There is a restaurant I know that must hate twitter so much right now that it could have paid a fortune to have all social media sites closed, last week.What happened is that some people visited the restaurant and were given very poor reception and customer care by the owners.Just when the owners thought they had gotten away with it, the unhappy customers’ blogged, tweeted and face booked about their terrible experience at the restaurant.There was massive response from the public, many of them vowing never to visit that restaurant. The credibility of the restaurant had been ruined, potential customers lost through someone sharing their experience on the blog and twitter.If only the restaurant owners had treated their customers well, then they would have avoided all this bad publicity.I am certain that every person who read the story about the customer’s terrible experience would never go back or even dare to stop by for a small bite or anything else.While reading the customer’s experience, it evoked emotions of rage and fury. I kept on thinking; how could they?For many, the social media networks are mainly to keep in touch with friends and stay updated about the current issues; however, lately, these networks have proven to have the power to make and break businesses.This can be used as a PR tool and as it has recently proved.In the olden days, when one is so thrilled or infuriated by customer care services to the point that they would love the public to know about it, it wasn’t easy to communicate your feelings to the world.However, we are living in the dot.com era that has simplified communication, and if maximised or used well, businesses could thrive and the reverse is true.Gone are the days when people had nowhere to run to air out their grievances. With all the social media sites, one can always tell the whole world when you treat them wrong.With face-book, twitter, blogs and many other social media tools, the world has the power to bring down businesses that give poor services and can also help market those that are offering the right reception and services to their clients.A big population of the world is using at least three social media networks. This population includes your clients who keep your business going.If you treat them badly, the world will know through social media and believe that you’re going to treat them wrong as well.Use social media networks to market your businesses, keep in touch with clients and update them on the business you are running.If you wrong your customers and find yourself caught up in such a situation, the best thing to do is apologise and promise to make amends.
