Think Customers: The 1to1 Blog

Another was misuse of the community by customers. This included such issues as customers using a company’s online community to market their own products or services or making inappropriate comments, as well as having the staff on hand to catch these things.

In the case of an inflammatory customer comments, the best-practices approach is to leave the comment up and address it in a nondefensive, noncombative way. In other words, take action quickly and decisively to address the concern. In some cases it may be appropriate to make your initial comments online, and then take the conversation private with the customer. Once you’ve resolved the issue, you can always go back to the broader community and post a comment on how the situation was resolved.

But, be warned, removing an inflammatory comment could lead to a severe backlash among customers, some of whom will share their outrage with a much broader set of people across their online social networks (and offline, too, I’m sure).

That said, if a customer attempts to boldly market their own company or makes a comment that includes inappropriate language, then it’s most likely necessary to take action, in the best interest of your other customers. One best practice is to include a note near the comment field explaining that inappropriate comments will be removed. Explain that inappropriate doesn’t mean negative; instead it means such things as foul language, derogatory comments, or marketing messages. If someone posts such commentary, take it down. If you feel it necessary, you can post a comment as to why. In some extreme cases it may be necessary to ban a disruptive customer from your site. Again, ultimately, the goal should be to protect the best interests of your customers.

As for staffing, that will be answered in part by how many customers participate in your online community. Generally speaking, far more participants read than post. Also, if your community consists of your most highly engaged customers, it’s unlikely that you’ll have much if at all in the way of inappropriate commentary posted. But best to commit resources to monitoring the blog often (often being defined by how many people post comments and how often they do)—at least daily—because you’ll want to respond to customers’ feedback as appropriate.

For more on this topic, check out the insightful post “Negative Blog Comments: How to prepare for and handle a bad Consumer Generated Media Thread” on Scout; “The Fundamentals Still Apply” (March/April 2008, 1to1 Magazine) by analyst Ian Jacobs; and “Quantity Over Quality” (May/June 2008, 1to1 Magazine) by Denis Pombriant, managing principal, Beagle Research. And visit www.getpastthehype.com for a list of recent case studies on how organizations are successfully using customer communities to build loyalty, engagement, and more.