Social influence and relocation

If you're one of the people that still don't think there's anything to all the ballyhoo surrounding social media, suggest you take a few minutes to read about how one upset customer used her networking muscle to bring a multi-billion dollar, publicly traded corporate giant to its knees. All because she couldn't do her laundry.

Even though the prolific blogger included in the Forbes article claimed to have minimal impact on Whirlpool's overall business worldwide, potentially there are close to a million Twitter followers who MIGHT sympathize with the angry mom's plight and take her criticisms about the company's customer service response into account when it comes time for them to buy a new washer. At $400 a machine, that's not exactly chump change.

To make matters even worse, the Forbes article has already been retweeted over 1200 times just today. The message will undoubtedly make it's way into many boardrooms before the social influence impact in this particular media incident runs out of steam.

There's a powerful message hidden deep inside this situation. How prepared – and empowered – are your front line employees and service providers at handling these types of social interactions?

It's probably no surprise that those in the moving and storage business don't have a very good reputation with the general public. After all, our customers only contact us when they're undertaking one of the most stressful events in their lives.

When you move stuff, it sometimes gets broken, lost, damaged or delayed. That's expected, right? Those kinds of problems are routinely handled as a normal part of the customer dispute and claim resolution process throughout the relocation industry, But what happens when an angry customer – someone who doesn't understand the law or the regulatory process that licensed household goods motor carriers must adhere to – goes 'viral' with their customer service complaints?

Online media expert and social CRM strategist, Jeremiah Owyang, offers an excellent case analysis about this mommy blogger's situation and the implications that his might have your company's reputation in his report Companies Should Factor ‘Social Influence’ Into Total Customer Value .

Anyone care to guess how many mommy bloggers and Twitter users there are who are contemplating a relocation? The bigger question might be 'Do you even know where to go to find out?'

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