Beware businesses of the world, the consumers are taking their revenge on you for years of abuse. Recently I read an article about a mom who found a foreign object in her daughter's cereals. She called the company who then asked for photo evidence. Long story short, after losing the photos sent and sending coupons for more of the cereals they probably will be avoiding for the rest of their lives, here we are now, the readers, hearing all about how Raisin Bran pretended that the problem didn't exist until backed up against the wall.
It's pretty obvious that many companies like to cut corners for the sake of saving a buck or two, especially in this rather tough economy. What I just can't comprehend is why they still spend millions on TV ads and so little on reputation management, one of the cheapest ways to do good by the consumer.
How does it work? It's quite simple really. Company screws up. Customer complains. Company ignores. Customer gives terrible reviews, or worst, creates a blog and SEO it. IF company does its reputation management correctly, the complaint is located and companies tries to make amends, preferably over the phone to understand customers dismay and resolves the issue. What happens if they don't? It gets picked up, shared a couple thousands people and spread like wildfire on the Internet, and inevitably on the news. Then the company has to spend thousands of dollars fighting the media, looking like idiots, making feel good campaigns ala Johnsons and Johnsons.
AT&T, Apple and BP all had their recent blunders with Reputation Management. Companies are not quite fast enough in hiring social media teams and when they do, they often hire young professionals with not quite enough experience or grace to understand how to treat someone the right way. Somewhere between the "OMG Stacey WRU@" valley girls and the "yay I typed an email but how do I send it" guys, there is a very thin layer of social media users who not only enjoy but understand the technology. Unfortunately, I think it will be a couple of years before companies understand what's best for them and how to choose the right candidate. After all, Marketing execs are usually Baby Boomers and Cereal Moguls are too busy trying to make kids sugar slaves. Few of them really know what this new generation of graduates will do for them or how to trust them with their multimillion dollar reputations. Will Reputation Management kill some of them? A year ago I would have said no, now, it's all up in the air. We can't rely on the dreamy TV campaigns presented to us with flags waving and women and children laughing at a breakfast table on a sunny morning to tell us about how great a product is. (not that you see it anyways, you have a DVR or buy your fav. episodes on Itunes.) You can't trust their own website to tell you what a great brand it is, there's an admin that controls every entry and discards your comments. (Yeah I am looking at you Sephora.com). What's left? Tweets, online directories, Facebook groups and the Blog Nation. And there you have it.
In the meantime, customers will continue exercising their right to discontent online and share it with the world. Don't get me wrong, so will I and I feel by no mean sad for any of them, if anything just sad that they didn't have someone like me on their team to help them out. (not conceited, realistic!)
Let's face it, we live in a difficult world for dirty little secrets and the Internet is making sure of that. Heads up Mr. Corps. and Misses TM of the world: the Internet is forever for you too.
