Customer Satisfaction and Reputation Management

Seth Godin, author of many books on marketing, spoke at a conference a few years ago on the topic of ‘Why are So Many Things Broken” and the 20 minute video is worth watching to remind ourselves of why we must be vigilant as customer satisfaction advocates to the customer’s view. Always look at the products and processes from the customer’s perspective. In his video, Seth talks about the 7 kinds of ‘broken’ with many humorous examples.

Here’s an excellent recent overview video on Social Media statistics. It is oriented towards executives and marketing departments. But there are lessons for Customer Satisfaction, customer service and public relations professionals as well.

United Airlines is in the news again. After the fiasco with United Breaks Guitars, a video that went viral on Youtube about a damaged guitar, United lost a passenger’s luggage and even after 6 weeks, refused to refund the $25.00 baggage fee they charged. The passenger filed a small claims complaint in a US court. He also wrote about it in Yahoo Finance.

BP’s Oil spill has put it in the spot light, mostly with negative publicity. BP has attempted to fight back with improved communications on the $20 Billion fund, a new leader and Gulf Coast Restoration organization, clean ups and preparations for hurricanes. It has prepared 4 videos on these subjects but then make them hard to find except on the BP site. Small changes in the company website to improve search engine optimization would help BP’s reputation management cause.

Tony Hayward, CEO of BP appeared before a US Congressional Committee to address the recent Oil Spill in the Gulf of Mexico. Despite using the tried and true customer satisfaction remediation technique of Acknowledge the problem, Apologize and Demonstrate actions, the best practice failed. Why? Attitude and lack of emotion. Contrast to a recent speech by Obama on his actions relative to BP also included in this post.

BP’s oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico is in the news regularly, with efforts to control the flow of oil from the well and clean up the mess. It goes without saying that anyone affected by the current BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico will be very concerned. The environment and eco system are endangered. Tourism in the affected areas are suffering as tourists cancel their plans to visit affected beach areas. Even if the oil doesn’t show up on shore, the smell of the oil may carry for miles. A group of Grannies in Florida wrote a song on Youtube complaining about Halliburton and BP which may very well go viral. At the time of writing, almost 16,000 people had seen the video. Video comments take very strong positive and negative views of deep sea oil drilling, the Grannies themselves and about BP and Halliburton.

The recently released Social Media Revolution 2 video shows some very surprising statistics for Facebook and Youtube. Will traditional customer survey processes survive in the consumer market place?

Toyota’s Reputation Management efforts took another hit with a new investigation by the US Government National Highway and Traffic Safety Administration. It appears Toyota stalled on a recall concerning a Steering Defect for Toyota pickups, T100s, and 4Runner SUVs built between 1989 and 1998. The steering problem had been identified in 2004 and recalls were done in Japan but failed to alert the US authorities for as much as a year. Some positive news for Toyota includes improved sales and profits and the removal of Consumer’s Reports ‘Don’t Buy’ Designation from its 2010 Lexus GX 460 SUV after electronic stability issues were resolved with a software fix.

Bravo for the US Government Department of Transportation for imposing new passenger protection rules on Airlines with real teeth fines for failing to comply. New rules include the 3 hour Tarmac Rule (US Domestic Flights), provisions for international flights, fines for chronically late or canceled flights, and a requirement to publish the Airline’s complaint process prominently, a requirement to document the Airline’s customer service plan and report back to the DOT after self auditing. Passengers have a way to report non-compliance.

On Tuesday April 13, 2010, Toyota suspended the sales of the GX 460 Lexus after a report from Consumer’s reports called the SUV a safety risk. Another report shows that Toyota routinely engaged in questionable, evasive and deceptive legal tactics when it was sued. One has to wonder what else is being hidden. Toyota is spending millions on advertising and discounts trying to revive its reputation. But these latest new releases are a severe blow to that effort.