Complaints through Social Media Rosemary Agnew 28 June 2012 How to Turn Public Sector Complaints into Service Improvements

The Apology … How should you react when customers make complaints about you on social media sites (Twitter, YouTube, Facebook etc), rather than bringing them to you directly through the traditional complaints process? How should you react when customers make complaints about you on social media sites (twitter, YouTube, facebook etc), rather than bringing them to you directly through the traditional complaints process? This billing suggests I will be standing in front of you with a list of answers and lots of tips on what to do I’m sorry but I won’t be…

Raising awareness of issues Asking questions What I will be doing is … Raising awareness of issues Asking questions Challenging you to think differently Encouraging you to go back to your organisations with questions

First – honesty time…. 1 General Entitlement (1) A person who requests information from a Scottish public authority which holds it is entitled to be given it by the authority.

Show of hands Who can explain these and how to use them? Who uses one or more of them regularly?

Who sees social media as a threat? Opportunity or threat? Who sees social media as a threat? Who sees social media an opportunity?

Is the issue real? THINK about the power of media, then factor in: Instantaneous Outside your control Random Free Easy Interactive Social media HAS & IS changing communication and attitudes

How is social media used Complain directly to an organisation Express opinion about the organisation as a service user Employees expressing opinions about organisation and colleagues/ managers

What is happening now? Organisations generally fail to respond to complaints in social media Big organisations worst Lack of resources Mirror traditional routes EXPECTATION is for instant response

Recent Research 83% of Britons unhappy with social media complaints service UK consumers used social media to complain most about retailers (21%) and banks (19%) 33% of those in Northern Ireland criticised telecoms companies 18% of the Welsh used social media to complain about local government 15% of Scots - gas companies 14% in the South East criticised train companies http://www.eptica.com 22% believed they would receive a quicker response – but they are being let down by businesses Companies are ignoring simple questions as well as complaints 81% didn’t get an acceptable answer to their questions asked on social media

Recent Research 22% believed they would receive a quicker response – but they are being let down by businesses 81% didn’t get an acceptable answer to their questions asked on social media Companies are ignoring simple questions as well as complaints www.eptica.com

Recent research Nearly ½ expected the company to read their Tweet Nearly 1/3 received a response from the company Of those who received follow-up: 83% said they liked or loved hearing Only 4% didn’t like or hated hearing Nearly 3 in 4 very or somewhat satisfied http://www.maritzresearch.com Maritz Research surveyed an online panel of 1,298 US Consumers • The panel was pre-identified as: – Twitter users who frequently tweet – Have used Twitter to complain about a specific product, service, brand, or company – At least 18 years of age Nearly 1/2 of respondents expected the company to read their Tweet Nearly 1/3 of respondents received a response from the company about their Twitter complaint Of those who received follow-up: 83% said they liked or loved hearing from the company Only 4% didn’t like or hated hearing from the company Nearly 3 in 4 were very or somewhat satisfied with the company’s response Of those who did not receive follow-up: 86% would have liked or loved hearing from the company b their complaint tweet Only 1% would have not liked it or hated it if they were contacted by the company regarding their complaint tweet 63% would not like it or hate it if the company contacted them about something other than their complaint tweet

Recent research Of those who did not receive follow-up: 86% would have liked or loved hearing but 63% not like/ hate it if contacted about something other than their complaint http://www.maritzresearch.com

So which age group expected a response? 18-24 25-34 35-44 45-54 55+

Less expected maybe? those who use social media will often have expressed dissatisfaction At the time Not necessarily as a complaint Similar demographic and complainer types

Opinions about the organisation Not necessarily voiced as complaints Risk comes from inappropriate response YOU have little control over how it spreads Opinions can turn into complaints (and FOI requests) Your employees can respond directly Can be good as well as bad

Comments often less guarded Stay well away, Repeat stay well well away, they are cheap and ****, no one has contacted me its 14 days now - no broadband - i am stuck and waiting for the new provider to take over. Biggest mistake ever So far I am very happy with the support which I AM GIVING OUT   What a load of moaners! I've just switched to [...] phone & broadband. The switchover was seamless These all came from a blog about a broadband service – the politest ones

Principles remain same – execution is different Have a social media presence Monitor both complaints AND what is being said about you Address and record every complaint that comes to you directly Have a system in place to capture and manage customer complaints Don’t end up with a two-tier system

Tips and advice Ensure internal systems are geared up, people that manage social media might not be those skilled in dealing with customer complaints Embed complaints made via social media into mainstream systems - lay out roles and responsibilities Analyse and quantify complaints data to anticipate need and set response procedures and improvement

Tips and advice Be clear about when and how to engage – tension between when to react and when to note DONT ignore Have systems in place to protect employees Make sure employee responsibilities are set out in T&C etc and applied Social media creates conversations – do we need to do more to engage in them, eg through mediation based approaches

Last one for now… How would the leaders and decision makers in your organisation answer the questions raised?

Questions?

Further information Scottish Information Commissioner  www.itspublicknowledge.info  01334 464610 @ enquiries@itspublicknowledge.info