In March, an enterprising manager at a Home Depot store in Las Cruces, N.M., posted a hand-typed sign at the store's exit entreating frustrated customers to reconsider. The sign read: "If you are leaving because we were out of stock, you couldn't locate a product, an associate wasn't available, the check-out line was too long or for any other reason, please go to the service desk, pick up the phone and dial Ext. 299 for the Manager-on-duty, and we will improve your experience."
A customer took a picture of the sign with a cellphone and sent it to The Consumerist, a blog site owned by the publisher of Consumer Reports. The Consumerist, which has as its tagline "Shoppers Bite Back," posted the photo of the sign under the headline, "Home Depot Begs You Not To Leave Their Store Because Of Their Crappy Service."
As of late May, that particular entry has 26,205 views and 77 posts in its discussion thread. Though many of the respondents are sympathetic to the sign writer's obvious sincerity, more typical are comments like this, from someone identified as PamelaKenndey: "Hey Home Depot. Do you really think that a pissed off customer is going to bother begging you for you to do your job?"
Deep into the list of responses is one from someone using the moniker HomeDepotInfo, which reads in part: "I work at The Home Depot and wanted to join this discussion... What I particularly like about this sign is that it is clearly an effort designed by someone within the aisles of that store – not a packaged corporate message from offices far away from this community." The writer characterizes the effort as an example of the "unique ways our stores are getting back to our customer-focused culture," and signs off: Sarah, Home Depot Communications, Atlanta.
Sarah is Sarah Molinari, corporate communications manager. "I wanted to post because I wanted to make sure they knew why the manager would put up that sign," she says. It resulted from a recent corporate push on customer satisfaction.
Molinari hasn't won over the hearts and minds of the Consumerist's editors, who in recent weeks have run posts including "Everyone Hates Home Depot" and "Worst Company In America: Home Depot Vs. Citibank." And the Consumerist doesn't have an online monopoly on Home Depot potshots, since there's not one but two Web sites with the domain name "homedepotsucks" – a .com and a .org version.
Companies have learned, after a few years' experience, to largely ignore the YourCompanySucks sites for the crackpots they are. They've learned when to engage on sites with an agenda like the Consumerist's. Yet there's an entirely different – and raging – stream of raw conversations going on about companies in the social Web, and companies haven't figured out which ones they need to worry about. It could be a string of customer complaints on Twitter Inc. , a clutch of employees blowing off steam on Facebook (Nasdaq: FB) on a Friday afternoon, or someone posting company video on YouTube Inc.
The potential exists for that kind of chatter to erupt into a full-fledged online reputation crisis. Even more likely, the stream of conversation will bubble along unnoticed for a long time – never provoking a crisis, but all the while revealing problems companies should know about so that executives can decide whether to act.
So what, if anything, should companies do to protect themselves in online social media?
Savvy companies are using online social media for customer interaction, providing a platform for critics to vent and for loyal fans to help generate ideas for new products and ways to improve service.
I also agree with you that I like when companies address the posts. When looking at the reviews, however, I find myself wondering about the source of the post and the intentions of the person posting. For smaller companies, I often wonder if it is the owner’s who are posting with rave reviews? For negative comments I wonder if it is someone who has had a conflict with someone at the company and therefore has an axe to grind? So while I do read reviews, it does not substantially impact my purchasing decision and use it more as a tool for additional research.
I agree on your idea. When a customer's already agree or not happy about something. The responsible party of the company, should try they best to resolve the issue. After all, the angry customer tends to spread a word faster than the happy one.
I am sure there would be a research or a book written about it. If you found such article, please let's me know, I am also interested to see what the result of such a paper would say.
Thank-you for advancing this topic and for sharing a well written report. The first few sentences pretty much lay out the difficulties companies and brands face when dealing with an online reputation crisis. The tips are short and sweet, and we suggest adding a regimen of daily online reputation monitoring. In the digital age, a response a day or two late may translate into increasing hostility (even when incidents, critics and claims appear completely unreasonable), so staying on top of incidents is key to devising an outreach and engagement strategy.
One misconception about getting involved in the social Web and having an online presence is to mitigate reputation risk, and while this certainly is an important consideration, maintaining a positive online image for your company/brand and engaging in relevant conversation plays just as important a role in any businesses sustainability model as does keeping good balance sheet health.
Great article on brand reputation. I applaud the organizations that choose to engage and not choose to ignore the social web. As you pointed out in your article, the conversation is happening with or without you, so it's better to engage.
I had a positive experience yesterday with @GMBlogs on Twitter. I read a blog post about GMs new reinvention website and wanted to check it out. I saw they are on Twitter so I clicked on the Twitter link. I was surprised that I was presented with a dialog box giving me legalese about leaving a GM property and they are not responsible for other site's content, etc. I was taken aback and thought this is not the way to engage. This is a lawyer thinking the old way. I tweeted this to @GMBlogs and someone repsonded. I showed them that one of their competitors doesn't handle the social web the way they do and the response was they would pass my comment along to their web people. I was impressed and will see if they change anything.
This is clearly a troubled brand that is willing to engage. We shall see if they make positive change.
The image of that hand-lettered sign scrawled by the hapless HD employee made me chuckle. I am fortunate enough to live in a neighborhood with a century-old hardware store where employees literally line up to help you; we even have a house account and don't carry cash when we stop by for nails or a new trowel. Home Depot? Ain't darkened its doorstep in years. But I digress....
Savvy companies of any size can harness social media and other Web applications to help approximate the kind of customer-service my parents (and increasingly, I) lament is a thing of the past (my beloved hardware store notwithstanding). Ford, hardly a startup, has a wonderful fellow running the show on Twitter. Zappo's, which I can't believe is 10 years old, has made inroads with an amazing free shipping policy and an extremely searchable Website for as long as I can remember, and now of course has a funny, Tweeting CEO (further cementing its many fans' loyalty). It is a *no-brainer* for a company of any size to designate someone to set up a few Google alerts, throw up a Twitter account, and periodically search the Web for mentions, strategically replying to and tracking them for the higher-ups.
Wild, unchecked growth that HD and the other big-box stores enjoyed in their heyday ain't happening in this economy. This is a silver lining: the recession, for all the pain it is causing the average citizen, company, and country, is also burning out at least some of the undergrowth that made organizations temporarily lose sight of the customers they purported to SERVE.
(Hi Jack! Nice to read you here. What a nifty report.)
DHagar, You nailed it, most large "big box" retail companies sacrifice price and selection for quality of service and experience for the consumer.
I was fortunate enough to meet Bernie Marcus, one of the founders of Home Depot. Sarah's heart felt attempt at putting the "home" back in Home Depot woujd have been relished by Mr. Marcus.
His vision, has long been sold out to corporate America. But Sarah, bless her heart, still believes in what Bernie believed back in 1978.
With 2193 big box stores, it will take many a Sarah to turn this cancerous tumor of corporate America to realize the consumer is the back bone of their existence.
Great article, John, and demonstration of some companies, and management, still not getting it!
Interesting approach to communication to the customer, but clearly it sends a louder message that Home Depot is frustrated with its own systems and has actually created a "pseudo" system to deal with complaints. This suggests several things. First and most important, as you point out they are missing the key opportunity to "respond" directly to the customer. Second, it appears Home Depot needs to support their management, and build a culture of accountability, to prevent the errors and provide good customer service. Third, they do not get it that the social networks provide an opportunity to turn the bad experience into a positive image and response to the customer with transparent evidence of commitment to overall customer service.
I think successful companies of the future will inherently build those capabilities and follow your excellent rules.
In re that army of Msft "shills..." Yes, I think their handiwork is much in evidence in this fluffy piece on TechCrunch.
"Nailed search" indeed. That's a bit like nailing beef, or sitcoms, or laundry detergent or any other commodity market where most users aren't really seeking improvements -- competition and choice, maybe. But that's a different rant.
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