For years I’ve heard the old saying that “any publicity is good publicity”. Personally I don’t agree. Bad publicity is bad publicity and I think that’s particularly true in today’s wired world of Facebook, YouTube and Twitter. If your service or product gets trashed online, it’s going to hurt and it will never go away.
A classic example is what’s happening to United Airlines right now. Long story short, UAL broke a musician’s expensive guitar last summer and then refused, for over 9 months, to take any responsibility for their actions (click here for the details). In response, Dave Carroll and his band, Sons of Maxwell, wrote and recorded a nifty little music video entitled “United Breaks Guitars”. Since posting the video to YouTube on July 6th, the video has been watched over 3.6 million times! In addition the video has been commented on over 16,000 times and has spawned a viral outbreak of others sharing their own personal horror stories with UAL.
Of course UAL has now responded and offered to reimburse Mr. Carroll for his damaged guitar (DUH!), but it’s definitely a case of much too little, much too late (click here to see Dave’s response to UAL). The time for UAL to have made this offer was during the 9 months he was pleading his case to them. Instead, every employee he spoke to hid behind “corporate policy” and refused to help him. On the other hand, Taylor Guitars (maker of the damaged guitar) jumped on this opportunity to show their support, not only for Dave, but also for all musicians who travel and take their guitars on airplanes (click here to see Taylor’s response). A great example of a company that desires a close relationship with their customers and totally understands the new power of social media.
The moral of this story is for businesses to fix the problem when it happens, not after it blows up. When the toothpaste is squeezed out of the tube, it’s just much too hard and expensive to try and put it back in. The same is true with bad publicity. Once it’s out there, it’s almost impossible to make it go away.
Now, if you haven’t already seen it, please take the time to enjoy “United Breaks Guitars”. I think you’ll like it…
Great post Byron. And this is just the beginning. Businesses, organizations and ministries who do not take complaints seriously will soon learn that they are dealing with a customer base with POWER and they are not afraid to use it. The days of thinking stuff like this will stay under the radar are over. When the customer is upset the business or organization can seize the moment and actually come out ahead…if they get it. Sadly, most do not. In the words of Seth Godin: “The best time to do great customer service is when a customer is upset.” (found in this post: http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2009/07/winning-on-the-uphills.html)
By: Mike on July 23, 2009
at 11:13 am
Thanks for the comment Mike. You obviously ‘get it’! Thinking about going somewhere with this for my next InSite article. What do you think?
By: Byron on July 23, 2009
at 11:22 am