Have You Been Starbucked? (Part 2)

By Toni Cascio, Ph.D.

These days, social media sites provide an easy outlet for disgruntled customers wanting to let off some steam. But, no one really pays attention to complaint blogs or message boards, right? Wrong. Just look at these three examples.

When Wal-Mart employee Debbie Shank was in a traffic accident and suffered severe brain damage, Wal-Mart paid more than $400,000 for her care. But the company then tried to recoup the money when they discovered a loophole in her insurance policy. Her story was picked up by a number of blogs prompting thousands of angry postings and at least two petitions to boycott the retailer. It took longer than it should have, but Wal-Mart withdrew eventually withdrew its lawsuit. (i)

Another YouTube clip showed a repairman from Comcast who had been put on hold for so long by his own company that he fell asleep in the customer's house. This clip was viewed 1.2 million times and generated over 750 comments. (ii)

And when the Kryptonite bike lock company failed to take customer concerns seriously following the posting of a YouTube video that revealed how to pick the locks with a Bic pen, the blogosphere lit up with complaints about the company and petitions to boycott its products.

Perhaps the biggest mistake each of these companies made was to fail to appreciate the power of one consumer complaint combined with today's social media tools.

Here are a few others lessons to be gleaned from these PR debacles.

· Make customer service a priority. One common thread in all of these stories is that the consumers initially tried to go through the traditional channels to resolve their issue. It was only after repeated negative experiences--or lack of action on the part of the company altogether--that they took their grievances to the World Wide Web.

· Surf the web. Following the YouTube incident, Comcast assigned representatives who routinely visit complaint Web sites and social networking sites like Twitter to look for complaints and deal with them before they spiral out of control. You can also try typing in the name of your company followed by 'sucks,' or try 'ihate' followed by your company's name to see if there are any specific grievance sites.

· Create SOPs for dealing with PR crises. Decide what to do in the event that your company is defamed on message boards or complaint blogs before it happens. Don't wait until thousands of people have viewed the damaging video on YouTube or posted messages on a blog. Make decisions beforehand so that you take immediate restorative action.

References

(i) http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/law/04/02/walmart.decision/?eref=rss_mostpopular

(ii) http://www.allheadlinenews.com/articles/7011537183

Copyright © Bon Mot Communications LLC 2008

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