saidWot bottling the noise

I came across the following post this morning, and it just highlighted for me exactly why we are in the business of ORM again and how it actually affects business worldwide:

This gentleman posted a negative article online expressing his frustration and anger regarding a particular Standard Bank Branch.

This negative mention was seen by many of his followers online and therefore affected the online reputation of the brand in a negative way.

However, due to ORM, Standard Bank was notified of the mention and responded immediately. Their quick response and the fact that they personally contacted him twice telephonically, left the man with a positive feeling about the bank. So much, that he even decided to blog about it again and add a compliment to his previous complaint.

In addition, the fact that Standard Bank has a Twitter profile and uses this to handle complaints on the site, gave him an immediate feeling that ‘the bank cares and listens to its customers’.

This is such a great example of how Online Reputation Management could and should be used:

• Monitor and track all the mentions regarding your brand / product / employees online and categorise according to the sentiment of the mention.
• Receive feedback from your existing and potential customer base in the online world
• Make sure that when crisis mentions come through, these are escalated to the correct person within the company immediately.
• Respond to negative as well as positive feedback immediately and provide the writer of the mention with the feeling that ‘the brand / company listens to what you have to say and cares about what you have to say‘. This can be done in the form of a company or ‘personal’ Twitter account, a Facebook Profile, a Facebook Fan Page, etc. Furthermore show the rest of the online community that you care as a brand and that you are online to engage and communicate with.
• In the case of a negative mention or complaint, follow up with a personal call, email or other form of communication to resolve the issue at hand.
• Make sure that the person that follows up on the complaint is aware of all the aspects of the complaint and can assist immediately. (Having a call centre agent call the customer and not being able to assist with the actual complaint will only result in more frustration and therefore more complaints online. Making the situation even worse)
• Leave the customer with a ‘warm and fuzzy‘ feeling that will often generate a positive mention from the customer online.
• Learn from the mistakes made and make sure that they do not occur again.

In addition, other factors play a role such as:

• Learn from your competitors and see how they (do not) engage online
• Build an online relationship with your target market and be available to them in the online space
• Identify the channels used by your target market and make sure to be present on these channels.
• Engage…engage…and engage some more

by Carla Jones Comments
 

The Nestle Company is finding themselves in a bit of a mess all due to a parody video created by environmental protection group Greenpeace. The video suggests that the production of a key ingredient, palm oil, helps further the destruction of rainforests, which in turn threatens endangered species such as the Orangutang. Various social media platforms have caught on to this story and overnight created a Reputation nightmare for Nestle. It will be interesting to see how they proceed in trying to undo the damage that has been done over the last couple of days.

More on this:

The Facebook Nestle Mess: When Social Media Goes Anti-Social

Facebook Nestle fan page

Nestle mess shows sticky side of Facebook pages

Nestlé Makes a Mess on Facebook

by Sandra Olivier Comments
 

In February 2010 the total number of vehicles recalled worldwide by Toyota crossed the 8 million mark. This caused serious damage to the company’s brand. Years of denying the problem, combined with a failure to respond promptly and effectively when forced to do so, has toppled the company from automotive brand leadership. The brand which was built on safety and quality has lost its core essence. The recalled vehicles had serious defects that put the lives of customers in danger.

Vehicle recalls

• The first recall in September and November 2009 was for floor mats that could trap the pedal.
• The second recall in January, 21, 2010 was for pedals that overtime become sticky, they were hard to depress or slow to pop up when not depressed.
• On the 27th of January 2010 Toyota added 1.1 million vehicles to the original floor mat recall, the two recalls were mostly in the U.S.A and involved more than 6 million vehicles.
• In early February 2010, the car maker announced a further recall of 437 000 vehicles worldwide for the Prius to repair brake problems. About 60 000 Toyota vehicles meant for export from South Africa were part of a recent recall.

Toyota was slow to respond to complaints

Although the first complaints emerged in 2004, Toyota only started reacting in late 2009. Initially Toyota was very dismissive to customers’ complaints. The company thought their vehicles were flawless. Since 2004 it has been very difficult to investigate Toyota because its systems are kept top secret. It always delayed on giving U.S government answers relating to vehicle safety. It took a fatal accident that killed four people in San Diego to jolt the company into action during September.

Rivals swoop in on Toyota’s territory
On top of the January recall Toyota suspended North American sales and production of eight models. This caused serious harm to its brand. Soon after thousands of the car makers customers approached rivals General Motors and Ford. This enticed the rivals to snatch the company’s customers. The rivals took advantage of this situation. General Motors offered Toyota Customers payouts of up to $1,000 or zero percent financing for up to five years if they traded in their Toyota for a GM vehicle. Soon after, Ford offered a similar deal. In addition Ford started buying keywords to ensure their ads pop up in the same locations, or right next to articles in online news sites covering the ongoing Toyota debacle.

Lesson to be learnt

Although slow to respond at first, Toyota has managed to get a couple of things right since the recalls have been announced.

Senior communicators have been Twittering and blogging like crazy to fill the information vacuum and take control of the escalating situation. Websites and call centres have been established with information for worried Toyota customers. And US Chief Operating Officer Jim Lentz talked directly to Toyota drivers in a video posted to YouTube.

The company’s use of social media in this way has enabled it to get its point of view across and reach its customers directly without the filter of the media to editorialise the message. However many is of the opinion that it might be too little too late.

Toyota was ranked the world’s eighth most valuable brand last year, in a study by Interbrand, beating Apple, Disney and Intel. Where will they be in the rankings this year? Only time will tell.

by Itumeleng Tau Comments
 

Paul Jacobson from Jacobson Attorneys joins us this afternoon to help Demystify Digital Compliance.

Some of the interesting points from the presentation:

Do you think that you have some control over your brand the thing with social media is that often companies don’t
• Although people think that they have some control over their brand the thing with social media is that often companies don’t
• Web is a very different kind of space – its all about being social and are constantly evolving
• You want to get to a point where people care enough about what you are doing to tell their friends
• Not just dealing with one person in isolation, you are now dealing with one person that has 400 friends on Facebook, 200 followers on Twitter and so the reach of one person is much more important
• Traditional legal approach don’t really work when it comes to social media
• Need to also think about Employees and how they are using social media
• Manage your content licensing process – ensure you have the right license to enable sharing
• Privacy Rights is going to be the biggest issue facing us online in the next couple of years

by admin Comments
 

Ingrid Rubin features in the latest edition of the Journal of Marketing magazine. Get your hands on a copy to find out what guidelines she suggest for keeping your brand’s reputation on track in the digital world.

Ingrid Rubin featured in the latest edition of Journal of Marketing

by Sandra Olivier Comments