As more and more consumers take to complaining about products and services online and in social network forums, ignoring this phenomenon is simply no longer an option for any business.

Yes, you’ve got a website and a call centre, maybe even a well-staffed PR department and all these, you believe, will take care of customer complaints.

And yes, you know all about that old customer service chestnut marketers having been bandying about for years – when one unhappy customer goes off and tells another 10 about a bad experience with your product or service. Not a train-smash because by the time that unhappy customer gets home, or a few days and weeks go by, the bad experience isn’t too much of a talking point any more.

Times have changed radically and, as Johnson & Johnson in the USA found out last year, the days of consumers spreading the bad news by telling a few friends have now gone forever. The growth and accessibility of the internet and particularly social networking phenomena such as FaceBook, Twitter and the like, have made it possible for consumers to start spreading the bad news instantly and to hundreds if not thousands of people rather than just those 10 friends.

Johnson & Johnson made the mistake of ignoring a customer complaint that started doing the rounds on the web and social networks. Soon, radio talk show presenters and consumer journos (who happened to be on those networks just as friends of friends) started picking up on the issue and in no time it got completely out of control for J&J.

In South Africa, faster, cheaper internet access will start to become a reality in June when a new, highcapacity, undersea cable will join South Africa with the world. This will allow more and more South Africans to become aware of website forums on which consumers can vent their frustration. If you have ever visited the local consumer website hellopeter.com then multiply that by about 100 to get an idea of what is on the horizon.

In the past year, one of the things that I have been asked to do most often is to come up with a marketing solution to this phenomenon. I have done a lot of homework and working with my son, Stuart, who is an IT fundi and retail marketer, we have found that the answer is simple but the implementation extremely complex.

For example, Dell Computers in the US employs 17 “bloggers” who do nothing all day but scour the world’s websites and infiltrate as many social networks as possible to see who is saying what about Dell and then interspersing their own comments and providing facts to dispel wrong perceptions etc.

This, of course, looks like a really simple solution. But just employing any old blogger is an extremely dangerous thing to do unless you know what you are about because it can backfire on you and cause more trouble than it solves.

We have found that indeed, one needs to monitor the web and social media sites constantly and that it cannot be done by employing outside people to do it for you. That’s about the same as outsourcing your budgeting process. It MUST be done in-house. You also don’t just employ bloggers but marketers – people we call SMAEs an acronym for the process. (Search, Monitor, Analyse and Engage). with the “analyse” part being absolutely crucial.

What is critical is that these SMAEs don’t just sit in front of computers pumping corporate information into websites where their company’s service or products are being discussed by consumers. Sure, technical know-how on how to search and monitor this growing number of forums is important. But what is critical to the process is that the operative has to be mentored and monitored constantly by professional marketing communicators to be able to know just when to get involved in an online conversation or discourse and also, equally importantly, he or she has to know precisely what to say. What tone to use, how to pass on information, how to change perceptions with credibility and authority. To make sure that no knee-jerk reactions take place.

Marketers can train SMAEs to turn negatives into positives and once they have resolved wrong perceptions or dealt with complaints, they will have a captive audience. With the correct amount of subtlety and creativity, previously annoyed consumers can be turned into brand loyalists because they have been engaged honestly and openly by the company. Consumers love the personal touch and this is what this system is all about.

As the Internet becomes more accessible and social media networks grow and become more and more popular, consumers will find it far easier just to use their cell phones as they walk out of a retail outlet, bank, insurance company, car service department, hotel, or any company for that matter, to share their frustration with a couple of hundred friends. All it will take is a single tweet and in less than a minute hundreds will be aware of what happened. And worse, because it happens so quickly that customer is still angry and hasn’t had time to cool down and perhaps think things out. A time when massive mountains are made out of minor molehills. Because not only are the contacts on the angry customer’s network alerted but the contacts on the contacts’ networks and the contacts on the contacts’, contacts networks. It doesn’t take long to get to thousands.

And that’s the real danger – no time to get home and cool off. No dissipation after a few weeks. It is already a threat and one that will increase by the day. If you are not monitoring what your customers are saying online, best start as soon as you can because there is no doubt that this is a form of cancer to customer service that has the potential to become an epidemic.

The good news, however, is that it should not be an expensive exercise if implemented properly. In fact, the most time-consuming part involves the process of marketing and customer service departments persuading their boards, CEOs or MDs to understand the urgency and need for this. As time goes by I have little doubt that marketers will have a lot of fun doing a demonstration of what is happening online today with regard to consumerism and watching as it scares the daylights out of boards of directors.

Of course there is risk involved, the biggest being to allow the process to be handled by the wrong people. But done correctly and professionally, risk can be reduced significantly and brand loyalty increased by the same measure.

It is common knowledge now that President Obama owed his election success to an understanding of social networking.

In his pivotal election speech to the American people, Obama not only mentioned YouTube but did it in the same breath as mentioning television. We’ve come along way from when YouTube was just a way for Americans to see clips of shows like Saturday Night Live.

And while social media is not the be-all and endall, the influence is wide ranging – from the US presidential elections to helping organise mass street protests in Columbia.

According to Lloyd Salmons, inaugural chairman of the US Internet Advertising Bureau’s Social Media Council: “Social media isn’t just about big networks like Facebook and MySpace, it’s about brands having conversations.”

But, in the context of customer service, it is, in fact, mostly about people having conversations about brands.

Chris Moerdyk is one of the country’s leading marketing and advertising commentators. He’s happy to let you buy him a drink.