Price Chopper's Fail in Social Media & Customer Service
I might have just caused a bit of a stir on line. I might have taken an hour out of my day to spread a story that for a few reasons just entirely hit a nerve with me - which is saying something because it usually takes a lot for me to get angry. An awful lot to be honest. I am a social media marketing professional, and I like to think that people are learning from previous social media mistakes. Look at Dominoes or Nestle for example. Clearly this is not the case.
A Case of Terrible Customer Service Using Social Media
After reading this Tumblr today, I am outraged. The gist? Last week a person (Random Customer X) decided to tweet that Price Chopper (a north east chain grocery store) was not Wegmans (another north east chain grocery store) and showed a picture. This was a private twitter account and did not bash anything, just merely stated an opinion of liking one store over another. The PR person for Price Chopper responded to us both because I had agreed with Random Customer X's initial tweet, as did a few others. I responded to this random PR person that I never found the stores to be particularly clean and also preferred Wegmans but since I had not been in quite some time, maybe I would try again. Random Customer X stayed true to his/her opinion saying that he/she just did not prefer the store because of it's lack of cleanliness.
What happened after is where it starts becoming a social media nightmare. Price Chopper contacted Random Customer X's supervisor as well as seemingly random executives at the customer's place of employment! They stated that this customer was negative and should be dealt with and could jeopardize relations between the two companies - which I am unclear at this time if there are actually relations between the two companies, but there may be. Basically, read the above link for specifics.
The Backlash
By now, maybe more than one hour later, this story has spread throughout twitter and facebook and been ReTweeted well over 150 times, and there are 25+ comments and growing on the above Tumblr. Chris Brogan (Author of Trust Agents) even sent out a tweet saying that the company should have handled it better.
It's a case for social media. And the gross misuse of power that it gives anyone. Someone was listening, engaging, paying attention - fantastic! However someone went above and beyond and well over the line. If someone has a negative complaint you handle it more effectively. Which is why...
It's a case for customer service. If someone was in your store yelling at the top of their lungs that they hated your facility, what would you do with them? Probably ask them to leave, but you wouldn't inquire where they worked as long as they left peacefully and the police didn't need to be involved, right? Only when the police arrive and arrest you do those details get leaked. So why would it be any different online?
And the question here, is why - if that person and I both said negative things to the same PR person - did that employer get called over mine? Not that I'm asking for it, but just leads to think that maybe there's some kind of grudge. I'm not going to get into a conspiracy situation here, but it's more just curious. Maybe I responded better than Random Customer X by saying I would at least go into the store. I don't know and never will.
What's Next?
At the end of the day, Price Chopper responded in one of the worst ways you could ever think of. Will this Random Customer X ever return to Price Chopper? Probably not. Will I ever return to Price Chopper, most definitely not. Are there now hundreds if not thousands of people out there reading these blogs and tweets that were first introduced to this store negatively? Yes. Are there more pressing issues in the world than a poor misuse of social media? Of course. I only wish I tweeted half as much about the Pakistan Floods for a friend as much as I did about this today, but at this moment - the idea of a company getting away with nearly costing someone their job in the time of a recession is just unacceptable.
You are allowed to create a social media policy for your company and ask your employees to follow it.
You are not allowed to create a social media policy for your customers! It is the most basic form of free speech one has.
A Case of Terrible Customer Service Using Social Media
After reading this Tumblr today, I am outraged. The gist? Last week a person (Random Customer X) decided to tweet that Price Chopper (a north east chain grocery store) was not Wegmans (another north east chain grocery store) and showed a picture. This was a private twitter account and did not bash anything, just merely stated an opinion of liking one store over another. The PR person for Price Chopper responded to us both because I had agreed with Random Customer X's initial tweet, as did a few others. I responded to this random PR person that I never found the stores to be particularly clean and also preferred Wegmans but since I had not been in quite some time, maybe I would try again. Random Customer X stayed true to his/her opinion saying that he/she just did not prefer the store because of it's lack of cleanliness.
What happened after is where it starts becoming a social media nightmare. Price Chopper contacted Random Customer X's supervisor as well as seemingly random executives at the customer's place of employment! They stated that this customer was negative and should be dealt with and could jeopardize relations between the two companies - which I am unclear at this time if there are actually relations between the two companies, but there may be. Basically, read the above link for specifics.
The Backlash
By now, maybe more than one hour later, this story has spread throughout twitter and facebook and been ReTweeted well over 150 times, and there are 25+ comments and growing on the above Tumblr. Chris Brogan (Author of Trust Agents) even sent out a tweet saying that the company should have handled it better.
It's a case for social media. And the gross misuse of power that it gives anyone. Someone was listening, engaging, paying attention - fantastic! However someone went above and beyond and well over the line. If someone has a negative complaint you handle it more effectively. Which is why...
It's a case for customer service. If someone was in your store yelling at the top of their lungs that they hated your facility, what would you do with them? Probably ask them to leave, but you wouldn't inquire where they worked as long as they left peacefully and the police didn't need to be involved, right? Only when the police arrive and arrest you do those details get leaked. So why would it be any different online?
And the question here, is why - if that person and I both said negative things to the same PR person - did that employer get called over mine? Not that I'm asking for it, but just leads to think that maybe there's some kind of grudge. I'm not going to get into a conspiracy situation here, but it's more just curious. Maybe I responded better than Random Customer X by saying I would at least go into the store. I don't know and never will.
What's Next?
At the end of the day, Price Chopper responded in one of the worst ways you could ever think of. Will this Random Customer X ever return to Price Chopper? Probably not. Will I ever return to Price Chopper, most definitely not. Are there now hundreds if not thousands of people out there reading these blogs and tweets that were first introduced to this store negatively? Yes. Are there more pressing issues in the world than a poor misuse of social media? Of course. I only wish I tweeted half as much about the Pakistan Floods for a friend as much as I did about this today, but at this moment - the idea of a company getting away with nearly costing someone their job in the time of a recession is just unacceptable.
You are allowed to create a social media policy for your company and ask your employees to follow it.
You are not allowed to create a social media policy for your customers! It is the most basic form of free speech one has.