Juicy Info

Anyone who has had an job interview will be aware of the need to equip themselves with examples of when things have gone wrong. “Give me an example of how you overcame some sort of difficulty…” You know the sort of question. The trick is to show how you’ve handled a problem, or triumphed over adversity, turning it into a positive. No-one is perfect are they – we all make mistakes. It’s about being a bit honest and saying yeah I’m not perfect, but I dealt with a problem in this way, and I’ve learned this.

In the digital era of open conversation, brands are faced with this kind of challenge more and more. They have to be prepared to answer sometimes difficult questions in real-time conversations with customers. It can’t be particularly comfortable for them, given that many have not been used to answering these questions in such an environment. Many are rising to the challenge, using Twitter, dealing with the good and the bad in a very open environment.

Back in June, Habitat was forced to pull its Twitter account because it was improperly pushing promotions using hashtags related to the Iranian elections. The reason is a bit unclear, possibly they had a rogue Twintern. The point is they came back to Twitter this week saying ‘we’re back and this time we want to do it right for our customers …” After some serious criticism they could have just canned Twitter, but I like that they came back and faced the music.

You probably also remember M&S and the bra blunder. An attempt to increase the prices of bras for women in DD class and above. The response was pretty bad, but they listened and followed up with a major campaign saying “I’m Sorry.” They turned a negative into a very big positive, because they took the time to apologize. And it makes us love M&S even more (well me anyway).

There was some research that came out today on how travel brands are suffering from the negative criticism via social channels, which is starting to tarnish the brand. I don’t know if they are being as honest as they should be, or responding well enough. The research points to a backlash over extra charges, which is really more to do with the product. EasyJet certainly has an effective Twitter base (@EasyJetCare) dealing with people’s issues. Personally, I’ve not had a great experience with using this (they ignored me), but others have.

Moving forward, it’s going to become more challenging for brands as the groundswell of commentary continues to build. I believe we’re going to start see a lot more of the ‘open apology’ and honest approach. People are going to expect it. What do you think?

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