Should brands forget “customer service” as we know it?

Has “the right to reply” left symmetrical brand communication in need of a re-think?

Since the inception of communication 2.0 an increasing emphasis has been placed on giving brands and customers a symmetrical relationship, in which each party has the right to reply to the other. In PR theory, this is considered the gold standard, but is this really the case in practice? And has this shift started to produce negative side-effects?

We can’t go anywhere without being hit by some overwrought piece of customer service. It seems brands have become so paralysed by the fear that someone might take a complaint online (and thus, international) that they’ve created sterile atmospheres, in order to avoid offence or complaint.

Online, there are so many arenas into which negative comments can pass, that brands are now turning into “thought police” of sorts – keeping an eye out with customized searches, ready to strike out any hint of a complaint before it has time to go viral.

Even social media – dubbed as the saviour of brand interaction – offers up largely stale and corporate responses to problems. It’s no wonder that it takes a Tweeter going off script (or worse, rogue) to finally get us talking about good online communication.

It’s time for brands to think beyond feedback as something to be feared. Instead brands need to make the most of two-way communication by radiating confidence and belief in themselves, their staff and their services, instead of hiding away in case some poor soul should be rubbed up the wrong way.

It’s also time for someone to tell brands the difference between an issue, a crisis and a problem. Some brands hit crisis mode, with full apologies and public displays of kindness just because of a 3/10 score on a survey. In reality, they often don’t need to. This is because complaints aren’t crises. They don’t even register as issues. They’re problems – easy to overcome, and not requiring a large PR response.

Can a situation kill your brand? If you can (honestly) answer yes to that question, you’ve got a crisis. If you answer no – it’s an issue and doesn’t need the crisis treatment. Sometimes, they even need to be ignored. So we’ll ask again – could a complaint kill your brand? Thought not…

With two-way online communication comes an apparent amplification of brand issues. This doesn’t mean, however, that the issues are amplified, merely the response of stakeholder groups. So the same rules apply as in the past – issues can and will be ignored if the brand’s response could make the situation worse. With consumer feedback, the same is true – “mountains out of molehills” certainly rings true.

The inability of some companies to accept this fact has led to a warping of symmetrical communications models, making something distinctly asymmetric. Too much power has been taken away from brands, and it’s time for them to produce strong, clear and confident communications resources in order to regain the balance.