Connie Bensen

You’ve done all the right things… You are:

• listening to your community
• interacting with them
• establishing a rapport

And things are moving along great. If you have an active community & product(s) that aren’t perfect then it’s best to realize that negative feedback is going to happen & it is good.

Jeremiah Owyang’s new FAQ series started with What if they leave negative comments? He suggests:

1. Find out the answers for them
2. Involve them
3. Opportunity to remedy the situation

I’m going to expand on them.

1. The community manager’s role should be connecting externally & internally. You should be monitoring your community. If there are outstanding issues then you should have the means to connect to the appropriate department internally. I communicate with 3 departments on a regular basis.

• Support services
• Quality Assurance
• Development

2. It’s easy to involve your community in the solution. I try to stand back & let them resolve it on a peer level. Forum moderators will actively help and even those that aren’t designated have their special skills & jump in.

3. Remedying the situation is important. How does one know which situations should be addressed? If you know your community it is like watching a barometer. Negative feedback about a product will become a discussion. If it’s ignored then the brand will come under fire. This is a good reason to provide the forum moderators with a private place to discuss things. When the topic escalates to that place it’s time to do so similarly internally (if not sooner).

This is where the challenge of being a good communicator comes in. The community has an issue. You communicate it internally & then rely on others to evaluate & respond. Some things that you may encounter:

• the respect & rapport that you’ve built with your community is important now
• your community may question your loyalty to them

You are there for the customer, but ultimately need to be loyal to the company. The decision to remedy the problem is probably not yours so it’s a difficult place to be. But, keep in mind that your company has put you there in good faith and with the intention of gathering feedback from the customers. (So if you’re a company thinking about adding a community manager position, please expect them to bring back negative feedback because they are the ultimate representative of the customer.)

Please add your ideas of how you deal with negative feedback? What are your tips for communicating with customers & internally?

If you’re interested in Community Management topics, there’s an active Facebook group where discussions are happening. With over 1000 members from around the world there is a variety of contributions.

Here is a question that’s frequently asked:

I need help getting people to use a forum. I find that people will look at the questions but do not cross the threshold into actually responding to them. I work for a non-profit so the product is essentially engaging people in important regional issues and decisions. Can anyone help me?

Forums are all about people. For every one person posting, there are almost 100 reading. The majority of people are lurking, so how does one get people to come out & play? engage them if you will? Here are some ideas that I’ve used & once you get the ball rolling… it’s a exciting to see the forum take on a personality of it’s own!

1. Be present – as a site owner it’s important that you’re there & active. Get to know your people & they will notice & respond. Make your customers feel special.
2. Engage the people that are active at your forum because they probably love your product. They’re your power users & can help you greatly.
3. Empower your power users – give them a private area in the forum & let them brainstorm. You’ll be amazed at what a group will come up with! Encourage them to keep it simple so no one gets worn out. Have them help moderate.
4. Personalize your forums by trying the following -
   • encourage members to post their picture by providing instructions for uploading an avatar – seeing their photo personalizes the online experience
   • use your name rather than admin. for your username – admin is sterile
   • encourage people to come out of lurking – run games or contests to see who is frequenting your forum. You may be surprised!
     • where to get the prizes? If you don’t have resources, partner with related products & ask them to donate. You’ll be surprised at how many will join your venture.
   • encourage members to put info in their signature
     • for ex: a photography site – they could include their camera, lens info & software (It will encourage conversations amongst members
5. Listen to your customers.
   • Ask them what they’d like to see in the forums.
   • Post a poll of interest to your community
   • Ask them to provide feedback on your product/resources
6. Ask yourself what makes your site unique? or how would you like it to be unique?
   • How are you providing the user with value?
   • Consider what makes your site unique & focus on that. If you can’t think of something – then look around at other’s forums to get ideas
7. Be flexible…. and realize that sometimes you’ll have a great idea & oopsie, things don’t go as planned. But try try again.
8. Be creative… watch what others are doing & gather ideas. I’m a people watcher, can you tell? And I love trying to figure out why things are successful. Plan ahead – this will guarantee success – and make you happier when you’re more relaxed in the execution of your plans.
9. Be transparent – say what you mean & mean what you say. You’ll gain far more respect with all those you work with. And this is obvious, but good business practices are absolutely necessary. Remedy customer service issues quickly & follow up. Even the most negative curmudgeons will post their appreciation which adds value to your forums because it shows that your company is listening to their customers & most importantly *cares*.
10. Other things in no particular order:
    1. offer a freebie
    2. find ways to creatively get people moving thru your forum like a scavenger hunt (they’ll have fun while doing so too!)
    3. send a newsletter out to your members
11. *update* Are you participating in related forums, blogs, etc? That is an excellent way to talk about what your forums/community offer & encourage participation/partnering.

I think what holds site owners back is that they’re afraid to take risks, but consider it an experiment instead! It can be great fun trying new things & going in new directions. It is your community & you know their needs.

Here are some links for more reading:

10 mistakes that will kill a forum

Top 10 lessons I’ve learned about managing a forum

10 tips for promoting your forum

What suggestions do you have for kick starting a community?

If you’ve decided to incorporate social media tools into your mix for supporting your customers, have you thought of looking beyond your existing community? Let me ask this in another way, would you like to expand your market?

Brian Solis recently had an excellent post that included this graphic:

The stages are from the customer’s perspective. But what about from a company’s perspective? Here are some questions for you:

• Are you aware of who your evangelists are?
• Do you know what segments are using your products & what types are considering it?
• Who is aware of your products? and who isn’t? (should they be?)

Allow me to digress for a moment: On our recent trip to Anaheim, CA, my husband & I had a new adventure. We rode the city buses. Now that may not seem like a big deal but it was. Both of us grew up in rural areas with no mass transit. The closest that either of us have been to subways/people movers are in the Seattle & Denver airports. I want to visit London & we’ll be using the Tube, so the experience in California was good.

Details for our family & friends (and anyone else that wants a chuckle) – We asked the hotel staff for a taxi & they suggested the bus because it was ‘easy’. After a few moments of giving instructions including the word ‘transfer’ & ‘I’m not sure what bus numbers’ the person giving instructions said, “I’ll call you a cab”. At this point we were determined to try it. And on our return the hotel staff were quite amazed we accomplished it!

It was a good experience because it made us realize the realities of mass transportation in a city. A very helpful young lady our daughter’s age helped us change buses since that was her stop. She was attending a trade school & looked confused when we said our daughter was going to get a degree in English. On the 2nd bus we talked with the bus driver & learned a lot. He helped load two wheel chairs and told us why he loved his job. We noticed that riders assumed that he knew Spanish (and he told us about that too).

Overall we were quite impressed with the bus ride. It cost us $6 total vs the $60 we paid taxis one evening. Also it was good for us to expand our horizons.

That was a real life experience, but it can be applied to online experiences. Are companies looking beyond the usual places where they expect to find their customers? What would happen if you took the risk like we did in riding the bus & exploring new venues & talking with the people there? What could be learned?

I represent that idea because that explains my connecting with ACDSee. People in my niche were talking about their software behind the walls of a forum that Google wasn’t crawling. An enterprising employee at ACDSee joined the forums & found us using their software in a unique way. In the end, ACDSee gained a new market.

So where should you be having new adventures with social media?

This past week my sister & I attended the Craft & Hobby Association trade show in Anaheim, CA. The stat’s are 20,000 people attend & 3,200 exhibits.

The majority of the attendees are retailers ordering merchandise for their stores. We had appointments with editors of various publications. It was exciting for me to demo our products for them & show the new features in person.

In one year of using social media & providing support online my sister & I have established a considerable presence in our niche. It was nice to hear people say ‘Our customers recommend ACDSee’. And the ultimate compliment was when our president came back from the exhibit floor saying that people had asked him if he knew Connie & Heidi. It was a good feeling to have the company’s brand so firmly embraced.

The majority of the scrapbooking exhibits were for paper products & I noticed the word ‘Community’ in many places – on exhibits in large letters with a website, on pamphlets and from people in the publication industry.

It was quite interesting to attend a publicity event as Taunton Press announced their new online community. Their marketing executive provided the stat’s on their readers that are online. And they showed sample pages of the site (which won’t go live until March). It makes me wonder at the wisdom of creating a new community? I asked them if they were going to participate in the existing communities? They already have a number of social media endeavors going. I see that they have YouTube videos on woodworking as well as forums on a range of areas.

Overall CHA was a great experience! It provided an excellent overview of where the craft industry is at. Talking with people gave us a good sense of where our brand is positioned at. We also gained feedback from the editors of publications in this niche.