Companies pay good money these days to ‘go viral’.
Teams of creatives will lounge around on beanbags and think up daft/crazy/odd marketing ideas to publicise a product or service. And then they’ll send their creations out into social media land and hope we like them enough to share.
The reason we’re bombarded with so many of these things is because… well, they work. If something manages to hook us in, it will be seen by thousands/millions of people during its brief splurge of Internet fame.
But there’s also a ‘bad’ kind of viral.
Bad Viral
That’s when something negative about your company starts to spread on the Internet. In the old days, this would be called ‘word of mouth’ – these days it’s more likely to be ‘word of mouse’.
All it takes is one angry customer – they could be fuming at the non-arrival of a delivery or the shoddy standard of a service.
They may have a perfectly valid complaint or it may be grossly unfair – the result is liable to be the same. Angry Tweets, furious Facebook updates; not to mention forum comments and nasty notes on review sites.
In a matter of minutes, a customer now has the power to air their grievances to the whole wide world. It gives them an enormous amount of power and the problem with the Internet is that things don’t tend to go away.
The Fix
This is a problem where the cause and fix are the same – technology. Because while it’s so much easier now for customers to leave harmful feedback about a company, it’s also so much easier for companies to prevent it.
It’s one of the reasons why increasing numbers of companies are now using mobile workforce management software.
But simply put, it’s a system which allows managers to monitor and organise their mobile workers in real-time as they go about their tasks.
If one of your workers isn’t where they’re supposed to be – you’ll know about it instantly. It allows managers to spot problems and solve issues before they develop into angry customers with their fingers on that Tweet trigger.
Customer Feedback
The other essential tool provided by mobile workforce management software is a customer satisfaction tool. With a system such as MyMobileWorkers, this is fully integrated into the software and able to be customised to meet specific needs.
It means that when your mobile worker completes a task, they pass their handheld device to the customer, who quickly gives feedback via a ratings system. This can be configured to alert managers when fall below a certain level.
It allows a proactive approach in which disgruntled customers can be contacted immediately – turning an angry Tweeter into somebody who just wants to tell the world how nice you are – the kind of viral that money can’t buy.
