www.getsatisfaction.com can satisfy consumers

June 20, 2008 at 3:38 pm | Posted in PR | Leave a comment

The website www.getsatisfaction.com clearly has its pros and cons and they vary depending on how participating organizations decide to use the site.

Monitoring a few companies over a period of one week provided good insight to the potential benefit the site could offer companies who actively participate. The organizations I monitored were Google, O’Reilly Media and HP. All three companies had sufficient consumer activity, but they differed in employee replies and availability.

I found the more employees a company had online participating in discussions with consumers, the better the response was after the initial problem was posted. This was the case with O’Reilly Media that had 36 employees available to address concerns. The opposite was apparent with Google, only having three reps and a lot of unanswered consumer questions and concern. HP was a similar to Google with only three company representatives and a lot of consumer complaint about its products.

As mentioned above there are certainly pros and cons to this site, but the cons could be turned into pros if the companies put forth more effort to monitor and reply to negative feed back, questions and concerns. The biggest downfall of the site or any site like this is by neglecting to respond to consumers to complain about products or services, you allow the problem to escalate and spread like a virus. The pros I believe outweigh the cons. If properly monitored and with the right representatives, a company’s reply can be quite powerful. This service provides consumers with an additional outlet to voice concern and reach out for assistance. Even if representatives can’t help every time, they can guide consumers to the company’s customer service department and or another outlet.

Overall the site was user friendly. It was simple to sign in and start browsing through companies. Using images of company logos helps users identify the company’s they may not know by name alone. It also makes them stand out more.

The site was simple to navigate through and providing a search bar at the top of the page helps users find relevant company information. Also the subject headlines and descriptions beside the companies showing latest ideas or problems was a great tool. Clicking on the company logo would then bring you to a list of all related discussions was easy to get to. This is important for users, especially those who are not use to computers.

The way the site flowed made sense to me. It was straightforward and basic, easy for most consumers to use. What I found difficult was locating information about company representatives. There was not much in regards to profiles or qualifications.

This type of site would be extremely beneficial in the PR role. If used properly it can create a path of communication from company to consumer that would build relationships, confidence and loyalty. It is also valuable because a company can monitor and confront issues surrounding its products or services that could potentially cause problems with its publics.