Blog 9

For this blog, I decided to comment on "Church of the Customer" by Ben McConnell.

I particularly liked the post entitled 'Crisis 101: now measured in minutes'. Using Amazon's censorship disaster as an example, Ben McConnell blogs about the importance of responding to crises using instant online communication, such as Twitter. It is necessary, however, to recognize the difference between addressing and solving these situations via Twitter. Twitter should only be used to say, "We are aware of this situation". Simply stating this fact might not entirely quell consumers' outrage, but it will show them that you want to solve the problem and ultimately prevent significant damage to your company's coveted brand image. Even if people do not follow Amazon on Twitter or own a Twitter account, the news will inevitably spread to other social networking sites. This "digital-driven word of mouth" can either enhance ill will or subdue it. Unfortunately, for Amazon, it failed to admit its mistake and the former situation occurred. There is even ‘Amazon Fail’ merchandise available. You would think that a company with a Net Promoter Score 36 points above the median could have handled this crisis with the grace of a market leader.

After reading Ben McConnell’s blog, I realize how powerful Twitter and other social networking sites are. Companies grappling with disasters must communicate using these websites if they want to remain in favorable public opinion. I do disagree with Ben McConnell on one point though. While Domino’s disaster was more disgusting than Amazon’s I thought Domino’s addressed the situation better. They took action quickly and did not claim to be perfect. The YouTube videos of the employees putting boogers on the oven bake sandwiches had a message reassuring viewers that the two employees had been fired. It was critical that Dominos post the message on the same video that consumers were watching. While many people will probably avoid ordering from Dominos for a while, Dominos was able to communicate that the problem was resolved. Amazon, on the other hand, continues to blame hackers and other glitches for their censorship.

The reason this post caught my attention was because I learned about the Amazon and Domino’s disasters through Twitter. At least five of the 26 people I follow provided a link describing the separate incidents on his/her feed. Until I read this post, I never considered the power of “digital-driven word of mouth”. But Twitter really is changing everything! I find out about more things through my Twitter account than any other website. In the rare occasion that I do read controversial news stories on a blog first (like the hipster grifter in New York), it’s tweeted about within minutes. One of the blogs I frequently follow commented on a fad called “Twitflix” today. Apparently, some moviegoers are twittering during movies and ruining the experience for other people. At first, I was surprised. Why would anyone spend $9.00 to twitter at a movie theatre? Then, the more I thought about it, the more I realized that these Twitterers just want to be the first layman to review these movies. Most people read reviews before they pick a movie, what’s the difference between a Twitter Review and Rotten Tomatoes? Furthermore, if you want to see a certain movie, a few 140 character Tweets are probably not going to deter you. So I’m okay with this. Tweet away movie goers!