This isn’t the first time I’ve blogged about this…
Ignoring a customer is a calculated risk. In the past, a scorned customer really couldn’t impact your business, especially for large national corporations. Today, thanks to the Internet and its viral nature, that one complainant can impact your business far more than the cost incurred by fixing the problem.
Take the story of Dave Carroll, a musician who had the misfortune of a broken guitar from flying United Airlines. In a creative kick to United’s shins, Carroll wrote a song and produced a video about his situation. This video has enjoyed a viral growth. It works for Carroll, what musician wouldn’t want the coverage he’s received. United, on the other hand, is left limping.
Lets do some advertising numbers. The video itself has 433,294 views as of this morning. That’s almost half a million impressions for advertising folk out there. Compare Internet impressions to an impression of a regular TV commercial and they are more significant. How much more significant? When you consider that youTube is a pull medium, than the answer is “very” – it means people are watching and paying attention, moreso than TV.
United’s reaction to the video was to finally contact Carroll. Unfortunately for United, I have a feeling that this little black spot on their record will entertain the Internet for some time. Little memes like this don’t just go away. United was smart to take such a proactive (and not adversarial) response to the video. It makes for better PR. It would have been even smarter to have better customer service. Your company should ask itself, “Can our policies towards customers damn us on the Internet?” If you don’t know or can’t come up with a quick response, you should consider an audit.
If your company hasn’t quite learned how bad or good the Internet can be for you, then you should take heed of this and other stories. If you’re large enough for something like this to matter, you should have a channel-for-channel response addressed in your crisis plan. That is, are you ready for a YouTube response to a YouTube attack, or a Twitter response to a Twitter attack. If you don’t, you’re likely to find yourself scrambling when something like this happens to you.
Maybe someday I’ll post a compendium of companies who scuffled on the net and lost, but for now, I’ll leave you with a funny song.