A CEO's Surprising Reaction to Negative Customer Sentiment
At 1to1 Media, we've written a sufficient number of articles about the dangers of ignoring what your customers are saying about your brand in social channels. So when my friend, who works at one of the largest global business enterprise management software providers, told me about a meeting that he and his colleagues had last week with a U.S. government-owned transportation company to discuss social sentiment, the outcome was too humorous not to share.
The transportation company, which recently began a partnership with the enterprise management company, wants to leverage a particular solution that culls social sites for brand mentions, applies sentiment analysis, and scores customers according to a number of metrics, including loyalty and dissatisfaction.
My friend and his colleagues conducted a demo of the solution and presented some recent findings last week to the transportation company's senior management staff, including the CEO, at their headquarters.
Impressed by the information that my friend demonstrated in the meeting, the CEO asked if the presenting group could show him what customers were saying about the brand at that particular moment. My friend pulled up the real-time sentiment and projected on the large screen in the packed meeting room a slew of negative comments, including the top comment, which was, "I hate 'the transportation company.' &*$% them."
Nervous about the repercussion from the senior leaders, my friend shifted in his seat. But the reaction was unexpected. The CEO pounded his fist on the table and shouted, "Now that's what I'm talking about!"
Unfortunately, all the exposure your organization gets will not be positive, but brands have a chance to recapture control of the eventual outcome of most situations based on the way they handle both positive and negative sentiment. That also requires acceptance, understanding, and a forward-thinking C-suite. The mindset of this particular CEO indicates that this company is on the right path to how it manages customer sentiment in the social sphere.
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