A Reputation Management Case Study - Aviva Customer Service
Case Study
Online Reputation Management via
the Social Web
by
http://www.somatica.co.uk
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31 August 2009

A Reputation Management Case Study - Aviva Customer Service
Background Situation
This is a UK centric case study and outlines in detail the effects across the social web of a customer complaint
letter. The letter complained about a set of experiences relating to the quality of customer service provided by
the online portal and call centre for what was a simple request. The complaint took place in July 2009, at the
same time Aviva embarked upon an ‘A’ list celebrity TV advertising campaigned focused upon the individual
care and attention they provided.
The motivation for complaining resulted from the “gap” between heavily marketed brand positioning compared
against the actual service received. The perceived gap by the complainer was just too big, hence the desire to
create some awareness. It is very possible, that if there had not been such an opposed marketing campaign
compared to the actual service received, the complaint letter would not have been so tenaciously broadcasted.
This case study looks at:-
How the complaint was seeded online and offline
How the attention grew online
The response from Aviva
Summary and observations
It is hoped the case study is of interest to brands, potential complainers and agencies within the online
reputation management sector. The main objective of the case study is to create awareness of how a simple
complaint can manifest itself via the social web and how it can be measured and managed.
For further information on this case study or to find out more on how to monitor and manage consumer brand
engagement via the social web, please email engage-me@somatica.co.uk or visit http://www.somatica.co.uk .
The Manifestation of the Complaint and How it was Seeded Online
The letter, which can be read in full here, was written and sent first class via the Royal Mail to Andrew Moss the
Aviva UK Chief Executive on 17th July 2009. Dates and times associated with actions become important facts
within this case study as they show how subsequent elements manifest themselves.
The letter was also created in pdf format. It was posted to Slideshare, a website dedicated to
sharing presentations and documents and predominantly visited by those who carry out
presentations as part of their job function or hobby. It’s not the busiest social media site; however,
Google ranks it highly. The link to the letter is here: http://www.slideshare.net/Somatica/karl-
havard-aviva-letter-of-complaint-170709 . The document was set up to be downloadable by
anyone. The number of downloads, views and embeds are then measured. Views show the
number of times the document had been rendered in a browser (not necessarily the number of times the letter
has been read in full); embeds show the number of times the document has been included in other websites via
html code. This means the document can be viewed from other sites such as blogs and social networks.
Downloads mean the file can be held locally on anyone’s computer and then attached to email and circulated.
An overview of the letter’s purpose and an embed to the letter on Slideshare was created on 18th
July 2009 (a Saturday) on a personal blog. The blog is located on blogspot.com and is not the
busiest to say the least. Some authority from Technorati and ranks fairly well in Wikio’s top 200,000
European blogs. In a normal month it receives around 600 visitors a month.
So initially, fairly low key placement. The web is huge and for the complaint to be found (in fact any type of
content to be found), placing it online and hoping it will go viral is a tac-tic that won’t work. For any content to
be noticed it needs to be “pointed” to in the correct manner and within social circles where it is relevant. The
social web is full of people who love to complain...and why not? Social media provides a platform for a single
voice to be heard and in turn this can gain support from fellow consumers; this can then manifest into
something a little more “noisy” and businesses, regardless of size have to take notice and then work out how
best to deal with such complaints.
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A Reputation Management Case Study - Aviva Customer Service
So what are the social circles online, specifically the UK, where people love to have a bit of a gripe and moan?
There are a few. Three, deemed to be the most influential were selected. These were:-
http://www.plebble.com is a purpose designed site that allows consumers to
rate their experience with brands. In their own words “The People Powered
customer service comparison site - a true e-mocracy”
http://www.complaintcommunity.com is again a purpose built site for anyone
who wishes to complain. Their approach is to (and this is their words) “to
connect the complainer with the complainee; enables complainers to join
groups; provide expert advice; help you get a better offer (their business model)
and ultimately fix the problem”
http://www.moneysavingexpert.com designed for helping consumers save
money and get the best offers, but they also provide forums to discuss
complaints as well.
The details of the complaint with a link to the source of the letter in Slideshare (not the blog) was submitted to
each of the sites forums and complaints boards. This was done on the afternoon of 18th July 2009. This
generated some interest initially and conversation started to flow.
Accelerating the levels of interest was achieved via Twitter. For anyone not
familiar with Twitter, it is a real-time micro-blog (limited to updates/posts of
140 characters) that allow individuals to broadcast to their followers (or
anyone running specific searches) anything they desire. This includes the
ability to include active hyperlinks to any url. These links are also indexed by the
search engines. Conversation can be initiated in a number of ways both publicly and privately, this is usually
achieved by direct messages and posting replies “@” a fellow Tweeter. Twitter also allows users to “retweet”
messages from others, these means messages can be rebroadcast to a wider/different audience.
Increasing awareness for the Aviva complaint was achieved via twitter by initially posting a brief description with
a link to the letter on Slideshare and to the blog. A search was set up for #Aviva, this provided a list of all
“tweets” that had referenced Aviva for one reason or another. Some of these were from people who were also
complaining about Aviva. These people were followed and messages sent though “@” replies. Retweeting of the
the complaint letter link was achieved many times.
Awareness and conversation around the complaint was
moderate at this stage. Plebble picked up on the letter and
posted it as “front page news” and it became their most
popular voted for item for that period. The letter also became
the third most popular document in Slideshare for that week.
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A Reputation Management Case Study - Aviva Customer Service
Aviva’s Initial Response
All credit to the senior personnel at Aviva, as Andrew Moss did reply back to the letter through traditional post.
This letter was an apology for the customer service experiences of the call centre and the online portal, and a
statement that this was now being reviewed internally at Aviva. Aviva would then respond in more detail once
this review had been completed.
The “Trigger”
Initially moderate coverage of the complaint via the social web had been achieved, but it could not be classed
as viral. For something, whether it is a complaint or a creative campaign, to gain a lot of exposure there needs
to be a trigger. The trigger being defined as something that causes significant exposure of content in a very
short space of time. Typically, and when associated with a marketing campaign, the trigger is a well thought
through, and synchronised multi-channel approach that reaches a lot of people who then begin to circulate it
and talk about it...typically this costs a lot of money. Most of this is in the control of the organisation managing
the campaign.
A letter of complaint normally has no budget behind it; well this one didn’t anyway, and there is no control over
any form of trigger. Yet it did experience a point where interest rapidly grew significantly. Ironically, this was
charged by Aviva themselves. It became apparent that Aviva posted a link to the blog, where the letter was
embedded, on their global internal communications system. This link was posted on Thursday 23rd July 2009.
Here are the stats associated with the blog visits and views.
In the 14 day period shown above there were 3,501 visitors to the blog, which usually averages around 600
visitors per month. Not a massive number, but a very significant increase from the norm. The spike on 23rd July
is pretty obvious. The content being viewed was the complaint letter. 4,813 views of the letter for the same
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A Reputation Management Case Study - Aviva Customer Service
period, with an average time on the page of 9 mins and 9 secs. The letter was being read in its entirety. How
was the complaint being found?
Nearly 89% of traffic was coming direct - (The link posted on Aviva’s internal comm’s and links in emails). Other
referrals (blogger and Twitter) had some impact, nearly 6%. Geographically, the vast majority was UK traffic.
Please keep in mind this was only the traffic to the blog where the letter was embedded from Slideshare. For
confidentiality reasons the actual network locations have been deleted, but the spread came from 274 different
networks in this two week period.
The spike in visits was caused by the Aviva link, and therefore initially the majority of traffic was from Aviva
personnel. This was reflected by some encouraging comments on the blog post from Aviva employees in the
UK and abroad. However, due to the download capability of the letter, and the ability to circulate it; and of
course the ability to circulate the link to the blog the diversity and spread of the audience became much wider.
The next set of images represents how this occurred across the UK.
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A Reputation Management Case Study - Aviva Customer Service
Prior to posting the complaint, the majority of visits come from the region where the blog owner resides. Aviva
(main office based in Norwich) becomes aware of the complaint online. The link is posted internally at Aviva and
the visit “epi-centre” switches to naughty Norwich as indicated on the forth UK map. Visits then spread across
the UK; Norwich still maintains its majority position, however many more UK locations visit the blog to read the
letter.
Unfortunately, such regional and network information is not available from Slideshare. However, views, embeds
and downloads can be tracked.Note the irony of Google contextual paid search advertising.
The full list of available Slideshare stats can be seen below. It shows direct views and views from embeds (from
the blog and also from LinkedIn) LinkedIn displayed the letter due to an existing Slideshare embed in place to
share presentations.
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A Reputation Management Case Study - Aviva Customer Service
The total stats for the period of 15th July to 28th July 2009 are as follows:-
Total measurable views of the letter on Slideshare and the blog were 6,798.
It was downloaded 13 times, and therefore could have been circulated by
email and read without being traced.
There were 17 comments on the blog post.
Awareness on Twitter, Plebble and Moneysavingexpert.com about an Aviva
complaint was significant.
Aviva’s Secondary Response
Awareness internally at Aviva was high, and awareness was spreading. As stated in the initial response from
Aviva, there was an internal review of the complaint being
conducted. However, at this stage, there had been no
resolution. On Thursday, John Kitson the Sales and Marketing
Director made a call to express his shared concerns. He had
listened to the calls and read the letters and empathised with
the complaint. He then ensured an Aviva representative would
call to resolve the issue. This occurred shortly after John
Kitson’s call. The outcome resulted in a cancelled policy.
However, Aviva’s response which had been handled very
professionally all the way through resulted in a follow up post
on the blog to outline how the complaint had progressed; the
reasons for the complaint in the first place; and to place Aviva
in a more positive light due to their efforts and professionalism
in resolving the matter. A link was then placed from the
complaint letter to post to this update post.
It must be stated, that not every consumer who wishes to
complain would add a follow up; however, it was felt necessary
due to the way Aviva had handled the complaint. This follow up
post served to qwell the complaint interest, although further
views and downloads occurred. Plebble picked up on this post,
and placed Aviva in a positive light. Please check the last
sentence of the Plebble post.
Further Impact of the Complaint Letter on the Web
Due to the activity around the letter, the blog, Twitter, Slideshare
etc. the search engines picked up on this and ranked it highly. It
had been placed on authoritative sites and had many credible
links pointing to them. Search engines, specifically Google, has
become much faster at indexing content and what used to take
months and weeks can now take days and even hours (Google
Alerts & News). WIthin a matter of days a search for “Aviva
Customer Service” place the Plebble result at number 2 in the
rankings, and the letter on Slideshare at number 6. The blog
featured at number 11.
But what about the social web? What was the impact there? The
screenshot from addictomatic.com shows how the complaint was
picked up in the various areas for the same search term.
Coverage had extended to Friendfeed, Wikio, Delicious and
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A Reputation Management Case Study - Aviva Customer Service
Tweetmeme.
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A Reputation Management Case Study - Aviva Customer Service
Summary, Observations and Lessons to Learn
By mid August views of the letter had increased 10,000 plus. Visibility of the complaint had spread and the
‘negative sentiment” was being associated with Aviva brand terms in the search engine results. However, those
who take the time to click through these results to the blog and Plebble will see a more favourable response
should they read the detail. The probability however, is they won’t.
This proves the power of the social web. A single letter written by a consumer, with no investment other than
effort and some knowledge of social media, can gain awareness and interest. In this instance, Aviva themselves
enhanced this visibility by posting it on there internal systems. This could be seen as a bad move, however, it
encouraged some Aviva personnel to offer their apologies and concerns by commenting on the blog and
sending emails. They did not need to do this, but they did, and hence a more positive update was posted.
Such customer service/brand reputation issues can occur at anytime, so it is imperative that every consumer
brand should be at least monitoring the social web for such activity; and when they become aware of any
instances that occur they can decide upon the relevant course of action. Typically, most complaints if dealt with
effectively will result in a positive outcome and potentially create a level of brand advocacy. All complaints or
negative brand sentiment should be treated as opportunities; as opposed to acting defensively as the first
course of action...as so many organisations tend to do.
Done well, consumer brands can utilise the social web in a more proactive manner to better engage with their
consumers, by taking the time to listen and offer valuable advice and guidance; as opposed to just “marketing
products” in a very basic manner. So many brands do this and get it badly wrong.
There are many more stats and details around this case study, however, due to potential confidentiality concerns
they have been omitted. It is hoped you found this case study interesting and took away something of value.
Thanks for reading. If you’re a business and want to find out how to manage such issues or just have a
discussion around the whole subject please contact Somatica at engage-me@somatica.co.uk or visit http://
www.somatica.co.uk and have a look around. We’d definitely recommend reading our Online Brand Trust
Profiling.
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