Get in the office this morning and check up on our company Facebook. This is not a normal thing for me. I can go a week or more with out ever looking at it. I was glad I did though. I am scrolling through the news feeds when I see one of my customers has posted, "Don't Ever Get Sonos".

I was like what the $%^&? So I responded on the post with "HUH?"

I then send him a text asking if the system was not working. No response yet.

Why if something does not work, do these people not call? instead bash it on Facebook!! Dang!!!! I hate Facebook. The responses were from other customers and the comments were like, "good to know" and "thanks"

What?

It's more cathartic to complain face to face or in writing if you're not there. You know how people like to gossip and talk behind others' backs, right?

I don't usually text customers and never contact them on Facebook, although checking on what they post is an interesting concept. They may text me, but I try not to use this- strikes me as too "pop-culture".

You sent him a text? Do you think something as potentially damaging to your reputation as a post on a social networking site is worth a real live phone call?

Your customers' perception is their reality. By ignoring Facebook for a week at a time and avoiding direct contact to this customer you're digging yourself a hole. This is still a sales industry, not a gear installation business.

Call them and stop deflecting responsibility.

Exactly why I hate Facebook and refuse to use it. Too much crap to keep control of. One pissed off person can ruin years of happiness. Most of the problems end up being pilot error, but you can not turn back the clock and all customers will not come back and repost that the error was theirs.

My 2013 goal.....remove this kind of crap from my life!

Even thinking of going back to a pager...lol.

Two facts interact here:

1.The only difference between social media and antisocial media is the attitude of the writer at the moment.
2.Once it's on the internet, it's always on the internet.

Have a website. You control the content. Period.

How am I deflecting responsibility? Just to be clear, I don't do our Facebook, We have someone who takes care of that in house. We start earlier than she does.
She would have caught it. I have tried to call, left a voicemail. MY business partner also called him and left a voicemail. He posted at 1:00am and was probably drunk.

I am perfectly aware of what damage this may cause. Also, I am confident that people will weigh my character up against this guy. He is the one avoiding responsibility. He is also a business owner in this area and I am sure he wouldn't tolerate the same thing if the situation was reversed.

FYI, you can set up your facebook to not post anything on your page until you approve it. ;)

The advantage of having him post on facebook is you can address him publicly. Your other clients and potential clients get to see how professionally you handle the situation. It could/should be good for business. If the client is at fault it will probably be obvious for all to see. If you are at fault everyone will see how great you are at treating your customers.

Exactly.

Very true.


There goes that potential.

This is why I have my business "Book" linked to my personal, everytime i get a comment, like or anything else it lets me know. I made a decision if i was going to have a business facebook that i would be on top of it, because of it im on FB more then ide like to be.

And im not conviced its been worth it, havent seen a ROI for time spent. As far as him avoiding responsibility, hes a pissed of client this is not a friend that is "messing with you" Above that HE "contacted" you a week ago, even if it was not the ideal way. And above that you "Huh" him. The proper response would have been "We are sorry you feel this way, after repeatedly trying to contact you to rectify the situation you have not responded to our calls. Please contact us at your earliest convenience so we can take care of it under your installation warranty" See how that response is a far better, professional yet personal response then "HUH"

I had a possible client contact me through facebook and that is the only way he wanted to communicate for some weird reason, found out he was a 21 year old .COM millionaire that made is millions on facebook, nothing ever came of it though, his last status update on his FB was over a year ago so who knows what happened to him

Reading the subject line I thought the problem was going to be mixing real friends and customers on your business Facebook page. I have a good friend that started writing children's books with college mascot themes. Another friend of his is the illustrator. When some of the first books shipped, he posted a picture of him and his partner at a book signing. The illustrator had grown out a full beard and had a rather creepy look. Not pay attention, I posted, "make Hootie shave that pedophile beard. He's scaring the kids away". What I didn't catch was that it was on his official book page and not his personal page.

Facebook is nothing but a problem.

How many people in this industry actually build their business with Facebook? Most of my clients have no interest in it whatsoever.

Just saw this, more or less, in the crawl on ABC TV News: Private family photo of the Zuckerbergs released by Facebook, sister complains publicly. Nobody is in charge at Facebook, so you risk everything by being on it.

Say -- once you've opened a Facebook page, can you close it and make it go away?

Not really. It's supposedly gone when you deactivate but all you have to do is login and its back online.