Two interesting stories I read today. The first one came from the Wall Street Journal on how Ford and other companies are using Twitter to head off negative publicity and also communicate their customer service. The second was in a similar vein, dealing with the idea of bear shaving from Seth Godin’s blog.

The article in the WSJ went on to describe how the companies were monitoring activity spikes in social media and then addressing the customer’s complaint and getting resolution - then communicating this process as a way of building their brand. This is great - it wasn’t too long ago that damage control only came about once the problem had become really big - and twice as difficult (and expensive) to control. Now anyone can have the power to communicate just how strong your customer service is.

Powerful stuff. While most small businesses probably won’t have people taking to Twitter against them in large numbers - the lesson to take away from this is: keep track of what is being said about you online and don’t be afraid to reach out to a disgruntled employee or customer. You now have that power - and it can easily be done in a few minutes in the morning. Reminds me of a comment I have heard attributed to Steve Wynn - and to paraphrase; What the mistake was, is not as important is what you did to fix it. Things will happen - not every customer will be happy - but you can do a lot for yourself by focusing on what your customer service can do to fix it.

But my customers and I don’t use Twitter…

Ah, perhaps you use returns, exhanges or warranties as damage control. Customers get this happy feeling that when something goes wrong with your product - that at least they are covered. In the second story I read today, from Seth Godin’s Blog, he describes “Bear Shaving” - basically quickly tackling a problem with a short term solution instead of addressing the more major flaws. This got me thinking about the negative effects bear shaving can have on a customer.

Case in point: the warranty that covers my iPhone headphones (which has now expired) - entitled me to a new pair of headphones anytime mine decided not to work properly. The warranty is a perfect bear shave! I had to use this warranty 4 times this past year. In that whole time, the headphones never got better (what’s up with that?!) and I never received any sort of communication from Apple. They scanned my receipt every time, they knew how many times I had to do this. Am I still an iPhone customer and user - yes - but am I as enthusiastic, no. And usually the first comment I have about my phone is how crappy the headphones are. What a silly thing to lose a “brand soldier” over.

My Point: Use your 2.0 skills (skeeeeeillllzzzzzz) and tools to not only monitor activity, but also to communicate how your customer service is excellent. Make blog posts, tweets, whatever you can do! And if you are on the using warranties, or exchanges to bear shave - be careful. Once you notice a problem, examine the core of the problem, not just mask it for later. It will help you down the line.

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