Just a couple of days ago, my good Twen @AskAaronLee tweeted an interesting stat:

Interesting, huh? It has much truth in that.

Many businesses and individuals go on social media to leverage upon it’s strengths and opportunities. You hear of testimonials of how great comments and feedbacks have benefited them and their business. Are we overlooking something over here? If positive feedbacks spread well on social media networks, negative feedbacks spread even better.

If that does illustrate the magnitude of dreadfulness, here is a scary calculation:

For every ONE complaining customer, there are an average of 26 customers who don’t bother to complain = 27 unhappy customers

27 unhappy customers x an average 16 people they will tell = 432 dissatisfactions

And this is just for ONE complaining customer.

What if we have 23 of them?

23 complains x 432 dissatisfactions = 9,936 dissatisfactions for every 23 complains!

How scary is THAT?

If it’s still not scary enough – understand this:

This research was done WITHOUT the involvement social media networks.

Which also means that the figures above were calculated based on conventional means of communication. Having that said, imagine what will happen with social media?

Using a similar calculation, if you have 1 dissatisfied fan on your Facebook Fan Page, that again totals to 27 dissatisfied fans.

If each fan has an average of 130 friends, 27 unhappy friends = 3,510 negative impressions on Facebook alone.

What happens if you’ve more?

Think again before ignoring that complain – it may cost you more than you thought it would. It is never ‘just a fan’ on social media. It is ‘what the fan can / would do’.

It will be awesome to hear your thoughts regarding the findings above!

Resource Source: White House Office of Consumer Affairs, Washington, DC