This chapter is from the book
This chapter is from the book
This chapter is from the book
Reactive Escalation Workflows and Risk Assessment
As with most content marketing and community management initiatives, there is always the possibility of running into disgruntled customers or even a potential crisis. It will happen, and these issues cannot be ignored. Having a crisis escalation plan is important to ensure that all content contributors, community managers, and customer support teams understand the process if they have to escalate conversations and to whom they should escalate them.
Escalation workflows are nothing new. Back in 2008 (yes, five years ago), the United States Air Force created and made public their Web Posting Response Assessment. It’s a 12-point plan developed by the Emerging Technology Division of the U.S. Air Force’s Affairs Agency that illustrates how U.S. Airmen should respond to social media conversations online. The plan provided a specific workflow that Airmen should use when responding and engaging with the public. It was created in response to negative opinions about the U.S. government and also to bolster support and credibility for content that was positive about the Air Force.
Figure 10.6 is an example of escalation workflow that takes into consideration when you should respond to a compliment, complaint, or potential crisis.
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Figure 10.6 An example of reactive escalation workflow
This might seem complicated at first glance, but after you go through the process of putting the workflow together and identify the right teams to be involved, it will become second nature when it’s time to put it into action.
As you are building these workflows, it’s important to also create a risk assessment guide so when your team members are engaging externally, they can be smart when they identify and flag potential risks. The simplest way to do this is to create a green, yellow, and red flag assessment guide.
Similar to traffic stop lights, green symbolizes that the conversation is good to go and that community managers can respond without escalation. Yellow means to “proceed with caution,” and careful consideration should be made when responding and/or escalating. Red means to stop what you are doing and force teams to meet and decide what the appropriate next steps will be. Following is a break down of potential topics that would fall into each of these flag categories.
Green flag issues include questions about
- New account setup
- Account management
- Positive brand experiences and praise
- Career opportunities
- Company information
- Partner information
- Innovation requests and ideas
Yellow flag issues include
Potential Crisis
- Negative blog/media mentions about your brand
- Negative mentions from celebrities of influencers
- Negative mentions from employees (previous or current)
- Critical feedback about products and/or services
- Negative feedback or criticism about a current marketing campaign
Customer Support
- Product or transaction requests
- Dispute resolution regarding customer orders
- IT-related issues or website errors
Last red flag issues include
Potential Crisis
- Hacking claims or account security-related issues
- Legal threats
- Suicide or criminal threats
- Negative news articles mentioning your brand
- Key sensitive topics
Customer Support
- Customer service complaints
- Major account issues (shipping, transaction, order not received)
- Fraud complaints
Although some of these issues might not be relevant to your brand, you should go through this exercise and categorize each of these issues accordingly. This helps you train your team to be able to engage with customers, identify potential issues, and escalate accordingly.