I think companies are overthinking how we approach social care. I’ve found that 9 times out of 10, when a customer cares enough to come to your social pages and complain they just want to be heard. The screenshots below show an example of a customer who seems to continually have mobile app problems.  Since I started this role 4 months ago, this is his second time commenting on an unrelated facebook post and bringing mobile app UI problems to our attention. The first time I was pretty new and my manager told me to hold off on replying to customer complaints. She didn’t want me to say the wrong thing and risk any negative brand consequences. I told him we’d look into the problem, but didn’t really engage and didn’t follow up with him to see whether we fixed his problem--I was new, don’t hold it against me! But this time he commented, I figured “What’s the worst thing that could happen if I meet this annoyed customer from a place of empathy and understanding?” So I affirmed his feelings and took the lead on connecting with our product team about his problem. I know it’s the internet and tone is hard to read, but it felt like my response defused a bit of his annoyance. The problem ended up fixing itself on its own, and I went on to thank him for banking with us. 3 messages total, open & shut case, and now we’ve let a customer know that their complaints aren’t just going to an “contact us” black hole. That’s a win for building a social community based on trust and transparency--something we’ve typically been hesitant to embrace in the past!