RatePoint

Communicating with Customers through Blog Comments

A good question was asked during a recent webinar that RatePoint hosted regarding using your blog to communicate with customers. The real gist of the question was is not activating the comments feature necessarily a bad thing?

A blog is never a bad thing if your business has a need for reaching out to customers in other venue. If you’re in an industry with a lot of debate, have a business that continually has product updates, or you need a forum for reaching out to the community, a blog is a great place to do it. I never cease to be amazed at how Google’s individual development groups handle their blogs. Sometimes they’ll take a few weeks in between entries, but the quality is enough to get me to return several times a week in hopes of an update.

Onto the comments question. If you’re looking to build a community or looking to receive feedback, comments are a must for your blog. When a blog is well written and often visited, the comments section can be a great communication tool, but not all businesses are using their blog for this purpose. Some just wish to provide basic updates to their customers, or use a blog instead of e-mail marketing tools to reach out to customers, and for these businesses, comments might just not be in the cards. Not having comments activated on your blog is NOT a sign that you’re unwilling to communicate or facilitate conversation, turning off your comments when it’s convenient, or over-moderating them is.

The biggest fear that many businesses have with opening up their blog to comments is the same that they have with online reviews: what if something says something bad? The initial gut-reaction is to shut down comments, or delete them. This just serves to antagonize customers, can make them more irate, and injure your online reputation further.

Again, as with reviews, if you’re a good business, these negative comments will be few and far between. Remember, these comments are on your blog, and you have a place to respond to it, and that is sometimes just as valuable as a positive review or comment. In addition, much like a review, the blog comments is another place for your loyal customers to come to your rescue and provide positive feedback, and helpful information to improve your business.

The biggest recommendation I can give in regard to comments is have a policy and be consistent. Have a plan in place for moderating and responding to comments, and do not bend the rules when it is convenient for you. This can go a long way in building trust with your customer community.