Did you see the United Breaks Guitars video, which has now been seen by more than 5 million Youtube viewers? It's a damning expose about United's horrid handling of Dave Carroll's Taylor guitar-- and he used social media to slam back. Most successfully.
The video puts a glaring spotlight on how the quality of a company's service offerings will be transparent -- for bad and good. If a company doesn't provide the transparency, customers will.
And it also doesn't matter whether a company is participating in social media. Customers are.
What United actions prompted Dave's videos
Dave Carroll is a professional musician and member of the Sons of Maxwell. During a flight Dave took with United, he and other passengers witnessed (with their very own eyeballs) baggage handlers throwing around his Taylor guitar during the cargo loading process. At the end of his flight, United returned a smashed guitar to Dave.
That's bad enough but what's worse is United refused to take any responsibility for its employees' willful mishandling of the expensive instrument. The musician created his United Breaks Guitars video to voice his extreme dissatisfaction with his 9-month attempt at restoration of damages.
And oh, United erked him so much he's also released a sequel and has yet a third video in planning.
Why social media is influencial
There's a reason why Dave's video, and others like it, has sparked such wide-spread attention. In a world where customers are already dissatisfied or disinfranchised, one voice can ignite the anger of a passel of these folks who have internalized anger -- and it spreads like wild fire to the detriment of the company providing the lousy service.
It becomes the quintessential “we’re mad as hell and not going to take it anymore.”
What is happening is customers have taken back control of their interactions with their vendors and service suppliers.
In the "old days," companies could often get away with "hiding" their lousy service or products because the cost to a customer to expose their experience across the market proved too high. In a social media world, however, the costs are low to non-existent (unless you're more inspired to go more upscale in shouting your dissatisfaction like Dave). Additionally, mutiple voices can readily band together.
What this means is your business must be sustainable with transparency because your customers will force transparency on you whether you want it that way or not.
Of course, the opposite can happen too and social media channels can spread good news about companies and their services. I'll have a dandy example tomorrow.
Who we trust has changed
Paul Greenberg makes offers up a salient quote about trust in today’s world:
Since 2004, "someone like me" is the most trusted source, not businesses, NGOs, government agencies or corporate leaders. That means that peer trust is how influence and impact germinates and then propagates most effectively - at least as of now.
It’s why companies should of:
- Offer diverse service channels that invite the participation of their customers,
- Monitor and participate in the social media channels where their customers flock.
Social media is here to stay. Find ways to leverage it to your benefit but understand it's not about you controling the channel or the way your customers talk about you. To be successful in social media is to recognize it's about sharing information with your customers and sharing control of the message.
Update (8/25/09 at 1:13 pm EST):
Michael Selissen, a Marketing communications writer and consultant, commented on my article via LinkedIn and I thought readers here would find his comment interesting.
I found it interesting that Taylor Guitars (the brand Dave owns) jumped on the opportunity and created their own video to give guitar-toting air travellers some advice and urge owners of broken guitars to give them a call, even " if your guitar isn't a Taylor..." http://bit.ly/Oqgxe
Taylor is one company who is effectively leverage social media. They seized the opportunity to extend someone else's story to showcase their own company and services. Their video is short and simple and it looks like they made it with a video camera, nothing fancy. They provide an avenue for traveling guitarists to get more information to safeguard their asset and make a plug for their own services.
It's a brilliant and effective social media response -- and a great way to build customer loyalty and attract prospects.
For an example of another, check out Rackspace Email.
Related articles:
Rackspace Email – Integrating customer service & interaction viamulti-channels