At 10.30 last night Deb Maddock from Devon posted the following message on twitter:

“Yet again Stupid Accountant David Rice of Plymouth didn’t turn up to our appointment and didn’t let us know. Wasted trip! USELESS #fail”

A quick online search reveals two accountants with that name in that area (or maybe it’s the same guy and he’s moved).

The point though is that until recently, when a client was unhappy with their professional advisers all they had was word of mouth.  Conventional wisdom suggests that unhappy people tell ten people for every one person they tell when they are happy with the service they receive.

Social media though makes it much easier for clients to blog, post comments on forums and to tweet about their experiences. And twitter especially provides a real time facility for people to unload and SHARE their frustrations – as well as their delights.

Deb’s post last night may well have been seen by only a fraction of her 600 twitter followers. Or maybe they’ve all seen it. Maybe some have told their friends. Maybe it’s been circulated more widely.  Who knows.  Playing devil’s advocate, perhaps there’s a good reason for Mr Rice’s non-appearance.

Is there a lesson here for ambitious professionals – beyond the obvious one re keeping appointments?

I have written about twitter here before. Even if you choose NOT to tweet yourself, perhaps the time is coming when you need to have a twitter account to monitor what others are saying about you on twitter? It needn’t be time consuming and it would enable you to respond promptly and to nip problems in the bud. The bigger brands are slowing catching on to this idea too. The way and speed in which they are SEEN to resolve issues can have a positive impact. Indeed such actions can more than compensate for the earlier critical comments.  It’s also instructive to be aware of what people are saying about you.  I’m not aware of any of the big professional firms who do this (yet).

Another way to monitor what’s being said about you online is to use a free service like Google Alerts. It’s less easy if you have a common name like David Rice (or Mark Lee!) but it can be done.

Any other related tips?