CustomScoop Blog

Word of Mouth + Social Media = Complaints Amplified Exponentially

During my work at a large PR firm I learned a lot about adoption curves and word-of-mouth marketing. We were taught the adage that on average a person tells 1-5 people about a good experience, and 10 or more about a bad one. Social media throws those numbers out the window. Ten negative mentions per customer are starting to look like a treat.

Via Consumerist comes this story of a Costco member whose son was treated to a lesson in enunciation by the exit checker (they check your receipts as you leave Costco), who wouldn’t let the family leave the store until the boy clearly stated “please” and “thank you.” The father, on his blog, states that going to Costco used to be a treat for his son, as the exit checker would draw a smiley face on the back of the receipt; but this last episode changed that. When pressed to enunciate, the boy got frustrated and started to cry, which in turn caused his sister to become upset, leaving the mom with two crying kids. Why was this episode such a big deal? Perhaps this information will clarify:

“For any Costco executives who might wander by here, and wish to understand the extent to which their gatekeeper royally screwed up, perhaps this bit of information will prove useful: ALEX IS MILDLY RETARDED. He didn’t talk at all until after age 3. Not one word. That Alex can converse as well as he does, as he heads towards his seventh year, is the result of a lot of hard work on the part of Alex’s teachers, parents, and Alex himself. And we sure the hell don’t need random store employees telling us we’re still not up to snuff. Just hand over the smiley face, schmuck. Or better yet, just get out of the way.”

The blogger is clear that he doesn’t think the store employee was trying to be malicious or even difficult—he was attempting at playful banter with the child that went horribly awry. However, it was a bad experience for the customer that has now been broadcast to a large audience. At last count on Consumerist, there were more than 550 views of the story, and the father has more than 20 comments on his blog.

Consumerist later posted this story, about a disastrous cruise on Royal Caribbean and the rather weak, insipid company response to a customer’s complaint. This story has had almost 5,000 views. Add to that each unhappy person on the cruise telling 10 (or more) people about their experience, and you have a lot of people thinking twice about sailing with Royal Caribbean.

Every store, restaurant, public facility, airline…everyone who serves a customer, listen up. Social media has changed the rules on you, and you need to convey to every front line employee this simple fact: each customer your company serves should be treated as though they could be a member of the media. It will simplify things for you. Restaurants, treat every customer as though they are a restaurant critic. Stores, treat every customer as though they are a secret shopper. Sometimes bad PR is unavoidable, but in a lot of cases, it’s just bad customer service and social media is allowing people to share these experiences with a very large audience.

 

Technorati tags: Word of Mouth Marketing, social media, Costco, Royal Caribbean, bad PR, bad customer service

Ours is Not to Reason Why...

Shel Holtz wrote a timely post for me today, regarding a call for a true definition of transparency in business. As it happened, I was discussing that very topic with a group of young communicators today during a presentation about CustomScoop.

After giving the group a basic primer in social media, I fielded a question asking why it is that a company wishing to respond to something on a blog or forum couldn’t use an anonymous voice to do so; why is it that we have to be transparent?

I am doubtless not the only social media enthusiast to encounter this question from newbies. When it comes to anonymous commenting, ghostblogging, etc…what’s the big deal about full disclosure?

My answer was simple, and is the response that those nixing the idea of ghostblogging have been screaming from the rooftops: If you don’t disclose your agenda, not to mention who you really are, the conversation is not authentic.  We have been saying all along that what makes a blog such a powerful communications tool is the opportunity it provides to truly communicate directly with the consumer. Communication from behind the shroud of another organization or writer isn’t direct, nor is it a conversation.

And no one will be quicker to point that out than the blogosphere. Ghostwritten blogs and comments have a way of being called out, and fast. So why risk the embarrassment and backpedaling? The honest approach will always win you more support than attempting to pull the wool over 70 million plus very watchful eyes.

In his post, Shel takes a definition offered by Paul Argenti, who defines transparency as “a strategy and a condition.” Interesting way to put it for an industry so used to strategies quite the opposite of transparent.  Today’s PR pros are more accustomed to remaining in the background, and taking more circumspect approaches to spreading and controlling their client’s message.

The group of young communications professionals I met with this morning all seemed surprised by the idea of full disclosure, and why wouldn’t they? Until recently, the mentality has been to promote the client, not ourselves. By admitting who we are and who we work for, do we undermine our clients?

Not so long as we act wisely and professionally, and avoid dunking them into hot water via misuse of social media. While the game-changing nature of the new media landscape may not be news to some of us, it’s important to remember that for most, it is an entirely new ballgame with an entirely new set of rules to learn.

Technorati tags: Shel Holtz; transparency, ghostblogging

Fair and Balanced?

Gerald Baron at Crisisblogger has an interesting take on the infamous Continental “poo flight” (regarding a flight in which a malfunctioning lavatory on a trans-Atlantic trip from Amsterdam to New Jersey forced passengers to endure human waste in the aisles of the plane for hours until they reached their destination).  He criticizes the apparent glee the media (social media included—or perhaps in particular) take in bringing a person or company down a notch, and wonders if they occasionally may be going too far.

Gerald calls out the media outlets piling on the Continental story, offering eyewitnesses money for photographs and interviews about the no-doubt uncomfortable (to say the least) conditions on board the plane. He also points out that Continental determined the problems were caused by one of the passengers flushing a foreign object down a toilet, in violation of signs indicating use of the trash bins for such items.

Whether the problems with the lavatories were really the airline’s fault is almost irrelevant to the flurry of indignant blog posts on the subject. Does social media take its response to incidents like this too far? Or, considering the consensus is that the customer service in the wake of the incident is what is causing the most outrage, is the hysteria justified? A blog has already been set up dedicated solely to stories about the incident, and bloggers at the popular Consumerist, Gothamist and Metroblogging have all weighed in, some with eyewitness accounts and pictures of the mess.

This truly must have been a terrible situation for the passengers on board the flight, but at what point do people need to just “get over it” already? I’m reminded of the JetBlue Hostage, who was still ranting about the airline almost five months after the now-infamous Valentine’s Day disaster (the last post is dated May 10). Hasn’t JetBlue made amends yet? The blogosphere provides consumers with unprecedented power to have an impact on Corporate America—but is this situation always fair?

And how should a company stuck with a messy (in this case, literally) situation respond, when the blogosphere may be attacking them unfairly?

Technorati tags: Gerald Baron; Continental; Crisis Communications

PR PodJots

Our weekly feature summarizing PR podcasts has moved to the PR Blog Jots blog. This week, we help to celebrate "For Immediate Release's" 250th episode, stop by and check it out!

Social Media Club Boston - Measuring ROI of Social Media

Despite battling soul-crushing traffic (first on I-93 South from New Hampshire, then in the various bridges and tunnels of Boston proper, then on the Mass Pike headed towards Watertown), which caused me to show up a full 50 minutes late to the latest Boston Social Media Club event last night, I managed to take in some interesting discussions.

The event sought to uncover best practices for measuring ROI on social media programs. Much of the discussion focused on the need for entirely new metrics--with reference to the popular quote from Shel Israel negating the need to even measure ROI on something as inexpensive as a blog ("is it necessary to measure the ROI of your pants?"). This also relates to the notion that a marketing department can spend thousands, or even million dollars to generate buzz, but will the buzz necessarily equal results?

Katie Paine pointed out the excellent example of "Snakes on a Plane." The movie enjoyed tremendous pre-release buzz, the marketing campaign was no doubt costly in some respects, but what were the results? The movie grossed only around $34 million domestically, a modest tally for a movie that was all anyone could talk about for months.

The discussion also touched on how to ease PR clients into the social media world--and convince them that the endeavor is worthwhile. This is important to many in the PR industry, it is sometimes hard to remember that most companies are still very wary of pursuing social media as a communications tool, and aren't as anxious to jump in with both feet as those of use who are fully engaged may wish.

Katie made another crucial point in this discussion, indicating that a lack of innovation can often lead to failure, no matter what your project. It is the innovators who are successful, and making this point to clients is a key step in guiding them into a social media strategy.

For the budget-conscious client, the panel recommended pointing out that if your funds and time are limited, you should just do what your target customers are already doing--engaging them in conversation is the best way to get their attention, and doing so through social media often requires very little investment.

The discussion was decidedly lively, I wish I were going to be in town for the next event, but hopefully someone else from CustomScoop will join in the fun!

Technorati tags: Social Media Club, Boston, Katie Paine, ROI,

Snakes on a Plane

Michael Moore's "SiCKO" - Understanding the art of buzz creation

Earlier this month, CustomScoop’s Sarah Wurrey posted on the possible PR headaches that might ensue for the health care industry when Michael Moore’s latest film, SiCKO, is released on June 29. We found the variety and diversity of blog chatter on the film fascinating, and decided to do some deeper analysis of where the chatter is coming from, what’s triggering it, and what the tone of the conversation is.

As Moore will be up in our neck of the woods tomorrow, appearing in Manchester for a screening of his film, we thought we’d share some of our findings.

While always a polarizing figure, Michael Moore understands better than most how controversy creates interest, and the lead up to the US premier of his latest film is no exception.

Prior to the initial showing at the Cannes Film Festival back in May, an exchange between Mr. Moore and the government caused an increase in chatter when the U.S. Treasury Department said it was investigating whether or not Moore had violated a long-standing trade embargo with Cuba. During the filming of “SiCKO,” Moore took a group of 9-11 workers to Cuba for health care he claimed they could not get in the US.

The discussion started to ratchet up when former Senator (and likely presidential candidate) Fred Thompson entered the fray.

Thompson, who earlier in May had written a piece for the conservative National Review criticizing Moore’s trip, was challenged to a debate on the health care issue by Moore. Thompson issued a not-so-typical response by posting a short video on Breitbart TV, which is also available on YouTube.

This all occurred in the lead up to the film’s introduction at Cannes, on May 19, the most obvious spike in chatter. After the premier in Cannes, chatter dropped off a bit, but has recently started increasing again, just prior to the film’s US theater release on June 29.

After chatter from Cannes started to die down, smaller spikes followed: after the filmmaker’s appearance on Oprah (June 5); his testimony before a legislative committee in Sacramento (June 12); and the appearance of a pirated copy of the film on the Internet (June 15).

That Moore is a master at sustaining buzz shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone. One blogger even speculates that Moore himself leaked the film to the Internet. Moore has solicited video stories from YouTube users to be posted on a group site for the film: http://www.youtube.com/group/sickothemovie.

Both his supporters and his detractors have taken to Web 2.0 medium to get their own messages out, all of which is adding considerably to the film’s ability to stay in the public eye in traditional media as well. The result, as shown in the tonality chart below, has been a boon to Moore:

Neutral coverage from entertainment and blogs owned by mainstream media sites, or blog posts by individuals who simply note the film’s upcoming release, make up 42 percent of the coverage we’ve rated thus far. Positive and Somewhat Positive coverage makes up 37 percent, demonstrating that Moore’s supporters are active on blogs and are actively supporting the filmmaker online.

We’re going to continue to monitor the chatter on this, up through and maybe a bit past the film’s release on June 29, to see how the conversation develops.

 

Technorati tags: Michael Moore, SiCKO, blog analysis

Perfect Match

My friend Nathan Burke recently began work at a Boston-area startup that definitely has me intrigued. Founded in part by Robert and Jonathan Kraft (owners of the New England Patriots) and launching next week, the company, matchmine, calls itself a "media discovery platform," matching users of specific interests to media they may enjoy: movies, music, news, etc.

It's an interesting concept I am not familiar with, short of all those emails I get from Amazon pushing every fantasy book in the genre at me each time I order the latest Harry Potter (for the last time, Amazon, I don't want to read about the dragons!).

From matchmine's website:

matchmine is a media discovery platform, meaning we help match video, audio and textual content with you based on a sophisticated understanding of your personal tastes. We get to know what you like, and then find the movies, video, music, news and other content you'd love to find yourself, if only you had the time. Kind of like having a best friend whose full time gig is to send you great stuff.

Even more intriguing is the methodology behind the site, which goes way above this math-class-reject's head. The company seeks to use methods usually applied to genetic engineering (of all things) to track and download personal preferences on a variety of topics and translate them into media "matches":

The biggest challenge to applying it in a practical application was the sheer number of dimensions required to represent something as complex as a person's likes and dislikes in a concise and understandable manner. The answer: a combination of dynamic programming and n-space mathematics. It was hardly easy, but a year and a million dollars later, the basic science underneath the matchmine system was ready to go, and the rest, as they say, is history.

Disclosure: I had to read the "About" section a couple different times; but despite the complexity of the concept, I'm definitely going to follow the company's progress as they gear up to launch. This could be an interesting new addition to the 2.0 community. As demands on our attention continue to ramp up (I've noticed many links and references to Steve Rubel's "Attention Crash" post lately, and there's definitely a reason), wouldn't it be convenient to let a program help you with tonight's DVD rental decision?

For more information, the company also has a blog, available here.

Technorati tags: matchmine, Steve Rubel, Nathan Burke

When using social media, make sure the tool fits the task

I love reading Techdirt, the posts are almost always insightful and witty. A short post yesterday evening concerning the use of Second Life for job interviews had me laughing, as the job interview was for…wait for it...a position as the “executive chef for a large food-service company.”

I’m all for using social media technologies like Second Life as interview tools when it makes sense. As more companies demand that PR practitioners have social media skills (I’m thinking specifically of the rather prominent headline on this week’s dead tree issue of PRWeek: “Social media a factor in Hitachi hiring Ogilvy”), having an interview in Second Life is logical, as it could allow an interviewer to determine a PR practitioner’s comfort in the medium, his or her creativity, and the ability to learn and adapt to new technologies.

But a chef? Come on. No virtual food please, even if the calorie count is ideal.

 

Technorati tags: Second Life, social media, job interviews, PR

Whole Foods v. FTC

Whole Foods’ CEO is taking on the Federal Trade Commission’s move to block the proposed merger between Whole Foods and competitor Wild Oats Market by taking his fight to the one spot he can control: his blog.

CEO John Mackey posted a treatise—I don’t know what else to call a blog post with an Executive Summary and a table of contents—to his blog yesterday, calling out the FTC for what he feels are at best unfair and one-sided tactics that the government agency is using to block the merger.

I find Mackey’s approach very interesting from a communications angle. First, this appears to be Mackey’s unvarnished opinion. In reviewing the post, he takes on several areas that I can’t imagine his PR team was comfortable with, including referring to the FTC as using “bullying tactics,” and doing a point-by-point deconstruction of the FTC’s press release announcing that it had found cause to block the merger. “You can’t fight city hall” is not a phrase in Mackey’s vocabulary. The WSJ Deal Journal blog even quipped “Mackey is part of a growing list of corporate lawyers’ newest nightmare…” as it analyzed Mackey’s blog post.

It will be interesting to see how the FTC decides to respond (or not) to this tactic. Comments on the blog are largely supportive, at least for now. Will this strategy appeal to investors? How will customers of Whole Foods respond to this? How will the CEO’s reputation fare?

This will be interesting to watch.

 

Technorati tags: Whole Foods, FTC, Wild Oats, merger

Does every department in a company need to understand social media?

Last week, Consumerist posted a long, somewhat standard piece titled "22 Confessions of a former Dell Sales Manager." It followed the same format as Consumerist’s other “confessions” type stories: an employee (or former employee) of a company passes along information that could benefit consumers when they go out to purchase whatever product. As far as these types of “confessions” pieces go, this one was pretty tame and didn’t seem to include any information that a reasonably savvy consumer wouldn’t have already either thought of themselves or perhaps come across in another setting.

In other words, the piece was well on its way to being a one-day post.

So, what did Dell do? Why, they had one of their attorneys send a letter demanding that Consumerist take down the piece, of course. As Mike at Techdirt points out this just accelerated the interest in it, and the story became a criticism of Dell for being so heavy-handed.

Dell has had run-ins with blogs before, and I find it stunning that they didn’t see this coming. While I’m sure they had their reasons for issuing the takedown request, this piece just doesn’t seem like it rose to the level that would require such action, particularly since one would assume that they did realize that there was a risk of a blogstorm and decided to go ahead with it anyway.

This begs the question; does every department in a company—including legal—need to understand the risks and rewards of social media? Confining an understanding of social media to areas such as communications, PR, and marketing leaves other areas (such as legal) potentially open to making missteps, such as this one by Dell.

Technorati tags: Dell, Consumerist, Social media