Tales of Customer Service
It seems appropriate that during the week of Halloween that so many tales of customer abuse would be making the news. It seems that Web 2.0 can be a REALLY scary proposition for businesses who don't make customer service a top priority.
Earlier this week, the story broke about the little old lady who took a hammer down to her local Comcast office to let off a bit of steam. Almost simultaneously, Fix Your Thinking announced that they finally have legal closure (and victory) over a poor review offered via a blog for a local business.
Long ago, when I was an account executive with an advertising agency, I remember spending an entire weekend on the phone with a client who was FURIOUS over an editorial in his home town newspaper. He was DESPERATE to retaliate, and was willing to spare no expense by running full pages and a full electronic media saturation to "clear" his company's name.
Fortunately, the agency owner was not the "quick buck" kind of person. She STRONGLY suggested to my distraught client that he settle down and instead of engaging in a smear campaign, instead take the high road and invest those dollars "productively".
Her exact wording, which I delivered to my client was this: "Poop stinks most when it's stirred." OK... that's not a direct quote. She used a much more colorful term for the fecal matter... the the thought is what counts.
Instead of "stirring" the poop, we (the agency) advised the client to ignore the attack. He did and it's amazing how QUICKLY the whole incident lost steam.
Ah, if only Bidzirk had consulted someone in the PR business. Over the past 18 months, they've been embroiled in a legal battle... over a review by a disgruntled customer. Would it not have been cheaper/easier/faster for Bidzirk to APOLOGIZE ?
A word of advice to the owner of Bidzirk, mkemorize the universal retail mantra.
"The customer is ALWAYS right"
I had a quote from an attorney for $3000 to compose a "cease and desist" letter to a web development firm in New Zealand who stole every word of content from my home site and posted it as their own. (They changed the copyright notice to reflect the date they stole the content.) Instead of paying that much to send a letter, I decided to take the site down and launch a blog instead. At least that way, it's harder for them to stay current with their theft. I can only imagine the cost involved in pursuing this legal matter.
Earlier this week, the story broke about the little old lady who took a hammer down to her local Comcast office to let off a bit of steam. Almost simultaneously, Fix Your Thinking announced that they finally have legal closure (and victory) over a poor review offered via a blog for a local business.
Long ago, when I was an account executive with an advertising agency, I remember spending an entire weekend on the phone with a client who was FURIOUS over an editorial in his home town newspaper. He was DESPERATE to retaliate, and was willing to spare no expense by running full pages and a full electronic media saturation to "clear" his company's name.
Fortunately, the agency owner was not the "quick buck" kind of person. She STRONGLY suggested to my distraught client that he settle down and instead of engaging in a smear campaign, instead take the high road and invest those dollars "productively".
Her exact wording, which I delivered to my client was this: "Poop stinks most when it's stirred." OK... that's not a direct quote. She used a much more colorful term for the fecal matter... the the thought is what counts.
Instead of "stirring" the poop, we (the agency) advised the client to ignore the attack. He did and it's amazing how QUICKLY the whole incident lost steam.
Ah, if only Bidzirk had consulted someone in the PR business. Over the past 18 months, they've been embroiled in a legal battle... over a review by a disgruntled customer. Would it not have been cheaper/easier/faster for Bidzirk to APOLOGIZE ?
A word of advice to the owner of Bidzirk, mkemorize the universal retail mantra.
"The customer is ALWAYS right"
I had a quote from an attorney for $3000 to compose a "cease and desist" letter to a web development firm in New Zealand who stole every word of content from my home site and posted it as their own. (They changed the copyright notice to reflect the date they stole the content.) Instead of paying that much to send a letter, I decided to take the site down and launch a blog instead. At least that way, it's harder for them to stay current with their theft. I can only imagine the cost involved in pursuing this legal matter.
posted by Kathy at 2:57 PM
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