Came across this article in iMedia Connection, which further affirms and better explain the points that I was trying to make about companies and brands using Twitter.
I can’t remember, but I think this is like the 1000001th time I’m saying this, but Twitter is not a noticeboard. It was created to be a conversational tool and still is. Don’t complain I’m naggy but social media is all about bridging relationships and selling, shouting, flashing don’t work. Just a gentle reminder. =)
After the Domino’s effect, it has become ever more obvious that Crisis Management is one of the most important function of every PR person in a company. In the digital age today, it is almost impossible to take absolute control of every individual and tiny bit of information. Many a times, the bad PR would have found its way into the mass faster then you can say, “SXXX!”. And just in case you missed all the action, Adage gives an overview on the “cheese in the nose” incident here. And guess what, the two protagonist of the prank video are facing charges, as reported by NY Times.
Traditional marketers usually attempt to lie low and wait for news to subside as people tend to (used to) have a short memory when overwritten with news of the following day. But things online is a quite different scenario. News don’t simply get overwritten. But rather, they get passed on and duplicated in multiplies. People talk wildly about them, make assumptions and create a large snowball effect that could have an unimaginable damage. One that can get out of hand and destroy an entire brand, if not dealt with properly, and timely.
Domino’s was critized for not responding to the issue promptly. But on realisation that these rumours are not going to stop and customers are quickly losing trust in the brand, they reacted swiftly to turn the tables around. Domino’s incident started off with a viral video. Domino’s decided to end it with a viral video.
As touched on previously during the China’s melamine poisoning incident, hiding facts or pretending to be an ostrich no longer works. Likely that the most positive PR is really to face the issue oncoming and find all possible ways to minimize the damage and rebuild brand confidence. Taking criticisms positively may also help to calm and convince consumers in one’s willingness to listen and address the problem. Consumers wants to know what IS to be done, not what cannot be undone.
But what really prompted me to write this was not Domino’s. I mean yes, Domino’s affair caught my eyeballs and I was having a whole lot of fun following the news. There are no Domino’s in Singapore, so I guess what doesn’t really concerns me won’t affect me too adversely. However, one incident DID affected me.
Just last Wednesday, I posted a blog post on “How Companies Are Using Twitter” and commended on the proactiveness of Midphase (my web hosting company) in addressing customer satisfaction issues. I was given much confidence from the General Manager himself on the service quality and was promised downtime wouldn’t happen again. That was last week. I was happy for a couple of days and tweeted positively about it. BUT today, not only was there a server outrage, emails were down but the entire Midphase iterally “disappeared“. Even their own company site and support systems could not be reached. No one is attending to their Twitter accounts. GM Marc Bollinger‘s last message was 8 hours ago and their parent twitter account @Midphase was 16 hours ago! It was creating a nervous breakdown for many customers who anxiously hanged online to wait for any possible news.
Reviews on Midphase’s services has been dropping quickly since 2008 when their service quality suddenly deteriorated. With 71,900 domains owned by Midphase and hosting on their servers, you can imagine the kind of anxiety each and every customer is going through. Customers are not demanding an immediate restoration. Customers demand and has the right to know what is going on. However, that channel was not made readily available, especially essential for a company with such a global customer base. I had to make a long distance call to the United States to find out what is actually going wrong. As I do not have any existing number with me (website is down). I am for once grateful that Google caches information. (Not grateful for this all the time as their cache caused me a lot of trouble once).
About 3-4 hours later, the service came back on. When the General Manager for Midphase, Marc Bollinger woke about 6 hours later, he was overwhelmed with the unhappiness and short of explaination to customers on the outrage. People (including me) were coming together over twitter, making wild assumptions and threatening to terminate the service due to frequent downtime. Marc quickly sent a personal apology to each customer and the Midphase blog was promptly updated to explain the issue. Although he explained he was asleep at that hour, the promise of a 24/7 service has been broken and it has shook the confidence of customers in a big way. Isn’t it ever more prevailing that value of customers are invaluable especially in times of recession where businesses are constantly trying to cut each other’s throats to stay afloat. Competitors will be more than happy to benefit from the spill over of this effect.
So you can see, social media does not necesasary only cause damage to big brands, but small companies can suffer as well. This is of course, largely dependent on the type of business you are in. But a digital crisis is not something to be seen lightly as. Regardless if your company is big or small.
Post-Domino’s Effect
After the much hyped Domino’s incident, PR agencies are sitting up and relooking into ways to tackle digital crisis when they happen. Niall Cook, the Worldwide Director of Marketing Technology for Hill & Knowlton posted a question on twitter yesterday,
“Thinking about a rapid response Twitter app for companies to use during a crisis. Any thoughts?“
As quoted from Adage on the aftermath of the Domino’s case, “In Just 24 Hours, Clip Has Received 760,000 Views, and Warrants Are Out for Offending Employees’ Arrest.” Los Angeles Times quickly churned out an article reflecting the on recent incidents on how the businesses of CNN, Amazon and Domino’s are affected by the power of Twitter.
Like it or not, brands don’t really have a choice to the kind of publicity they want in digital age. The only way to counter the game is to be part of the game. Like they always say, don’t wait for customers to come, be where your customers are. And obviously, where your customers are, will be where the action sparks too.
I am no PR expert, although I am trying to hone my skills in this area. Perhaps PR gurus can drop your comments here on
how you think a digital crisis could be better managed to minimize damage and what is the desired minimum time delay of responses.
My virgin article on marketing will be featured on zbWeekly, a sub-paper for Lianhe Zaobao on Sundays.
The first article is entitled, “One perfect Funeral”, giving an overview of the latest MCYS ad, “The Funeral”. Why it works or don’t work and how the success or failure could be expanded further.
It will be in mandarin. So if you can read Chinese, support me by getting your copy next Sunday! I will be uploading a scanned copy with translation here as well.
I was quite pleasantly surprised today. Just a couple of hours ago, I received a tweet from @marcbollinger. And he signed off as GM of Midphase, which is my host. Just this afternoon, I was complaining about my email having problems. Apparently, he did a search for “midphase” and reached out to lend a hand to the customers who are on Twitter. My my… am I impressed.
I had been a long time customer of Midphase and have always enjoyed their prompt and polite customer service. However, the hosting service seem to have detoriated in the past year. I had to sigup for a backup host somewhere else while retaining my service for my primary domain. Their GM’s personal tweet and response to the ticket has made this relationship ever more special. As a consumer, I’m telling you… it makes a difference.
Many large MNCs have began exploring Twitter as an alternative channel for feedback and direct customer reach. It has also evolved to become a sales channel with exclusive deals just for Twitter followers. The potential is endless.
Dell claims to have exceeded 1 million in sales using Twitter. They currently have approximately 32 Twitter Accounts, all targeted at different markets for different purposes. Dell listens and builds according to the needs and wants of the market. You can’t blame consumers for loving them in some ways. I am using a Dell, by the way… (not that I love them, it’s affordable!)
But for small companies to use Twitter, not many have jumped on the wagon yet. Or perhaps, not many are really known to be using this medium yet. Many airlines, transportation companies, traffic reports, radio stations have all started using Twitter to inform customers of changes in services and to pick up complains so that crisis and unhappiness can be managed and handled at first point of eruption. This not only increases overall customer satisfaction, the active (instead of passive) approach (just like what Midphase did), more often than not, puts a smile on the face of this once disgruntled customer, who now will broadcast the good name of the company.
Salesforce.com has associated Twitter as an indispensable CRM tool. Not only did they use it at an early point of their business to market the new service, they use it as a consistent customer feedback channel to keep customers feeling involved.
Customer service is no longer about passive response. Customer service today cannot wait for a complain to arrive. They have to go out there and seek to solve the problems in the wild. A good customer service is one that goes out to the customers, not the other way round. Today, if I’m unhappy, I’ll walk out of the store, wire up with my iphone and tweet about how bad a service is. Think about how much time a brand has to do damage control. Crisis management is required almost immediately. Well, unless you never pisses anyone off, which I really believe is not possible.
Seriously, I cannot figure out a much cheaper and more effective way to provide great customer service like this. Yes, we know NOT everyone is on Twitter, but a good company with online presence should try to exploit every possible way of building an effective B2C relationship with their customers.
Setting up an effective call centre or customer support system could get quite costly. Twitter is free for now, and even if they start charging, it is still a viable and great way to reach out. Twitter has evolved beyond simply a messaging or micro-blogging tool. But rather, it has become quite a community by itself. People are connected, they share, exchange and build new offline relationships. It is smarter to be “included” now than “excluded” later.
A quick search on Google targeted at Singapore pages revealed disappointing results. I can’t find any local company who is utilizing Twitter for their business yet. Not even our Big 3 Telco firms, Singtel, M1 or Starhub. Some may say Plurk is more popular in Singapore. But no, they aren’t on Plurk either. The only way to reach them is either I walk in, send an email and wait for a reply (if any) or hold on to the phone for half hour (or more) and wait for someone to pick it up. More often than not, a voice recorder talks to me. (Note : In all these options, I’m approaching them. Not the other way round).
Some possible advices for SME who are thinking about tapping on Twitter.
Be a user, not a spammer.
Use the service, have a desire to connect and engage in conversations. Twitter is not a notice board. You have to reach out and not just shout out.
Human face, human tweep Please, please, please don’t use a robot. You could have an official company account with your logo, but do have another of a managerial level or someone people could speak with that has a name to a face. There is always greater sense of relation to a face than a logo.
Use Twitter Search Search for keywords like your company’s name. Observe conversations and take initiative to reply. Provide solutions and assistance. Don’t just attempt to be “around”.
Start a Hashtag Once you make yourself known to the Twittersphere, you could attempt to start a hashtag. For example #companyname. So whenever someone has anything to say that they want you to hear about, a hashtag can be added to the tweet. It makes your search easier and much more organised.
Know what your Twitter Account is for Dell has 32 accounts for different purposes. Know what your account is for. Don’t confuse followers who may decide to unfollow you the next minute. As with all other tweeting rules, grow a twitter asset, not a liability. People want to follow only when you are a valuable addition. Twitter is a demographic targeted sphere. So, know your customers.
For Singapore or Asian companies who are just beginning to explore social media as a channel of outreach, please feel free to contact me at me@belindaang.com for consultation. I will be happy to provide you with the advices, steps and necessary management of your online blueprint.
An advocate of self-defined success and excellence, Belinda found her passion and forte in the social media sphere, with an all-rounded perspective of the integrated marketing environment having served in areas of film, events, viral with a foundation in multimedia. She is also guest contributor for marketing column in Lianhe Zaobao.
