Memorandum

To: Directors/Managers

From: Jeremy Cuff

Date: 19 August 2013

Subject: Social Media - What Happens when someone isn’t happy

As everyone is surely aware, a great many individuals and organisations now use various forms of Social Media. Even if you don’t use it yourself, you will be aware of many people that do, and the issues good and bad that this generates.

In terms of our businesses, it can be used to spread good news about us when we’ve got something positive to say or have done something well, but it can work against us in an alarming way when things go wrong.

Please be aware that if we don’t provide a good service and do what we say we’re going to do, our customers may well be inclined to express themselves on Facebook, Twitter and other social media sites and blogspots.

If they’ve got a lot of Facebook friends or Twitter followers, their dissatisfaction with us can spread very quickly. Even a seemingly trivial problem can magnify itself dramatically when it gets onto social media.

We must therefore do everything we can to navigate such pitfalls by focusing on basics such as a simple promise to call back etc. These are the things that shouldn’t be happening, but when they do, we might not only lose the customer we have annoyed, we could put off many more.

Please be continually aware of this and share with your teams as appropriate.