Use Social Media to Listen To Your Customers, or They'll find Somebody Who Does.

Staten Island, NY Posted: 11/29/2014 1:00:00 AM

We have two ears, but only one mouth. There's a reason for that.

It's a classic cliche. The Barker with a megaphone in his hand, telling everyone that he's got the greatest thing since sliced bread.

Very few companies use Megaphones and Barkers anymore, but sometimes it seems like they still use the same techniques to communicate with their customers. Instead of standing on soapboxes with megaphones, they send out emails and press releases, and hold big events to shout to the world about how great they are, but they don't seem to listen to customers anymore.

When social media came along, a lot of companies simply shouted the same messages in worthless blasts designed to wow their customers. They sprinkle in a few clever jokes, photos and videos and they think they've mastered the media.

The truth is, most companies are still using social media as a one way form of communication, and they completely miss the opportunity to truly engage their customers in meaningful dialog that would not only solve problems, and improve their customer relationships, but actually give them a chance to improve their company and it's products.

To unlock the full potential of social media, companies have to visualize their megaphones facing the opposite direction, so they can be used to listen to their customers.

Apple's #MBP2011 Problem

Here's a classic example of a company that is masterful at using media to talk, but has a bad reputation for not listening.

About a month ago, my 2011, 17" MacBook Pro completely stopped working. I wrote about it at the time, but I never gave the details. Today I'll expand a bit.

What happened to me wasn't unique, but what turns out to be a widespread issue with certain MacBook Pro models made that year that included upgraded graphics boards. In a nutshell, a huge number of them are failing right now because of a defective part that overheats.

This is a very widespread problem. I found over 10,000 posts written about it on Apple's own support site, but the funny thing is, in spite of those 10,000 posts, which have been read millions of times (by customers), Apple hasn't listened to any of the customers asking for a solution.

The common thread is that they all paid as much as $3000 for a computer that won't even turn on. For those willing to pay $500 or more to fix it, the replacement part is only guaranteed 90 days, and according to the posts, most of those parts are doomed to fail too.

These customers are not happy, and they are venting it out in the open on Apple's own web site, plus social media, and they have started creating online petitions, web sites and even a class action lawsuit to try to get Apple to at least acknowledge the problem. All we ask is that if our $3000 computers continue to fail, that they will at least cover the costs of the replacement parts for the next 3 years, instead of 90 days.

The longer Apple waits to acknowledge the problem, the more they upset their power users.

This is what my MacBook did just before it completely stopped working.

This is a screenshot of my MacBook Pro 2011, once the video card stopped working. There are images like this and others all over the web and in spite of all the phone calls, emails, tweets, web sites, blogs, petitions and Facebook posts, Apple hasn't acknowledged it.