When an unhappy customer meets an unapologetic retailer, things can go badddddd... and with the help of social media, it goes from bad to worse. Recently, I watched an A Current Affair footage of a dissatisfied customer who went to shop at the retailer GASP. She filed a complaint with the customer care service about her unpleasant encounter with the floor manager, and after several heated exchanges, the customers thought she should voice her concerns on a larger platform where it is likely that the message will go viral. According to the unhappy customer, she quotes "the internet is a very powerful tool and one in which a customer like myself would be silly not to utilise".
But how far should someone go to say bad things about a retailer, or any company for that matter? Are social media sites such as FaceBook, Twitter, etc., the appropriate platform to discuss your dissatisfaction? Are there no rules when using the internet? Or are there 'unwritten' rules of how people should behave or speak within the social media sphere?
This has been massive - but I'm not sure if it is all bad for GASP. However, if social media is like word-of-mouth on steroids, then much like telling all your friends about the worst experience you have ever had, social media is just 'sharing' with others who might then keep this in mind next time they are looking for a shop etc. Beware one and all.
ReplyDeleteThis is a Marketer's nightmare! Even if GASP were trying to target a different demographic, we all know that you don't actually admit to it!
ReplyDeleteMy sister lives in Canada and she'd heard about it! I believe even Perez Hilton heard... so it definately is WOM on steroids.
But all bad? I don't know - I was at Chadstone on the weekend and was suprised by the number of visitors in the store
I think GASP sort of asked for this explosive response. If GASP had of insulted me in the same way as they insulted Keara, my first communication with the company would not have been a nicely written email. Keara was actually quite pleasant in the complaint to wrote to the head office. But if they are going to choose to respond so rudely rather than just apologise, they deserve all the bad publicity they get. Sadly I tend to agree that this incident may not hurt the brand as much as it should.
ReplyDelete@Sarah ---- we might see it as a marketers nightmare, but GASP seemed happy with the fact that their brand was achieving some attention from this whole thing!
ReplyDeleteI know they so all press is good press, but i would expect some heads to roll as a result of this one.
I think its completely understandable that consumers have something bad to say about the brand and GASP should be willing to hear it when they could provide a core function of their business - customer service. They asked for the PR and they sure got it!
The brand definitely gained some publicity, yes negative, but in my view it also helped the brand clearly position themselves. I do agree that to some extent they have suffered some serious damage, but within a day, I think the awareness created and the buzz around it, outweighed the damage. It was discussed on Gruen Transfer this week as just yet another discussion about the brand, and they actually got significant support from a very influential marketer. Also, I don't think there should be any rules, unless you are representing someone or an organisation, in which case no rules, just guidelines.
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