In reality TV, everybody loves the “villain”. Whether it’s Omarosa from The Apprentice, or Spencer from The Hills or even Gordon Ramsey on Hell’s Kitchen – we tune in each week to see what and how they will make everybody’s life miserable. They succeed because we love to hate these characters. We talk about them at the water cooler, we share it on social media – and the show becomes ever more popular.
And now, with the ease with which consumers can publish, share and communicate their feelings about brands, the same thing is happening to businesses. Major companies are surviving, while casually infuriating millions of their customers like some villain in a reality TV show.
Some are pouring millions of dollars into advertising to try to hide it. Others benefit because they are monopolies (or near monopolies) in their industry – and most of them seem (for the most part) to be wholly uninterested in really changing consumer perception.
The American Customer Service Index rates companies based on customer satisfaction surveys and the group of companies that consistently rank the worst include companies that won’t surprise you; airlines, telecommunications companies, banks and healthcare companies.
So, What Is Being Done?
Consider Comcast. This cable giant has become one of the poster-children for using the Internet and social media platforms like Twitter and their blog to try to stem their horrific customer service perception. But while they’re scoring big points with addressing some of the “communications” issues, they are still (apparently) struggling with the systemic problems of why the customers were complaining.
Then look at AT&T. The giant telecommunications brand has been battered and frayed over the last few years because of dropped calls, bad customer support and of course, their coverage. Their initial response was to flood the airwaves with ads that drew nothing but jeers. Most recently, the company has come out with a “social media initiative” to address their issues. But according to Ted Marzilli, senior vice president of brand research company, YouGov, a company that tracks an index of Brand Value, “the problem [with AT&T] is that people on the Web are starting to blog about their problems. It’s a bit of a snowball effect.”
Marzilli goes on to say “the real issue for AT&T is how quickly can they alleviate the problem. It's interesting news that they're investing billions of dollars, but what does that mean for me as an AT&T customer over the next month, three months, six months?"
Actions Speak Louder Than Tweets
This is the real challenge for these companies. The internet brings with it, not only a flattened communications field for companies, but a flattened one for consumers as well. Giant brands no longer have the ability to solely shape their messages through huge media budgets and monolithic messages. They must engage. They must converse – and they must communicate the actions of what they’re doing much more clearly than they ever have before.
From a brand perception perspective, big brands that give lip service to a social media strategy, and engagement through the internet won’t (in the long run) fare any better than those that do nothing at all on the internet. And, some may in fact fare worse. But all will ultimately live or die by the actions they take.
The Internet and other digital platforms are fundamentally changing the way we communicate with customers. And, that’s the real lesson here. Similar to reality show villains, many of these brands will continue to be protected by their own “editors and producers”. Whether it’s a government monopoly, regulations or just some other unfair advantage – some brands just don’t need to care as much.
But what about your brand? Are you protected in a similar way? Do you need to care? You probably do. At Boyd, we’re big believers in creating holistic brand strategies that leverage the Internet to facilitate real communications and real relationships with customers in a measurable way.
It’s much easier to be a villain than a hero. Being the one people love to hate really doesn’t require much more then not caring. But in the long run, when it comes to brand villains, consumers stop caring too. That’s when the brand dies. So, instead of creating a brand that customers love to hate, we’d rather work on creating a brand that you’d hate to live without.
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