Using Social Media to Your Advantage

When I meet with a potential client, we always have the talk about negative comments and how to handle them. The experts say to meet them head-on and ask what you can do to help.

I recently had reservations at an extremely "limited-service" motel in Indiana. In this case, limited service means they had a bed and a bathroom that I rented for two nights while in this town on business. No complimentary breakfast, no pool, no shampoo, etc.

My reservations were made online in February but when I checked in two months later, they would not honor the lower online rate. The motel had changed from a corporate owned hotel to a franchise hotel just the week before I checked in. I spoke to the new owner and he said that he would honor the rate and it would be no problem to change it. However, when I checked out, the rate had not been changed and I was charged the higher amount. The owner was nowhere to be found at check-out.

Incidentally, the front desk clerk at check-out told me that the owner had stated that he didn't care what corporate said, he would be charging whatever he wanted for rooms. She wanted to quit her job.

Upon my return home, I visited the corporate website and completed their online complaint form. The next day I received an email response stating that they would be contact the owner and would let me know his response.

I had already been down that road and I wanted something to happen quickly.

This chain of motels had a page on Facebook that I joined. My message was simple:

I guess I have just stayed my last night at XYZ motel as they refused to honor my online rate.

Their response was swift -- only about 10 minutes. They provided me with an 800 number. When I called they asked me to fax them copies of my reservation and the receipt. A return phone call within 30 minutes of doing that resulted in a refund being sent to me within 10 days.

Not every company is likely to respond this quickly or to your full satisfaction but I hope that they would at least try.

I recently saw a quote that stated something like:

Your customers are going to talk about you. Don't you wish they would talk about you to your face instead of to each other?

Have you had an experience of filing a complaint on a social media site? What was the outcome?

Why Do We Feel Compelled to Tell EVERYONE?

I am safe and dry here in my house north of Nashville and feel far, far away from the destruction of the recent Nashville (and other parts of Tennessee) floods.

There was a lunch meeting that I needed to attend yesterday that normally would have been a 35-40 minute drive. It took me an hour and 45 minutes to get there. Traffic was diverted off a major highway onto a secondary road that was not prepared to handle the traffic. Once I figured out how to cut through the back of a shopping complex (and shaving off probably 15 more minutes), I was on my way. Once I get almost to my destination, traffic backs up because the normal four-lane road had been cut to two. I was already stressing about how I was going to get home.

My lunch meeting was over in an hour and it took me another hour to get home as I decided to take my chances on road closures and head cross-country to find my way. It was new territory but all worked out okay. I'm just not planning to venture out again for a couple of days.

But, I digress.

During the lunch with my social media-challenged colleague she posed the following question: "Why do people on Facebook and Twitter think they have to tell everything they know about Nashville and the flood damage?"

I could only answer on how it made me feel to post on Sunday afternoon and Monday as I watched television reports in horror as pieces of Nashville history floated away on the Cumberland River.

It was cathartic to do so. I felt isolated, cut off from my network of friends and family. Lots of people were without power but they still had cell phone service to get updates. I wanted them to feel like I did. I wanted them to know what was going on outside of their own neighborhoods.

So, why DO you feel compelled to tell everything to everyone?