ACORN Videos: A lesson in customer service and the power of social media
Written by Ron Desi on September 19, 2009 – 5:48 am -
You can find business lessons in the most unlikely places.
This past week, two twenty-somethings armed with a video camera caused a stir. James O’Keefe III and Hanna Giles (with the help of Biggovernment.com and Fox News) released a series of videos of Acorn employees giving unseemly tax advice . These videos promptly motivated Congress to defund the community action organization. I’m not going to get into the politics but what I will do is share what I believe is an important lesson for business.
What if customers came into your organization armed with hidden cameras to capture their experience? What if they then posted it on YouTube, blogged about it, shared it on Facebook with their 400 friends, tweeted about it, and posted still photos of the interaction on Flickr?
Are you confident that the results would be positive? Make certain that your employees (and you) act with the utmost integrity and are helpful and friendly to all customers. The days of an angry customer simply telling his or her friends about a bad customer service experience are over. Now that same customer can shout from the rooftops so to speak and alert thousands (if not millions). The megaphone is firmly in the hands of your customers.
Here are a few examples of customers broadcasting issues and complaints via social media:
Dell Hell
Popular blogger has an issue with Dell…so he blogs about it
Kryptonite bike locks
A blogger picks a Kryptonite bike lock with a simple Bic pen.
United Airlines breaks guitar
Musician David Carol writes a song when United Airlines broke one of his guitars. He posted on YouTube and the video now has over 5 million views.
If by chance you are ‘Acorned’ what should you do? Here is a great step-by-step guide from brandseye.com titled 10 Rules to Recover from and Online Brand Attack.
Posted in Business Insights, Social Media | 5 Comments »
September 23rd, 2009 at 11:35 am
Thomas Friedman wrote about this in “The World is Flat”. He identified 10 flatteners that assist in making the playing field more level between: industrial powers; emerging markets; companies; and indviduals. One of his 10 flatteners was ‘uploading’ which is described in Wikipedia as “Communities uploading and collaborating on online projects. Examples include open source software, blogs, and Wikipedia. Friedman considers the phenomenon “the most disruptive force of all.”
This Acorn situation is a huge story not only because of the politics involved but because it was performed by two twenty-something kids and Not Sixty Minutes or Dateline 20/20.
September 25th, 2009 at 11:12 pm
I have a business lesson for you Ron. If you are going to out a link to your Twitter account on your profile page make sure it is the right one. http://www.screencast.com/users/rhysatwork/folders/Jing/media/8cc83e27-b9f3-49c3-b388-f640c92e0568
I suspect this is an error but if that really is your Twitter account maybe you should practice what you preach.
I should say that I agree with most of the things you have written and I do not post this in anymosity. I was actually researching you after reading one of your posts and considering referencing it in a University Assignment…. this got me wondering if I should.
Cheers,
Rhys
September 28th, 2009 at 7:37 am
Mike L: Social media has certainly shaken things up a bit in terms of control.
Rhys: I got your tweat so thanks for letting me know about the error. Regarding your comment…what can I say, I’m human too and I guess I made a mistake regarding my Twitter ID.
September 28th, 2009 at 3:53 pm
I hear you Ron, I have made my fair share of those. Good to see you have changed it.
BTW I did reference you in my paper. Just an Undergrad paper though so no big deal.
Cheers,
Rhys
September 28th, 2009 at 6:10 pm
Rhys – thanks. It might be my first “citation”! I just did my bio and will update my “About” section. Thanks for the kick to get it updated.