In social media we trust

Forget the trolls out there, running amok and causing mayhem on the Internet; a far nastier threat lurks in the offices and call centres of debt collectors, as I discovered to my great dismay recently.

Oh, and if your name is Nicola, and you owe Standard Bank money, kindly get hold of MBD Attorneys... they're looking for you.

Generally speaking, getting these people to understand that you are not who they are looking for, and to go away, requires an expensive lawyer's letter threatening them with a counter-suit for intimidation.

That, or you can have your day in court and waste everybody's time to settle what should be a simple matter. Yet, that will only work if you've gone to the bother of sending letters, faxes, affidavits... otherwise the judge will not be amused with you, and your ploy will fall flat.

Thankfully, there is a better way, and we have the Internet to thank for what seems to be a relatively painless solution. This is something companies need to cotton onto now, before it's too late.

Shortly after getting a threatening SMS, telling me I needed to call the attorneys to "prevent legal action" over a Standard Bank account I don't even have, I went on the offensive. I posted a long letter on Facebook, tweeted and went to HelloPeter.com.

My reaction was, by the way, justified, because a week earlier I had informed a chap that I wasn't the Nicola they wanted, and told them to go away or I will have them up for intimidation, harassment and anything else I could think of.

Although it seems the firm in question doesn't care that much for its social media image, it does, in a limited manner, respond to HelloPeter complaints. The response I received was quick, and the apology - although lacking in substance - did duly arrive. It sadly doesn't quite spell out that I am not the other Nicola, but there you go.

As a bud said: "You must be the only person to ever get an apology out of MBD."

This, I firmly believe, is because I went online instead of following the usual process of calling them, and explaining my story a million times to a thousand different people, and then faxing an affidavit confirming I am me.

That is just downright painful and I would probably eventually have given up without restoring balance to my world.

Sadly, judging by the amount of comments on my assorted posts, not only am I not alone, but I'm one of the lucky ones who actually got my issue resolved, quickly and fairly painlessly. And the problem is not just limited to MBD. A lack of resolution is also perpetuated at a bunch of other similar firms, as the posts show.

I think poor old @RBJacobs is completely fed up with me, which might explain why I now have a personal banker.

Thanks to the Internet, other sectors have also come in for a social media slating: car dealerships, insurance companies, banks - you name it.

I have often used Facebook, Twitter or HelloPeter.com to get issues sorted out. I think poor old @RBJacobs is completely fed up with me, which might explain why I now have a personal banker.

Often, I've taken this route out of sheer desperation when everything else has not worked. Now, thanks to the success rate I'm seeing, it's going to be my first port of call.

I suspect I'm not the only person who has decided the Internet is the place to go first to get stuff sorted out. And, as more South Africans go online and become comfortable using the World Wide Web, this number will grow.

And that, dear friends, is exactly why companies really have to take social media interactions seriously.

It's not only about having an account on Twitter, or a Facebook page, and posting inane facts of the day - you'll get unfollowed quickly by doing that, and not just in the virtual world. It's about actually adding value.

If you need a team to do this, then get one. Get them skilled in customer care and how to use these tools, because that's what they can be if used right.

Don't brush people off, rather deal with their issues compassionately and with sympathy, and you'll win kudos and support for doing so.

Failure to get with the programme will cause an immense amount of brand damage. For example, consumers may well think twice about buying your car, because they read a post somewhere about how abysmal the after-market service is.

Although I rather doubt companies such as MDB and the like care what consumers think about them.