by Karen Rynes, Director of Marketing

I read a couple of great posts yesterday by Mack Collier at The Viral Garden and Marketing Profs DailyFix that address the power of the blog and social media to impact your company's image -- and, in particular, customer service.

The gist is this: when it comes to serving your customer, you'd better make a genuine effort to listen to your customer to ensure they are happy, otherwise it could cost you MUCH more in the long run.  In other words, don't just provide lip service (or a coupon) -- do what is best for the customer (if at all possible) instead of simply what is easier or cheaper for the company.

Collier hits it on the nose in a response to a comment made to his post, saying "I think the problem is, too many retailers focus more on teaching the associates how to take the customer's money back to management, and not their feedback."

In the not-so-distant past, one unhappy customer would tell 5 friends about their experience, and those 5 people would each tell another 5, and so on...until as a result, you had MANY people who chose not to patronize your business based on the experience of one person who they probably didn't even know personally!  Now take that phenomenon and multiply it by infinity, and you realize the power that a single negative blog post could have instantaneously!  It could cost you tens, hundreds, thousands or more in potential sales because of the power of the Internet.

This subject also ties back in with 2 of my previous posts (The Art of Listening and Blogging is a 2-way Street) as Collier says, "The smart companies are the ones that will take an active role in listening, and even participating in the existing conversations within their community."

I'm not living in a dream world.  I realize that it is virtually impossible for every single customer to walk away a happy one (some people simply cannot be satisfied, no matter what you do)...but we need to avoid enabling the snowball rolling downhill that could result when your effort is not your best effort.  Think about it.

If you'd like to read more about blogging for your company and to view all segments in my ongoing Social Media Series, click here.