For corporations, the Internet has been as much of a PR nemesis as it has been a friend. Companies as deep-pocketed as McDonald's [MCD] and as all-American as Hewlett-Packard [HWP] have felt the power of rogue sites as well as customers who have decided to use the World Wide Web as their personal soapboxes. But for the savvy communicator - and for the well-intentioned business - scouring the Internet for a sampling of what your customers think is one of the wisest ways of kneading customer relations and related programs.
"You need to weigh how credible the source or comment is the way you would a letter to the editor," says Sheri Benninghoven, VP of Ketchum, the agency which handles PR for Hewlett-Packard and tracks on a daily basis what's being said about HP in chat rooms and posted about HP in news groups. "You have to decide whether this is a concern or issue you need to tackle [on the customer relations front]" and determine how you're going to proceed.
Although Benninghoven couldn't comment about specific customers' complaints from a legal perspective, she said the Internet can be a viable tool in measuring public perception, specifically what your customers believe about your company.
For Allstate - which has also been the target of online gripes - if its customer relations is anything like the media relations we encountered, we're likely to give some credence to complaint sites about the company. About 48 hours after we called the Northbrook, Ill.-based company and were told that someone would fulfill our interview request for how the company has dealt with rogue sites, we were told they couldn't come through.
Listen & Learn
In brief, it's not the timbre of the complaint (or site), rather the truth of the gripe, that needs to be explored. Just because what's on a rogue site might appear like the ranting of a lunatic, that's not enough merit to dismiss it.
To mitigate the PR damage, you need to examine whether or not there's any truth to what's being posted online and it's likely you may want to respond. Usually, because you can't respond to every individual concerned, you'll want to use a broad-stroke approach. It should be based on educating consumers about what the company is doing to rectify the situation or to present facts that might debunk the rumors.
The trick to mastering this kind of online PR is finding the right balance and using the Web as a kind of crystal ball into customer service issues that might topple out of the cyber complaint box in the future.
"You don't want to be confrontational," Benninghoven says. "But you also have to be schooled at weighing how much time you need to put into this: for every hour we spend trying to clarify what's on a Web site, that's an hour we've lost working with a publication like PC World."
In fact, HP has made customer relations one of its priorities within the past 18 months, says Benninghoven, and it's added hundreds of new phone lines; added new staff; and provided additional customer relations training for employees.
On the PR terrain, part of the problem may be that you're fully aware of how bad customer relations can impact corporate image, but those who deal more tactically (processing orders, fielding calls) on the customer-relations front may view bad customer relations as far less jarring than you do.
As you devise (or revise) communication plans based on feedback you get from business units and other departments, you must rally execs to provide continual training and mentoring for customer relations/customer service representatives. Those handling internal communications can even consider routes such as posting tips on dealing with customers every month on intranets. Also, routinely finding out, through surveys or conversations, what they're hearing from customers could very well provide a window into what stakeholder controversies or queries you'll face tomorrow.
The Power of the Online Gripe
You might be tempted to stick your head in the sand, should an angry customer ever decide to translate his or her thoughts into HTML and head into cyberspace, but experts advise that's probably not the best route to take.
Just remember the America Online debacle - it began with a lawsuit filed by some angry users (who couldn't get online) in the Washington-metropolitan area that became news on the Internet - and ended with the company later dishing up apologies left and right.
And then there's McDonald's, which had to suffer under the online glare of the McSpotlight site that got legs in response to the British duo who ushered in a wave of global criticism about the franchise's environmental and nutritional ethics.
McDonald's ended up winning a libel suit it brought but not without a media feeding frenzy erupting.
"You have to determine the extent of the problem and then you have to answer (the complaint) in any way, shape or form," says Albert Barr, president of CARMA International, a content analysis firm in Washington, D.C. "This may not be directly related but it's still on the point: the problem with Exxon was the CEO should have been the first one out there picking up the dead fish. Always know: if something goes wrong, you have to address it." (Ketchum, 916/449-6168; Allstate, 847/402-5000; CARMA, Al Barr, 202/842-1818)
How to Respond When They're 'Mad as Hell and Won't Take it Anymore'
The internal PR department needs to be made aware of the Web page and/or customers' complaints and so do the firms which handle your PR externally, especially if they're overseeing media relations and media analysis;
You can post an informative comment on the site and try to foster a discussion. This can also provide you with a sense of whether there are other angry customers out there;
Your legal department should be informed about the verbal bloodletting online;
If you decide to post an official corporate statement on someone's Web site, get it cleared by upper management and make sure it's educational - not confrontational. (Based on the nature of the statement, you might want to consult with your company's legal eagles.);
You can opt to send an e-mail to the customer or set up a link via the rogue site to refer customers back to a help desk; and
If it affects a large core of customers, address the issue on your Web site and answer all press queries about what the company is doing.
Source: PR NEWS