I recently read again about the Dooce/Maytag saga (September 2009), and it got me thinking about customer service in the age of social media.
Here’s the story : Dooce, aka Heather B. Armstrong, aka THE Mommy Blogger, had a problem with her Maytag appliance that the traditional customer service function at Maytag was unable to rectify. She warned Maytag customer service that she was on Twitter and that she had over 1 million followers and that she could unleash some nasty social media pain on Maytag. Maytag either wasn’t impressed, wasn’t intimidated, had incompetent customer service, or was truly unable to provide a solution to satisfy her. She then proceeded to tell her followers to boycott Maytag and complained further in a few tweets. Within 24 hours, Maytag had her appliance repaired and Bosch appliances offered Heather a new appliance, which was donated to a shelter instead.
Some bloggers, consumers and marketers sided with Heather. Others sided with Maytag.
My point here is not to add to the debate about Heather’s actions or Mayta’s actions. That’s been discussed more than enough elsewhere.
This story is a wake up call for customer service on two fronts: one, your customer service team absolutely needs to listen, monitor and engage with customer in the social web, and two, your organization needs to have a social marketing crisis plan.
Maytag customer service didn’t understand why Twitter mattered when Heather told them she was on Twitter. Customer service didn’t comprehend the potential firestorm of bad publicity due to this one customer service problem, and the potential negative effects the issue will have on future sales. At Maytag, apparently, the organization had a disconnect since someone was listening on Twitter, but customer service was completely in the dark.
Customer service should be using a social media listening/monitoring tool to head off small problems before they become big problems, and to capitalize on positive customer feedback. Social media is a powerful customer service channel for consumers and brands alike.
And when big problems become enormous problems, your organization must be ready to act immediately. You must have a social marketing crisis plan ready to go. Luckily for Maytag, someone was listening and reacted fairly quickly to solve Heather’s problem.
One immediate positive outcome of this story? A shelter somewhere got a new Bosch washing machine. Nice.
