Social media is now rightfully considered one of the most important outlets of establishing and managing a brand for corporations, entrepreneurs and service providers alike. Every corporation regardless of size has heeded the tech-age warning; ‘manage your brand online, before someone else does’. What could even bode worse for said corporations is angry, irate customers splashing status updates, tweets, blogs, and the like that create a lasting public perception of an organization.
This hits home for market-dominating airline Kenya Airways. Online sites and Facebook pages have been set up by passengers who have more than had it with the quality of service they have received. One can write this off as some put-off people who want to release steam in a public forum; but having read all the comments on one or two of these sites, I would have to beg to differ. When your customer base begins to associate your brand with long delays, cancelled flights, lost luggage, rude flight attendants, and radio silence from top management; then it is safe to say you are in trouble.
Too many large corporations with good to great market share tend to make the classic mistake of complacency. Business is like a marriage. In order for it to keep moving forward, there must never be a moment of complacency. Buy the flowers, go to diner, send cute text messages, apologize when you are wrong, say “thank you” and “I appreciate you”, and most importantly; communicate. People can put up with mistakes, as long as someone explains to them what is happening, the solution, and a timeframe for said outcome. Instead, what we see is a lackadaisical approach to customer care where feedback goes unheeded, and anger turns into lawsuits as in the case of Mrs. Kanu vs. Kenya Airways, in Sierra Leone. Based on the copy-and-paste responses offered by the corporate office in Nairobi, this case may end up being adjudicated in court, which is not at all necessary.
As I read the article, I noted with much dismay that Kenya Airways managed to shift the blame back to the passenger, stating that she failed to produce her boarding pass and hence they cannot assist her. A case can be made here for following company policy and procedure, but the decision to obstinately tow the company line all the way into judgment proceedings in court, seems a lot like cutting off your nose to spite your face. Company representative Mr. Wilson is quoted as having said, “Whenever someone loses their bag, the airline cannot stop them from going to court.” I highly doubt this is the best way to gain the good will needed to create a win-win outcome.
This dogged belief that shifting the blame or responsibility to the customer as a quick fix, is a flawed one that seems to run rampant in one too many organizations. The damage done by the bad press is more costly than a swift resolution which doubles as a good PR strategy. Before the advent of social media and online brand marketing; it would have been safe to say that one person will tell roughly seven people about a nasty experience with a certain brand. Today, one person can tell roughly six thousand people by use of social media, if not more. Even countries can be brought to their knees because a group of like minded people harnessed the power of social media to further their cause.
Christi Day and Paula Berg of the corporate communications team for Southwest airlines, a U.S based company, pay careful attention how their customers interact with them and respond to them online. Their philosophy of being fun and personable, in addition to informative and helpful has worked wonders for them. Christi uses twitter.com to share information about Southwest, and inform passengers about potential delays, and also re-route tweet complaints received to the Customer Care department. Southwest airline also uses its blog as a quasi-focus group where they obtain feedback from customers on agendas such as assigned seating (Southwest Airlines has a policy of first come first serve for seat assignments), which the customers responded by saying “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” Meaning they love it. Some polls have shown that Southwest Airline has the most loyal customer base of all the airlines in North America, whatever they are doing is clearly working. Granted, a lot of companies are trying to maximize on these new forums, but Southwest is a great case study of an organization that has managed to take its (customer) service driven organizational culture to a higher realm of interaction.
One of my favorite quotes is by the founder of the Walmart chain of supermarkets Sam Walton. He once said, “There is only one boss. The customer. And he can fire everybody in the company from the chairman on down, simply by spending his money somewhere else.” Perhaps with a majority share of some of the routes in Africa, Kenya Airways is complacent with the less than stellar reviews they are receiving from their passengers. But the problem with unimaginative way of thinking is that as soon as someone comes along and offers a similar product, at a similar price and makes a few adjustments such as more timely departures, less instances of lost luggage, good communication with passengers, quick negotiation and problem solution, improved in-flight customer service, and better food; then the passengers will do just that; fire Kenya Airways by spending their money elsewhere.
There are a few reasons why a dismissive attitude towards negative publicity on social media is not a good idea:
- Comments posted online are forever. They never go away, they will always be easily available or floating in come cyber purgatory, ready to make a comeback when needed.
- A negative post about your company will be found on any Google, Yahoo or Bing search. Why would a Customer Service of Public Relations manager want this negative publicity be found more easily than what they would want consumers to know about their brand?
- Bad comments online have a way of morphing into a larger creature. People who are unhappy with a brand tend to search for like-minded people online et voila! You now have not only negative comments online, but a following of people who are against your brand and actively recruiting others for this purpose! It is like a marketing team working against you!
- Waiting too long to address negative online publicity makes consumers believe that your company is hiding something. By the time you come out with a response, you have lost traction and are seen as “spinning” the bad PR or doing damage control, albeit a day late and a dollar short.
- If you are the person in PR or Customer Service who is ignoring this negative publicity, once the company wises up to the power that social media has on brand management, I hate to break it to you, but your job’s in jeopardy. A Generation Y tech-savvy kid is about to replace you with the title of Chief Social Media Public Relations Officer, or something of that nature.
Everyone oves a good comeback. Bad social media PR is an opportunity for a company to right a wrongand maintain a good (online) reputation. Potential clients out there are just a Google search away from finding out what others think of your brand. A quote from Ramon DeLeon, a businessman in Chicago, Illinois brings the point home; “The only way to put out a social media fire, is with social media water.”
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