Editor's note: Brian S. Cohen (pictured) ispresident and CEO of Pacific Specialty Insurance Company, based inMenlo Park, Calif., which offers a wide range of personal andcommercial insurance products through independent brokersnationally. He can be reached [email protected].

The plane pushed back as I settled into the sports section of mylocal paper. Just as I was getting comfortable, the pilot made anannouncement that our flight was going to be delayed for a shortperiod of time. We ended up sitting on the tarmac for twohours.

I missed my connection, and to make matters worse, the customerservice personnel at the connecting hub airport were anything butservice-oriented. Frustrated beyond belief, I posted a message onTwitter, my Facebook page, and several travel sites, "ABC AirlinesSUCKS!" 

Much to my surprise less than an hour later I got a post to myrant signed by the airline's customer service department with alink to their website. The link led me into a chat room where Idescribed my experience. A chat room service representativeapologized and then offered me an upgrade on my return flight homethe next day. My frustration ebbed. I even posted another Tweet."Thanks ABC Airlines Customer Service!!"

The experience taught me two valuable lessons: One, with theadvent of social media, unhappy customers can do real damage to acompany's reputation; and two, companies can no longer wait fortheir customers to call and complain. They must engage theircustomers in real time.

Since that experience I've been focused on how our company canleverage social media to improve our customer service. It requiredme to better understand all that social media entails. Fortunatelywe have a lot of experts—the young people who work for us. They usesocial media like a second language. It's incorporated into theirlives.

The same approach applies to a successful social media strategyfor a business. The organization must incorporate social media intoits day-to-day operations. Most companies make a common mistakewhen it comes to their social media strategy: They set up accountson the popular social media tools like Facebook and Twitter butdon't do much after that. In effect, social media gets treated asan outlier. 

Opportunism in social media

Many people think of "social media" as Facebook and Twitter—butthose are just popular tools of social media. I view social mediaas the ability to engage in social interactions online with bothpeople you know and don't know. You engage with social mediathrough a series of websites and applications. But it's thecollective power to communicate that makes it so impactful.

Imagine if you could "communicate" regularly with an existingpolicyholder. You wouldn't need to wait until some triggering eventlike a problem with a bill or frustration with a claim occurs.Research shows that such an action would increase an insurancecompany's retention rate.

Here's an example of opportunistic social media. When there's apotential major weather event, use social media sites to offer tipson how to secure a home and inventory personal holdings. Theinformation will come up on searches and drive traffic to both yoursocial media sites and website. A company can even change itshomepage temporarily and put up a splash page: if you're in thisarea, click here; if not, click here for the homepage.

One of the biggest challenges for insurers is the cost andeffort of reinspections. With today's smartphones, policyholderscan do the work for you. Why can't a policyholder video theinterior of their home and then post it to their account online?Need assistance on what to video and how to describe thecontents? Press a chat icon and let the policyholderreceive assistance. On every renewal, the insurance company sendsan email reminding the policyholder to upload a new video. Tie adiscount to this and create an online contest that encouragespeople to submit the funniest videos about the interiors of theirhome. Post the winning videos online and watch them goviral. 

People don't think about insurance often. That's whyopportunistic use of social media is effective. People will be moreinclined to read something from an insurer when they're concernedabout their immediate safety and security. 

The best defense

Social media poses challenges and dangers for any companyserving the public. Consumers now have power to wreak havoc. Anyonewho feels, rightly or wrongly, abused by an insurer can use socialmedia to post an angry screed that can do real reputational damageto your brand. Negative reviews get aggregated, and if there areenough of them, they'll show up at the top of an online search ofyour company.

Customers tend to post only when they're angry with theirinsurer. Happy customers typically remain silent. How can you findout about problems customers are having before they are angryenough to call? Establish a team dedicated to scouring allsocial media for comments about your company.

Consumer retail companies have a team of people whose job isjust to surf the web looking for any reference to the company. Hirepeople that are adept at traveling the Internet. If you are a smallcompany or just want to jump-start the process, engage a searchengine optimization company for some initialassistance.   

Whether you use employees or outsource the task, your directionsare very simple: "I want you to find me any posts online about thecompany." Once found, negative comments should be sent to a triageteam consisting of your most experienced customer serviceemployees. Have them reach out to the source of the comment andoffer assistance. Remember to ask the dissatisfied customer to posta testimonial once the problem is fixed. The result: a happycustomer and a search result that is positive. The more of theseyou have, the more your company will earn a positivereputation. 

If I had any doubts about the impact of social media, the viewout my window provides ample evidence. Located in the middle ofSilicon Valley and just a short walk to Facebook's headquarters,I'm surrounded by start-up companies bringing new services andtools to the digital world. The social media revolution is here tostay.