Attack of the Customers

Attack of the CustomersWhy Critics Assault Brands Online and How To Avoid Becoming a Victim Presented by: Paul Gillin, SNCR Senior Fellow 7th Annual SNCR Research Symposium November 8-9, Stanford Park Hotel www.sncr.org

Diaper Disaster “The biggest innovation for the Pampers brand in the last 25 years.” --Procter & Gamble, Feb., 2010 “I noticed that my daughters skin was red and hot to the touch.” -Rosana Shah, May, 2010

Groundswell

Relief “You can’t join a community at a time of crisis. You have to already be invested in the community. That requires investment of time, people, money.” --Paul Fox, Director of corporate communications, P&G

New Channels of Complaint Social Media Crises Reaching Mainstream Media 10 “There’s never been a better time to be a 8 6 critic.” 4 David-Michel Davies 2 Executive Director, Webby Awards 0 2005 2001 2002 2003 2004 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011Where Crises Originate Blog Companies are quick to deploy the 20% latest social media technology, yet most have not prepared for the threat Twitter of social media crises…we found that YouTube more than three-fourths could have 18% 22% been diminished or averted. Communit --Altimeter Group y 22% Other 4% Facebook Data source: Altimeter Group, 2011 14%

Out of Nowhere March 5, 2012 March 6, 2012

3/7 ABC World Newsfeatures a segment on "pink slime" The Ballad of Lean, 3/14 Congresswoman Chellie Pingree Finely Textured Beef and 41 Congress members ask the U.S. Agriculture Secretary to stop using lean, finely textured beef in the school lunch program. 3/21 Safeway, Albertsons, Sh op n Save, Farm Fresh, Kroger and Food Lion says they will drop LFTB products. 3/25 Beef Products, Inc. suspends operations in three states and idles 650 employees 4/3 Blaming the "pink slime" backlash for declines in sales, ground beef processor AFA Foods files for bankruptcy.

Weapons of Choice "I definitely never expected it to become this big,“ --Kristen Christian, 27 quoted in the Los Angeles Times "I think we may look back in a few years and say that this was the spark that caused a lot of people to say, Yes, credit unions are a better deal." --Bill Cheney, chief executive, Credit Union National Assn

Consumers in Control

Four Types of Aggressors @DavidTabango: Comcast really sucks. Oh my god, yes it does.Casual Complainers UsAirwayssucks so bad.Been sitting onThe background noise of customer relations tarmac for over an hour. Initially said 5 minutes. SighRisk: Low Verizon sucks !! WhatActivity: High the hell why dont they fix the network ughAggravation: Moderate *slams door*Strategy: Customer-focused policies

Four Types of Aggressors Extortionists Motivated by personal gain Risk: Moderate Activity: Low Aggravation: High One B&B owner who felt "coerced" into giving two customers their money back says the travel website has become a "monster". --TheWeek (U.K), Nov., 2011 Strategy: Fight fire with fire

Four Types of Aggressors Committed Crusaders USA Today photo A Higher Calling “Molly Katchpole’sopen letter to Bank of America to Risk: High withdraw the fee went viral. She closed her Activity: Low account, cutting up her debit card on camera, and moved her Aggravation: High money to a community bank. One month and 306,000 signatures later, she won: Bank of America removed the charge.” --USA Today, Nov., 2011 Strategy: Facts and education

Four Types of Aggressors Irritable Influencers Throwing Their Weight Around Risk: High Activity: Low Aggravation: High Strategy: Remain calm, prepare to fall on your sword

Is an Attack Brewing? Look for spikes in search queries Shares and retweets

Basics of Sentiment Measurement Of course you have Google Alerts Monitor Twitter for your name and negative modifiers, like “sucks,” “#fail” and “hate.” Look for frequent retweets, especially by influential people. Look for keywords relevant to your industry: “blue screen,” “crash,” “won’t start,” “overheating,” etc. Set a baseline of negativity. Everyone has a few critics Monitor “Posts by Others” on Facebook pages you own Create RSS feeds of influencers in your market Put an influencer relations program in place

Eight Essential Truths 1. Bad things happen to good companies. 2. There’s no time to think. 3. Silence is leaden. 4. Transparency is essential. Don’t lie and don’t assume. Ever. 5. The media may also be the attackers. 6. Attacks can come out of nowhere. 7. Nearly anyone can start one 8. Your solution may make the problem worse.

Three Categories Of Attack Scenario Category Three – Significant potential damage to operations or reputation. Category Two – Disruption or embarrassment, possible temporary effect on sales. Category One – annoying but not life-threatening. Prepare and rehearse response plans for each.

Attack-Proofing Your Organization  Listen constantly “Every company  Hope for the best; prepare for the worst is now sitting on electronic  Are your policies customer-focused? quicksand." --Howard  Empathy matters more than apology Rubenstein, PR guru  When you screw up, admit it  Never make it personal  Always take the high road

Thanks! Paul Gillin 508-656-0734 paul@gillin.com Site: gillin.com Blog: paulgillin.com Twitter: pgillin

Attack of the Customers

by Society for New Communications Research (SNCR) on Nov 12, 2012

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Attack of the Customers Presentation Transcript