Word-of-Mouth marketing – it’s all the rage!
Just ask Heather Armstrong of dooce.com
"So that you may not have to suffer like we have: DO NOT EVER BUY A MAYTAG. I repeat: OUR MAYTAG EXPERIENCE HAS BEEN A NIGHTMARE." Tweeted blogger Heather Armstrong, founder of dooce.com.
Being a new mother, it should come to no surprise that Armstrong spent quite a bit of quality time in the laundry room. To aid in her efforts of keeping the clothes fresh, Armstrong and her husband, John, purchased a new Maytag washing machine. They bought a top of the line model and even spent the extra money on the warranty plan to ensure that their machine would be protected against any mishaps. Much to their surprise, their brand new machine broke within a few weeks of owning it. To make a long story short, after serveral attempts to get help from the appliance store they purchased from, they were told there was nothing they could do to help. Okay...wonderful. Next step – take it to the corporate offices of Maytag. Still, no help! In fact, her experience and treatment from Maytag was so off-putting that Armstrong took it to the press! More specifically, Twitter.
"DO NOT EVER BUY A MAYTAG" was the main point made in her initial Tweet. This was a fitting way for her to express herself, being a long-time blogger on her increasingly popular site dooce.com. Much to her surprise, her seemingly innocent tweet of frustration provoked a storm of responses. THOUSANDS of followers re-tweeted her comment and within the next twenty-four hours she had received phone calls from various appliance stores AND from Maytag themselves!
Now, let's be honest. In the world of advertising and marketing, it's a rather well-known fact that bad press spreads much faster than good press. I once heard that one bad experience will spread TEN TIMES! as fast as a good experience. Think about it. Let's say you have a great experience at a new restaurant in town. You leave the establishment feeling wonderful and want to tell people that the food was great and the service was impeccable. But how many people do you tell? And how enthusiastic are you really? You may mention it in passing to a few close friends, your family, but that's generally about it. Right? Now imagine that the experience had been terrible. Your waiter kept you waiting and was extremely rude, the food was cold and didn't taste very great, it was overpriced and they had the air conditioning running way too high. You're rather upset. If you're anything like me, you'll spend the next week of your life broadcasting to everyone you know, even people you DON'T know, just so you can air your frustrations. It should go without saying that everyone who hears the bad story is going to think twice before checking out that new restaurant.
This type of word-of-mouth marketing is becoming somewhat of a nightmare for organizations, especially with the increase of social networking sites such as blogs, Twitter and Facebook. It's something that organizations really must start to tune into if they want to catch the news before it spreads like wildfire.
In the case of Heather Armstrong and Maytag, her original Tweet was found by representatives of Maytag and was addressed immediately. The next morning, she had a new washing machine waiting for her at her front door. That seems pretty incredible considering the nightmare that ensued prior to her tweet.
So, what does this really mean for organizations? What can they do to monitor their online presence? I found some great ideas in Groundswell (Li & Bernoff). In the second chapter, they discuss different options for just this issue. They suggest that “if you want to get serious about monitoring, work with services, like TNS Cymfony and Nielsen BuzzMetrics, that monitor blogs, videos, and online discussion groups for mentions of your company and your competitors and gauge general sentiment.” (p.21). It may sound silly, at first, to think that there are people out there whose job is to search for comments on their organizations, but it’s becoming increasingly necessary. Not only are able to gather a general consensus on their organizations performance, but they’re also able to research ways in which they can improve and potentially attempt to stop the spread of bad press.
For more information on the Heather Armstrong case, check out the story and video on the PBS website: http://www.pbs.org/wnet/need-to-know/culture/online-the-power-of-mom/1294/
Thanks for reading! And remember, next time you send out an angry tweet…you may end up with a new washing machine on your doorstep J
