The customer experience of failures

Many companies now recognise the value in dealing with a complaint or customer issue seriously and view this as an opportunity to build a stronger brand relationship. Where a customer takes the time to raise a complaint companies need to consider the digital age we now work in and the ripple effects of dealing with it in a positive manner. How do they know if the customer complaining isn't a journalist, a social media champion with tens of thousands of followers or even worse a blogger looking for their next topic!  Dealing with problems in a positive manner builds brand advocates and should always be the first response. Many instances exist where companies handle these well and poorly with the Dell complaint a well publicised example (http://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/33307/jeff-jarvis-vs-dell-bloggers-complaint-becomes.html#axzz2Xmz1UDFk).  As a result companies need sufficient social media monitoring, need empowered teams who can make decisions to resolve complaints and senior management visibility and prioritising the efforts of managing customer experiences. This problem will only mushroom and companies need to manage this accordingly to achieve epic customer experiences.