When Company and Customer Collide

Imagine you own  a business. You stock products that you believe in and you invest money, time and energy into your brand. One day you hop onto the internet and conduct a media monitoring scan of your company name and find a forum bagging out your company.

The question now is, do you stand idle and watch your image take a hit, or do you represent your company and provide the facts.

As a Public Relations student I believe that there are times where a company should get involved and offer their customers the facts, however I also believe there is a right and wrong way to approach this.

Oz Head is a small, Australian owned professional hair care business who claim that they 'Love' Australia. (See OzHead Website)

If I could say anything to their branding or marketing team, I would suggest using something other then an Energizer Bunny-looking mascot to promote this small, independent Aussie Company. :/

 I was recently on the hunt for a new hair straightener, and I do prefer online purchases as I have access to all reviews, prices, pictures, tutorials and information, rather then a sales hungry salesman. I came across this thread and was happily reading the reviews up to the moment where I noticed a comment from the company.

The company decided to speak up after a number of customers and forum users had bagged out the company saying that their page reviews were fake and were not genuinely reflecting the quality and credibility of OzHead.

I agreed with the approach, but not so much the manner in which it was delivered.  It started out well, but went downhill from there (in my opinion anyway)


Dialogue 
Hey Everyone,

I just wanted to drop by and say that all our reviews are from customers and we don't use any kind of farming or link providers.

The only thing that we do, is write to customers and ask if they can spare a few minutes to leave us a review. (We don't ask even for positive ones) - this is the key reason why you will find that many of the reviewers have only a single review or post. (To everyone that took the time to leave us a review THANK YOU SOOOO MUCH)

We are actually quite a small company, there's only five of us, but we work exceptionally hard to try and make sure that every one of our customers is happy.

We have personally been on the smelly end of the customer service of some of our bigger competitors in the past and it was one of the reasons that we started OzHead in the first place.

In fact, I'd say that a great many of the reviews we do get, is when people get a problem during their warranty period and its a hassle free exercise. Our target, is to get a replacement out to customers in their 3 year warranty period within 24 hours. Luckily we don't get many back.

Last but not least, we keep an eye on other products being reviewed, and you can still spot the ones that are a bit suspect, by the fact that all of the glowing reviews are interspersed with really scathing reviews

If anyone has any questions or wants to call us directly just give us a buzz on 1800 594 323. We'd be happy to answer any of the "tough" questions.

You can even see us on facebook : http://www.facebook.com/OzHead.hair.straighteners


This response was decent. It got straight to the point, subtlety promoted the point of difference for the company, pulled the 'independent, small business' card and left customers with a contact option.

Everything looked well and good until the inevitable smart mouthed comments began circulating. Customers began saying how creepy it was that the company found the thread (but as all good Marketing or communications professionals know, online and social media monitoring are so important). OzHead responded in a way completely differently to their first approach. Instead of being factual, confident and purposeful, they became alarmed with the conflict, over-disclosed information and used taboo features such as text language, sad faces and a bit of a pity party, dragging the company down to a garage.



Some may argue that this was simply giving a human touch to a business, and allowed the customer to relate to a company on a personal basis. But asking for empathy or compassion seems unappealing and begging for forgiveness almost screams a lack of brand confidence.

The next reponse from OzHead, personally, I would have also avoided.

'I will always be polite until big companies ignore me or patronise me to the point that I lose my mind.
Subaru, Sunbeam, Telstra, Optus, Crazy Johns, Dell - you all did my head in '

Maybe it's reflecting the Aussie spirit of dissing authority, praising the underdog, you know the story, but for me, any organisation that is wanting to position their brand in any dignified way needs to obscure from bad mouthing other companies.

BUT.... Here's the twist.

Once reading the review, I noticed that the majority of the comments turned from negative to positive, and the customers actually began to endorse and support the brand.
Maybe it helped that OzHead offered each particpant a coupon for a discount on their next puchase. They also partipated in girly 'hair trouble' discussions and again, resorted to language such as,

(blush) The hairdryers are really good..

Thanks to everyone for kind support in this thread - I thought I was going to get my bum handed to me on a plate for a while

 I'm still uncertain that the support was truly created due to support for the company's response, products or simply because of their discount code. I applaud OzHead for ultimately coming out with a happy customer happy company result, but I have to say, it was quite a risky and messy approach.

I had a similar 'human-touch- experience with Virgin Mobile the other month. However, instead of being insececure, showing me with justifcations, offers, their background story of being a mum with kids and blah blah... they actually just engaged me, gave me what I wanted and treated me like a person. I loved it! Their online media team was FANTASTIC at solving my SIM card issues so much so that I was even happy my phone needed repairs so that I could write about my experience some day. It did come in handy for a uni presentation.


Overall, if your company is under attack and you want to intervene on social media...

Do's and Don't s

• Read the question carefully and answer with the facts.

• Show empany towards the customers bad experience or opinion, but don't resort to a sappy story in order to get them onside.
•  Take pride in yourself and pride in your company by not selling yourself short, but by being honest and subtley promoting the point of difference of your business or product.
•  Understand the difference between professional language on social media, and casual language on social media. e.g avoid OMG, WTH, LOL
•  Sometimes it's better to state the facts and simply provide a link to your page, rather then respond extensively and in large amounts. Get in, and get out. Revisit the forum or site in a day or two if it is concerning or needs to be responded too again.