Even though we know that many customers reach out to brands via social media channels like Twitter and Facebook, many brands blatantly ignore these customers for some ill-advised reason. And if you’ve spent any amount of time online, you’ve probably also seen brands that do something even worse – respond rudely or act like the customer is ridiculous and wasting the company’s time with the inquiry.

Well, “the world’s leading independent IT management software company,” CA Technologies, commissioned renowned humorist Dave Blazek to explore the reality, and often the insanity, of this trend.

Say hello to Chief and Chuck.

So if you’re a company that is trying to ignore the vast Interwebs in the hope that it will go away, you may want to consider the impression you’re making. Lack of participation doesn’t mean the online space doesn’t affect you, but it does mean customers are likely frustrated when they can’t reach you – much like they’d be frustrated (and go to your competitor) if you didn’t have a phone line. Yes, it has come to that.

Also, don’t think you can go into social media customer service halfheartedly – first-class customer service is key to social media success! This is probably why so many businesses have open  social media positions these days! (Check out our job board if you don’t believe me – and follow @MBJobPost for real-time openings and employment news.)

What do you think? Does the cartoon ring true based on your experiences? Are some brands so ‘social media resistant’ that it’s a turn-off?

CA Technologies’ CHIEF & CHUCK is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License. Based on a work at http://www.ca.com/cdit.

(Man searching online image from Shutterstock)