The goal of searching isn’t necessarily to feed your ego. The goal of searching for what your customers and potential customers are saying is to create more positive experiences, improve your products, and become able to relate to your customers more effectively. In Article 7, I discussed how you can use a variety of tools to find information. More than any other search, the negative search will bring direct value to your company and blog because it presents situations you can tackle head on, in an honest and authoritative way. A negative comment found in a search is like suddenly realizing your roof is leaking. It demands immediate attention. Thankfully, most of the people who send negative comments are in fact asking for you to make the situation better. They are commenting or posting about the experience because they believe they’ve run out of options. Intuit, makers of QuickArticles and other financial software, is a shining example of the power not only of blog searching, but also negative searching. Earlier this year, James Kendrick blogged that he was having trouble activating his copy of QuickArticles. He had recently upgraded his computer and had to reactivate the software. But the QuickArticles website wasn’t working for him, and when he called Intuit, he was told to update his information on the website. In utter frustration, he wrote about what was going on in his blog (http://jkontherun.blogs.com/jkontherun/2005/05/when_ activation.html): At this point I cannot use my accounting software and am really stuck. This is a travesty considering the fact that QB is business accounting software and moving/installing it on new computers is something that happens all the time in office settings.

There is no one I can talk to, nowhere I can go for manual activation, nothing that I can see I can do at this point. Well, except switch to another product. Within hours, Intuit’s on-the-ball team found his post, sent him an e-mail, and resolved the situation. Less than 24 hours after the original event, James posted the conclusion (http://jkontherun .blogs.com/jkontherun/2005/05/intuit_responds.html): After ranting about my difficulties activating my copy of Intuit QuickArticles 2003 I was contacted by an Intuit customer advocate (nice title) who not only personally made sure my program was properly activated and registered but also informed me they were sending me the latest version of the program. This was all unexpected and a very fast response to my original blog post. I must commend Intuit for looking for customers who are having problems with their programs and then taking the steps necessary to make sure they are happy with the results. Maybe they should take a hard look at the current activation scheme and do what they can to improve the system to minimize potential problems such as the one I experienced. Not only that, but Intuit’s online general manager, Paul Rosenfeld, dropped by to apologize for the issue and to point to the official QuickArticles blog (http://quickarticles_online_blog.typepad.com/ blogmain/). Overall, Intuit is a fantastic example of a company that not only listened, and not only resolved the situation, but also went above and beyond by creating a positive experience for Kendrick by offering him a free upgrade. Obviously, it would have been best if the situation had never occurred in the first place. But the next time Kendrick talks about Intuit and QuickArticles, which do you think is he more likely to mention: the fact that he had a hard time activating his product, or the fact that two separate Intuit reps helped him with his problem and they upgraded his software free of charge?

Rules for Negative Searching

A number of lessons can be learned by Intuit’s example. The process for dealing with a negative comment can be best summarized by using the FIND concept that I learned early in my customer service career. FIND stands for Find, Investigate, Neutralize, and Deliver. The idea behind FIND is that you’ll never be able to create positive customer experiences out of negative events if you first don’t look for and find the negative events. Second, you need to investigate the event to see what the customer’s issue was, where the failure was, and what you can do to alleviate the customer’s concerns. Next, you need to solve, or neutralize, the customer’s problem. Finally, you need to deliver a positive experience. When I taught this in university, I’d argue that we should actually strive to over-deliver, as that creates not only a positive experience for the customer, but a memorable one. Under-promise, over-deliver, and thereby create fantastic experiences and memorable relationships in the process. Dealing with negative comments using the FIND methodology allows you to ensure that not only is the customer properly treated for their distress, but that he or she is rewarded for helping your company become better at what you should already be best at: treating people like people. But, if you aren’t looking, you can’t FIND it.

WRAPPING IT UP

Participating in your blog can be an exciting and scary business. How do you find and respond to comments, how do you treat your users with respect, and how do you ultimately create passionate and engaging customers are all questions that businesses struggle with in or out of the world of blogging. In the next article, we’ll deal with the biggest challenge, and opportunity, of all: negative feedback. It can make or break any business. We’ll look at examples, tips, and solid ways to turn negative feedback into a positive experience not just for your customers, but for your business as well. After the next article, you won’t fear a negative comment or a frustrated customer again you’ll revel in them!