Social Media and the Social Customer

On January 6, 2012, Minhee Cho entered the Papa John’s pizza restaurant near her home in Manhattan. She ordered her pizza, but upon receiving her receipt (pictured below) was shocked to discover that the employee had recorded her name as “lady chinky eyes” instead of asking for her real name. The next morning she took a picture of the receipt and tweeted it with the comment, “Just FYI my name isn’t ‘lady chinky eyes.’” Within 24 hours her tweet had been reported by a local newspaper and viewed by over 200,000 people. (Duke)

In July of 2009 Dave Carroll, a musician, uploaded a video to YouTube (below) entitled “United Breaks Guitars.” This short music video details his experience on United Airlines as a passenger who took a simple flight, discovered that his guitar had been broken, and had poor customer service when it came to resolving (or in his case not resolving) the issue. The video went viral instantly and today boasts over 11 million views. (Bernoff and Schadler)

Early in 2010 members of the organization Greenpeace started posting comments on Nestle’s Facebook page. They were upset that Nestle was using Palm oil in their products and wanted their opinion to be heard. By using Facebook, this organization was able to bring awareness of their opinions and experience with the company to Nestle’s nearly 300,000 fans. (Bernoff and Schadler)

Stories such as these are not uncommon in today’s world. Customers dissatisfied with the service rendered by a company are likely to tweet about it on Twitter, post something on Facebook, or create a video about it on YouTube among a myriad of other internet avenues. With customers constantly on social media and customer review websites such as consumerreports.org or Yelp.com, it is not enough to have a web presence. At this time it is absolutely essential for every business, big or small, to have a social media presence as well.

Customer service has taken on different meaning with the addition of Facebook and Twitter. Employees and customers can now be connected instantly and have meaningful conversations about the service they have received. Best Buy has implemented this practice through the use of Twelpforce, employees who are over and respond to the social media. Having done this, Best Buy is now known for their customer service online. (Bernoff and Schadler) This kind of personalization has brought business closer to the consumer-especially when they respond quickly. Paul Simon, author of The New Small, says the following about the social media customer, “The social customer expects you to listen and engage with her, not only when it coincides with an e-mail blast or new feature release, but rather when she needs you. And you better respond fast, in real-time, or she will either move on to a competitor, or tell her friends about her bad experiences.” (Simon)

Around 4:30 on January 6^th, the day Minhee Cho tweeted the picture of her receipt, Papa John’s posted this comment on Facebook, “We were extremely concerned to learn of the receipt issue in New York. This act goes against our company values, and we’ve confirmed with the franchisee that this matter was addressed immediately and that the employee is being terminated. We are truly sorry for this customer’s experience.” (Pizza) Instantly Papa John’s was able to connect with their 2,000,000 fans to alleviate the situation. While their actions were great to respond so quickly, they unfortunately did not follow up on the issue. Of the 991 comments to that post, none were from Papa John’s pizza company. If they had taken the time to respond to at least some of these comments they would have been able to address some of the other customer service issues that fans wrote about and thus better promote and save their brand image.

In order to stay ahead of your competition and understand more about your customers, it is essential to be part of the social media trend. If you take part, you can ensure that you are doing what is necessary to promote your brand image and stay connected to your customers.

Sources

Bernoff, Josh and Ted Schadler. "Empowered." Harvard Business Review (2010): 94-101. Issue 7/8.

Duke, Alan. Papa John's apologizes for receipt's racial slur. 8 January 2012. CNN US. 13 January 2012.

Pizza, Papa John's. Facebook. 6 January 2012. 13 January 2012.

Simon, Phil. "Review: The Rise of the Social Customer and Social Technologies." Baylor Business Review (2011): 24-25.