heard. Acknowledging their problem is the first step towards resolution.

• Be empathetic. The moving business is a tough business. We are constantly troubleshooting, regardless of how hard we work to do right by our customers. But, the minute we lose empathy for an individual customer or corporate client who has slept in the floor, discovered a damaged keepsake, or lost a valuable possession during the course of their relocation, we erode the core of what moving is about – providing hands-on help to people during one of life’s most stressful events. Being empathetic instead of defensive will help disarm an unhappy customer, expedite a resolution and show the world that your business cares.

• Take it offline. Just because you respond to a complaint online, doesn’t mean you have to resolve it online before the court of public opinion in the virtual marketplace or in open social networking communities. The rule of thumb is to engage 1-3 times in public and then request that the conversation continue in private. If you do this with patience and empathy, and the customer refuses to move the conversation offline, then the customer has lost credibility, not you.

• You can’t win them all. There will be times when an unhappy customer wants the problem and not the solution. If you have presented your company well, rational readers will see that you tried to make it right. Let it go and move on to something more positive.

Do you agree? Disagree? What steps do you take when a customer complains online? 

Paige Holden is Director of Communications for Holman Moving Systems, a full-service agent for United Van Lines, and XONEX Relocation, an international 3rd Party relocation services management company.

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