Customer Relations Fiascos

CUSTOMER RELATIONS FIASCOS satisfaction FACEBOOK Facebook changed their privacy policy by adding a clause saying that users, by signing on, give Facebook "an irrevocable, perpetual, non-exclusive, transferable, fully paid, world- wide license" to use, retain, and display con- tent posted to the site. Facebook also removed language that says the license expires when a user leaves the site. This was brought to atten- tion by a blog called The Consumerist, which posted an article saying "Now, anything you upload to Facebook can be used by Facebook in any way they deem fit, forever, no matter what you do later." Multiple Facebook groups popped up protesting the changes, including one called "People Against the new Terms of Ser- vice," that acquired more than 38,000 members when the story broke. Following the massive uproar in the blogosphere as well as on Facebook's own profile pages, Mark Zuckerberg explained that the company "received a lot of questions and comments about the changes and what they mean for people and their information." They went on to retract the previous changes and reverted to their old terms of service. Response rating: UNITED AIRLINES Backlash: The third of his videos went viral and currently has over 9 million views. United Airlines was doused with a flood of nega- tive tweets and comments on their Facebook page. The Fiasco: Guitarist Dave Carroll was flying United Airlines when he witnessed baggage handlers roughly throwing his $3500 quitar. Carroll tried for nine months to get United own up to the fact that they broke his guitar, but they refused to reimburse him. Carroll went on to write three songs about United's shoddy cus- tomer service. The Company's Response Although they addressed the pressroom and posted some tweets, most people were not appeased, saying they never gave Carroll the apology he deserved. Response rating: ***** DOMINO'S PIZZA In 2009 Disgruntled Domino's Pizza employ- ees posted a video on Youtube that showed them talking about the mischief they cause in their store. One person is shown putting food up their nose and then placing it on a customer's sandwich. Domino's received a slew of negative press from this. The video took a temporary toll on the quality and buzz ratings of the chain. Zeta Interactive's measurements showed Domino's buzz ratings, which were previously 81% positive, dip to 64% negative following the release of the video. Domino's US CEO, Patrick Doyle, came out swinging. He quickly issued a video response offering his sincerest apolo- gies for the video and assuring customers that it was an isolated incident. Domino's also used Twitter to promote and thank customers who provided positive twe about the brand. Response rating: SOUTHWEST AIRLINES The Fiasco: Backlash: The incident generated a cavalcade of social media response. In a span of just six days following the event, the social world provided 3,043 blog posts, 5,133 forum posts and 15,528 tweets about Smith's experience with the airline. Southwest Airlines booted director Kevin Smith off of a flight from San Francisco to Los Angeles for being too fat. Because of his sub- stantial circumference, he would have had to buy an extra seat. But because he was flying standby and there were no available seats, he was asked to leave the plane - and was given a $100 voucher. Kevin proceeded to Tweet about The Company's Response Within 16 minutes of Smith's first tweet, the airline responded with "@ThatKevinSmith hey Kevin! l'm so sorry for your experi- ence tonight! Hopefully we can make things right, please follow so we may DM!" Kevin continued to tweet and Southwest got serious. They posted their version of the story on the blog, explaining why it happened and offering a sincere apology. the issue to his 1.6 million followers. Response rating: ****★ TOYOTA Toyota's ad agency, Saatchi & Saatchi created a behemoth of a problem for the already recall-stained brand. The agency opened a video competition to promote the Yaris, offer- ing $15,000 in total prize money. Because of poor promotion, they sent an email to their production house telling them that if they create a video they are likely to win because of the lack of entries. The video they chose to win was not only seen as sexist and lewd, but also as Toyota-endorsed, high quality content. The backlash took almost a week to begin, but once it did the negative comments went rampant across the social media world. Although the problem was created by Saatchi and Saatchi, Toyota had to clean up the mess. They subsequently removed the video, but didn't do too much more than that. Response rating: ****★ MOTRIN The Fiasco: Motrin created a "slick" video narrated by a woman who describes how, although wearing a baby in a sling is fashionable and a real bond- ing experience, it makes mothers cry more because of the pain it subjects them to. Backlash: WEAK. YOUR BABY The video went viral, but not in the way they desired. Only hours after the video was launched moms everywhere posted blog articles, tweets and Facebook updates about how they were offended by the campaign. It went on to become one of the most popular subjects to tweet about the whole weekend and over 100 blogs posted articles with headlines like, "Motrin Makes Moms Mad" and "Motrin Giving Moms a Headache". seem to b ir The Company's Response VP of Marketing, Kathy Widmer, had the site shut down and posted an apology to all offended moms. Unfortunately, the print ads in magazines were unable to be removed. Response rating: ***** CUSTOMER RELATIONS FIASCOS satisfaction FACEBOOK Facebook changed their privacy policy by adding a clause saying that users, by signing on, give Facebook "an irrevocable, perpetual, non-exclusive, transferable, fully paid, world- wide license" to use, retain, and display con- tent posted to the site. Facebook also removed language that says the license expires when a user leaves the site. This was brought to atten- tion by a blog called The Consumerist, which posted an article saying "Now, anything you upload to Facebook can be used by Facebook in any way they deem fit, forever, no matter what you do later." Multiple Facebook groups popped up protesting the changes, including one called "People Against the new Terms of Ser- vice," that acquired more than 38,000 members when the story broke. Following the massive uproar in the blogosphere as well as on Facebook's own profile pages, Mark Zuckerberg explained that the company "received a lot of questions and comments about the changes and what they mean for people and their information." They went on to retract the previous changes and reverted to their old terms of service. Response rating: UNITED AIRLINES Backlash: The third of his videos went viral and currently has over 9 million views. United Airlines was doused with a flood of nega- tive tweets and comments on their Facebook page. The Fiasco: Guitarist Dave Carroll was flying United Airlines when he witnessed baggage handlers roughly throwing his $3500 quitar. Carroll tried for nine months to get United own up to the fact that they broke his guitar, but they refused to reimburse him. Carroll went on to write three songs about United's shoddy cus- tomer service. The Company's Response Although they addressed the pressroom and posted some tweets, most people were not appeased, saying they never gave Carroll the apology he deserved. Response rating: ***** DOMINO'S PIZZA In 2009 Disgruntled Domino's Pizza employ- ees posted a video on Youtube that showed them talking about the mischief they cause in their store. One person is shown putting food up their nose and then placing it on a customer's sandwich. Domino's received a slew of negative press from this. The video took a temporary toll on the quality and buzz ratings of the chain. Zeta Interactive's measurements showed Domino's buzz ratings, which were previously 81% positive, dip to 64% negative following the release of the video. Domino's US CEO, Patrick Doyle, came out swinging. He quickly issued a video response offering his sincerest apolo- gies for the video and assuring customers that it was an isolated incident. Domino's also used Twitter to promote and thank customers who provided positive twe about the brand. Response rating: SOUTHWEST AIRLINES The Fiasco: Backlash: The incident generated a cavalcade of social media response. In a span of just six days following the event, the social world provided 3,043 blog posts, 5,133 forum posts and 15,528 tweets about Smith's experience with the airline. Southwest Airlines booted director Kevin Smith off of a flight from San Francisco to Los Angeles for being too fat. Because of his sub- stantial circumference, he would have had to buy an extra seat. But because he was flying standby and there were no available seats, he was asked to leave the plane - and was given a $100 voucher. Kevin proceeded to Tweet about The Company's Response Within 16 minutes of Smith's first tweet, the airline responded with "@ThatKevinSmith hey Kevin! l'm so sorry for your experi- ence tonight! Hopefully we can make things right, please follow so we may DM!" Kevin continued to tweet and Southwest got serious. They posted their version of the story on the blog, explaining why it happened and offering a sincere apology. the issue to his 1.6 million followers. Response rating: ****★ TOYOTA Toyota's ad agency, Saatchi & Saatchi created a behemoth of a problem for the already recall-stained brand. The agency opened a video competition to promote the Yaris, offer- ing $15,000 in total prize money. Because of poor promotion, they sent an email to their production house telling them that if they create a video they are likely to win because of the lack of entries. The video they chose to win was not only seen as sexist and lewd, but also as Toyota-endorsed, high quality content. The backlash took almost a week to begin, but once it did the negative comments went rampant across the social media world. Although the problem was created by Saatchi and Saatchi, Toyota had to clean up the mess. They subsequently removed the video, but didn't do too much more than that. Response rating: ****★ MOTRIN The Fiasco: Motrin created a "slick" video narrated by a woman who describes how, although wearing a baby in a sling is fashionable and a real bond- ing experience, it makes mothers cry more because of the pain it subjects them to. Backlash: WEAK. YOUR BABY The video went viral, but not in the way they desired. Only hours after the video was launched moms everywhere posted blog articles, tweets and Facebook updates about how they were offended by the campaign. It went on to become one of the most popular subjects to tweet about the whole weekend and over 100 blogs posted articles with headlines like, "Motrin Makes Moms Mad" and "Motrin Giving Moms a Headache". seem to b ir The Company's Response VP of Marketing, Kathy Widmer, had the site shut down and posted an apology to all offended moms. Unfortunately, the print ads in magazines were unable to be removed. Response rating: ***** CUSTOMER RELATIONS FIASCOS satisfaction FACEBOOK Facebook changed their privacy policy by adding a clause saying that users, by signing on, give Facebook "an irrevocable, perpetual, non-exclusive, transferable, fully paid, world- wide license" to use, retain, and display con- tent posted to the site. Facebook also removed language that says the license expires when a user leaves the site. This was brought to atten- tion by a blog called The Consumerist, which posted an article saying "Now, anything you upload to Facebook can be used by Facebook in any way they deem fit, forever, no matter what you do later." Multiple Facebook groups popped up protesting the changes, including one called "People Against the new Terms of Ser- vice," that acquired more than 38,000 members when the story broke. Following the massive uproar in the blogosphere as well as on Facebook's own profile pages, Mark Zuckerberg explained that the company "received a lot of questions and comments about the changes and what they mean for people and their information." They went on to retract the previous changes and reverted to their old terms of service. Response rating: UNITED AIRLINES Backlash: The third of his videos went viral and currently has over 9 million views. United Airlines was doused with a flood of nega- tive tweets and comments on their Facebook page. The Fiasco: Guitarist Dave Carroll was flying United Airlines when he witnessed baggage handlers roughly throwing his $3500 quitar. Carroll tried for nine months to get United own up to the fact that they broke his guitar, but they refused to reimburse him. Carroll went on to write three songs about United's shoddy cus- tomer service. The Company's Response Although they addressed the pressroom and posted some tweets, most people were not appeased, saying they never gave Carroll the apology he deserved. Response rating: ***** DOMINO'S PIZZA In 2009 Disgruntled Domino's Pizza employ- ees posted a video on Youtube that showed them talking about the mischief they cause in their store. One person is shown putting food up their nose and then placing it on a customer's sandwich. Domino's received a slew of negative press from this. The video took a temporary toll on the quality and buzz ratings of the chain. Zeta Interactive's measurements showed Domino's buzz ratings, which were previously 81% positive, dip to 64% negative following the release of the video. Domino's US CEO, Patrick Doyle, came out swinging. He quickly issued a video response offering his sincerest apolo- gies for the video and assuring customers that it was an isolated incident. Domino's also used Twitter to promote and thank customers who provided positive twe about the brand. Response rating: SOUTHWEST AIRLINES The Fiasco: Backlash: The incident generated a cavalcade of social media response. In a span of just six days following the event, the social world provided 3,043 blog posts, 5,133 forum posts and 15,528 tweets about Smith's experience with the airline. Southwest Airlines booted director Kevin Smith off of a flight from San Francisco to Los Angeles for being too fat. Because of his sub- stantial circumference, he would have had to buy an extra seat. But because he was flying standby and there were no available seats, he was asked to leave the plane - and was given a $100 voucher. Kevin proceeded to Tweet about The Company's Response Within 16 minutes of Smith's first tweet, the airline responded with "@ThatKevinSmith hey Kevin! l'm so sorry for your experi- ence tonight! Hopefully we can make things right, please follow so we may DM!" Kevin continued to tweet and Southwest got serious. They posted their version of the story on the blog, explaining why it happened and offering a sincere apology. the issue to his 1.6 million followers. Response rating: ****★ TOYOTA Toyota's ad agency, Saatchi & Saatchi created a behemoth of a problem for the already recall-stained brand. The agency opened a video competition to promote the Yaris, offer- ing $15,000 in total prize money. Because of poor promotion, they sent an email to their production house telling them that if they create a video they are likely to win because of the lack of entries. The video they chose to win was not only seen as sexist and lewd, but also as Toyota-endorsed, high quality content. The backlash took almost a week to begin, but once it did the negative comments went rampant across the social media world. Although the problem was created by Saatchi and Saatchi, Toyota had to clean up the mess. They subsequently removed the video, but didn't do too much more than that. Response rating: ****★ MOTRIN The Fiasco: Motrin created a "slick" video narrated by a woman who describes how, although wearing a baby in a sling is fashionable and a real bond- ing experience, it makes mothers cry more because of the pain it subjects them to. Backlash: WEAK. YOUR BABY The video went viral, but not in the way they desired. Only hours after the video was launched moms everywhere posted blog articles, tweets and Facebook updates about how they were offended by the campaign. It went on to become one of the most popular subjects to tweet about the whole weekend and over 100 blogs posted articles with headlines like, "Motrin Makes Moms Mad" and "Motrin Giving Moms a Headache". seem to b ir The Company's Response VP of Marketing, Kathy Widmer, had the site shut down and posted an apology to all offended moms. Unfortunately, the print ads in magazines were unable to be removed. Response rating: *****