Juice Digital, Making you Digitally Famous

Every morning I have orange and Greek yoghurt for breakfast. Don’t ask, I just like it. Now bear with me here, there is a point to you knowing about my early morning gastronomic habits.

I also believe that if you live in a village you should shop as much as possible in the local outlets so they survive. So I eschew the big supermarket chains and buy my groceries at the Somerfield in Lymm village. Have done for years. Love the store, friendly, convenient, has what I need. So that’s where the said orange and yoghurt comes from.

Yesterday, as I staggered to prepare the usual, my brand new orange was dry, unpeelable and about an inch thick in pith. Anyone who’s got to get 2 kids to school before flying into the office for an early meeting will know how such a minor irritation can get magnified out of all proportion.

On arrival at the office, I was told client had just called to cancel.  So, as an increasingly grumpy old man, I decided to go onto the Somerfield site and blow off some steam about their manky oranges. Nice, bright, accessible site, on brand – excellent. Couldn’t immediately see a forum or blog or any kind of feedback area. Then I saw the ‘Our Community’ link. That must be it. Now, on there I can give to charity, enter a competition, get a guide to healthy eating, but I can’t engage with anyone. Yes, there’s a bog standard contact form, but we all know how effective they are don’t we? End result? Increasing frustration and I’m off to Sainsbury’s.

Now here’s how that story might’ve ended. Grumpy old man fires off his rant about dry oranges on the Somerfield customer feedback forum or blog. Nice Somerfield person replies back how sorry they are and next time I’m in the store they’ll give me a free bag of oranges. Grumpy old man is a customer for life and tells all his mates to shop at Somerfield.

There’s the lesson. There’s no point to your online presence if no-one can engage with you. And there’s no point getting customer feedback if you don’t respond, quickly. Don’t be afraid of negative comments – they’re an opportunity to react, respond and turn a negative into a positive. That’s what Web 2.0 is all about; allowing you to engage with your customers on line, not just give them information.

That’s what we do for our clients at Juice Digital.

Juice Digital “We make companies digitally famous.”