Mollie Vandor is the Product Manager for Ranker.com and Media Director for Girls in Tech LA. You can find her on Twitter and on her blog, where she writes about the web, the world and what it’s like to be a geek chic chick.  The customer may always be right, but that won’t matter much if he or she isn’t heard. For companies with a global reach on the Web, it can be difficult for them to filter the noise that comes with addressing customer feedback.  Customer feedback is a core component of the product development process, which is why services for gathering and processing that feedback are plentiful. With all these channels for voicing your consumer concerns, how do you make sure that your voice gets heard? Like most things on the Internet, it all depends on where you post.  Scenario: An employee of a well-known site discovers one his users is upset. The user posted multiple tweets about the situation, including a few directed at the site’s CEO. Because the employee was busy trafficking the user’s tweets and the ensuing e-mails from the CEO, he couldn’t focus on figuring out the solution to the user’s problem. The multiple TwitterTwitter posts served as a distraction and delayed the employee in finding a fix.  This true story is not the kind of situation that encourages us Web workers to offer service and support via Twitter.  However, it does illustrate two very important points about using Twitter to lodge a complaint. First, always remember that the person on the other end of Twitter is, well, a person. Patience is key. You will get a better response if you give your recipient some time to look into the issue before they respond. And, once you get the attention of the right person, try to move the conversation into an e-mail thread. It will make it easier for that person to keep track of all the details of your discussion, and easier for you to maintain a paper trail, should you need it.  Keeping that paper trail in mind is also why it is usually better to shoot someone an @reply when you need help. Everyone can see @replies, so they create a public record of your call for help, further compelling a response, and it gives the community the chance to weigh in as well.  Conventional wisdom might be to take your complaint straight to the top. However, your better bet is to look for people who list “User Experience,” “UX,” “Community,” “Support” or “Content” in their profiles. They’re more likely to be responsive to user complaints. If you’re not sure who the best Twitter contact is at a given company, try searching on TwellowTwellow, a “yellow pages” directory for Twitter.  GetSatisfaction is the cool new kid on the customer service block, but services like SuggestionBox, UserVoice and Kampyle also help sites collect customer feedback in community-based forums. Web developers like them because they’re easy to implement and manage, and users like them because they’re fun and friendly. Despite their differences, all these services share similar ways to accessorize your posts, from ratings and tags to icons and emoticons. Of course, you’re a busy customer, and the person on the receiving end of your posts is probably juggling priorities too. So, what’s the best way to make the most of what you have to say on these feedback forums? Simple: Use your words.  When I’m processing customer feedback from GetSatisfaction, my immediate concerns are what happened to you and why. There are some simple forensic steps I take to figure that out: I check the log files, where all the information about our Web traffic is stored on a given day, and try to pinpoint any known issues that may have caused a customer trouble. To do this, I need some information — specifically, your username, the time that your problem occurred, and the browser and operating system you were using when it happened. Give me those simple pieces of information, and I can almost certainly answer your question. Leave them out, and the odds of finding a solution are much slimmer.  The type of information you need to include will change depending on what type of support you need and from what sort of company, but the lesson is the same: leave as much detailed information as you can about your issue and the circumstances surrounding it.  On Facebook, you need an account in order to create a Fan Page, which usually means there’s a real human being behind a brand’s FacebookFacebook presence. This makes it a good place to get the attention you’re looking for. As with Twitter, I wouldn’t recommend going into deep detail on Facebook, but you can certainly use it to get the contact info of the person you should be e-mailing.  As with all these mediums, the key is patience. Give them some time to respond. If they don’t get back to you in a fair amount of time — say, a couple of business days for a large company, then you have every right to start a group about their customer service to try to get their attention. But be clear about what you want, and avoid slinging mud. Often with social media, it’s easy to quickly post something without much scrutiny. If you come across as simply hating the whole company or product, you might not get a response at all.  As obvious as it might sound, competent complaining is probably the best way to get a response. When it comes to customer feedback, be as clear, patient and constructive as you can be. Give as much information as you’ve got. If you share what you know with me, I’ll do my best to share a solution with you. After all, isn’t sharing what social media is all about?  What are some of the channels and practices you use when contacting a company with feedback? Share your thoughts in the comments below.  - The Tao of Tweeting - 8 Must-Have Traits of Tomorrow’s Journalist - 6 Tips for Getting the Most out of Foursquare - 5 Tips for Building Lasting Online Friendships - HOW TO: Manage a Facebook Group  Image courtesy of iStockphotoiStockphoto, sodafish
Social networks can be a useful channel when contacting a company with a complaint. Here are some tips on how to get your feedback heard and addressed using social media.