Usually, companies use social media networks such as Twitter, Facebook, or blogs to reach their customers, engage with them, give them an opportunity to better know the company, and interact with them in order to make their business better and also to satisfy their customers and prospects. The case of Netflix is very interesting because it shows how the company negatively handled its social networks. It really misused it by letting its customers down and leaving them waiting for a feedback or a response to their comments and complaints. By ignoring its customers' comments, Netflix was not only giving a bad image of itself and its bad management of corporate communication, but it was also showing its customers that they're not very important and that the company does not care. If Netflix was too afraid of social media and of what its customers might say, it is better not to use those kinds of social networks at all. I believe that social media helps companies in so many ways; however these companies need to be careful when it comes to using them properly and for a precise purpose.

Of course the comments are angry; Netflix has jacked up its rates by more than 60%.

Cutely enough, Netflix has couched the announcement of the rate hike in an announcement that it is offering DVD-only plans.  They tried to make the announcement seem like it was, "Hey, look at this, we're offering more features and options for you, our loyal customers," neatly tucking away and hiding the information that the new options meant outrageous price increases.

Regardless of what you think about the rate hike, however, one thing is certain: Netflix is too afraid of its customers to openly and honestly engage with them.

Lot's of company's have adopted the Twitter-Facebook "customer service" model . . apparently as a way to distract customers in the hope they will start fighting amongst themselves and forget what they are complaining about.

Joe, I just went over to the NetFlix Facebook page and saw that its latest post, announcing rate changes, has attracted over 30,000 comments... and from what I'm seeing it appears they are all angry comments, and there aren't any replies from NetFlix. A classic example of how the company is using the social medium to broadcast out but isn't addressing user concerns. Basically the company's Facebook page is simply serving as a platform for showcasing negative comments and the company's clear lack of social skills. Pretty bad!

That's a classic example of companies knowing they need to be "2.0" but failing. The CxOs simply don't understand why they need to have online presence.

Joe, Most of the companies is using social medias for advertising their products and health discussion. From your blog, I understood that Redbox had taken the social media to the next level for customer satisfaction too. It’s a creative way of thinking. Addressing and forwarding complaints through social media networks to the customer care department can help them to improve the services.

Dead on. And to those thinkning that monopolies are invincible, over here in Canada there's this company called Bell, and they thought they were invincible as well.  For a long time, they had a monopoly.

Then another big company called Rogers decided to take a piece of their pie by expanding their services.

Now Bell calls to try to bring people back claiming they've changed.  Sure, Bell isn't dead and it's still powerful, but they lost a huge amount of business and now Rogers is the dominant player as far as I know.

Not to say that Rogers is perfect by any means (there's a common hashtag of #rogersfail) but the sad part is that as imperfect as they are, many people think Bell is worse.

If I were one of those major players, I'd think right now would be perfect to introduce my new services to these vocal (soon to be my new) customers with a free trial, using the same social media services Netflix is ignoring.

Chris, you're right -- that's how companies think, and you're right that customer service from other Web companies is terrible as well. Netflix isn't a free service, so I think it owes its subscribers more in the way of customer service than a company like Facebook does (this isn't to say that I think Facebook's complete disregard of customer concerns is OK because it's not!). Also, Netflix shouldn't really rest on laurels. It's not as if another competitor can't arise. Nevertheless, your points about why they don't care all seem on target to me.

Great points and great post all around, Joe. What you're describing is reminding me of JetBlue's reaction during the whole arrested-flight-attendant debacle. Companies really don't have an excuse anymore to not use their social presences properly. We've had plenty of "lessons learned" in this space.

What is it about the Web that makes companies think that rash, arrogant responses to customer inquiries are appropriate?

I agree...for example, I would be loathe to use such an interface to:

• Manage my queue
• Read reviews
• Submit film commentaries

Those I would prefer using a more complex, web 2.0 - ish, desktop interface that emphasizes text input.

So, this points to the thought of asymmetry in the Reading and Writing experience.

For Reading (Watching, Viewing, Immersing) we tend towards big bright buttons, large clean text, and chunky stuff.   For the Writing, Creating, Developing experience, we wants lots of little tiny clicky things, and controls, and windows.