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Seth Godin recently talked about a SEO firm that promises to move negative reviews down the page on Google. Rather than spending money to fix the original problem, firms will spend money on making the criticism go away. (sarcasm) Smart (/sarcasm)!
Earlier this year I asked, are you willing to take from your pr/marketing budget to fix a problem in another department? A great case in point was the recent Spirit Airlines dust-up. For a quick refresher:
- Alex has customer service issue with Spirit Airlines
- Alex blogs about it
- Other people comment, sharing their customer service horror stories
- Google ranks post #3 for "Spirit Airlines" search
- Even more people comment, sharing more horror stories
- Aviation Week blogs about it
- Traditional media picks up the story
- Rinse & repeat
If you read through the blogs posts, Alex's issue revolves around the customer support line. From his experience it just doesn't work. Many of the people who commented on his post shared the same view.
When I was interviewed by the media for the story about Spirit Airlines I was asked, "What would be your counsel? How can they make peace with the bloggers?" My response:
Well there is what I would tell them they should do, and then there is what they will do, which are two entirely different things.
What they should do.....It seems that the majority of their issues are related to their customer support line, they should fix that problem first. Fix the customer support lines and then go back to the bloggers and say, 'We're sorry for the issues you encountered. It seems that we had some problems with our customer support lines and we heard that from you and the other commenters. We've fixed those issues by increasing our staff at our major call centers. We'd love to have you fly with us again and if you ever need to call our customer service line again the level of service will be much better.'
Of course they won't do that. Each time something like this comes up again their communications depart will apologize. But we all know that it's a hollow apology since they really don't plan on fixing the problem.
I know budgets are really tight at a low-cost airlines, but at what point does the time and effort spent dealing with PR issues related to this (not to mention the lost sales) outweigh the cost to fix it?
I often hear old-school PR practitioners complaining that all this 'blog stuff' is negative. It depends on where you're sitting of course. Social media is great for shining a light on the broken parts of your business. You can take the exposure of faults as a negative, or as an opportunity to fix things and make your products/services better. Which will you do?
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Comments
Josh,
Absolutely right on, completely agreed. While I recognize that airlines have little control over problems like the weather, they should be doing everything possible with what they *do* have control over.
A friend who works for a very large company recently asked me about "this blogging thing" (his words) and asked how you can make money on it. My response: "Simple. Be good. Be very good."
In other words:
* Don't look at blogging and online engagement as just another sales channel.
* Engagement is an opportunity to do well by doing good.
* Respond to customer complaints. Listen to what they're saying. Beyond the bitchin', there are real concerns being expressed.
Great post and terrific insight as always, Josh.
Cheers,
Michael
----
Michael E. Rubin
Call me -- 312-787-7249 x212
See what I’m up to -- http://twitter.com/merubin
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Posted by: Michael Rubin, Arment Dietrich | 09.18.07
Thanks for this post Josh. I think, as you pointed out, some companies feel the bloggers are just complainers--now amplified with a stronger voice through Web 2.0. They fail to realize, in this instance, that "bloggers" are another word for "customers".
Posted by: Paul Barsch | 09.18.07
Great post, Josh. Welcome to Da Fix!
Good observations -- here and in the comments. I like Paul's, above ("bloggers" are another word for "customers").
A social media/blogging strategy can also be preemptive. Look -- bad things ARE going to happen -- you ARE going to disappoint a customer (or two, or two hundred...) along the way. Making the effort to connect with customers before bad things happen to good companies can go a long way toward them sticking by you, in seeing the issue through to resolution.
Posted by: Ann Handley | 09.18.07
Josh,
At Starbucks we had a simple policy--just say yes. In other words, make it right, fix it. And that was a decade before anyone heard of Web 2.0.
I have carried that policy over to my firm. If we screw up, you get some money back and we fix it at no cost to you. By the way: If the client screws up, we still fix it at no additional cost, as long as they only screw up once. Of course, they get no money back.
Posted by: Lewis Green | 09.18.07
"Social media is great for shining a light on the broken parts of your business."
Great quote Josh! Instead of trying to find a way to bury negative search results, why don't companies try to find a way to get bloggers and customers to say positive things about them?
And BTW great first post, welcome to DF!
Posted by: Mack Collier | 09.18.07
Right on--build a better mousetrap. Consumer blogs are just a new media facilitating an old phenomenon: conversation. What changes with the new media is that now companies can LISTEN IN on consumer conversations. Seems to me a company that sees that as a negative thing (since everyone else can listen in on it, too) doesn't have much confidence in its own product or its ability to adapt to the needs of its consumers. Forward thinking companies with strengths beyond just good marketing should look at blogs as an invaluable research tool.
Posted by: Thomas 2.0 | 09.20.07