Wednesday, February 24, 2010

When Crisis Attacks

It seems that crisis management has been a hot topic in the news lately. Sports celebrities and major automotive companies are suffering from major hits to their reputation every day in the news. And earlier today, a popular theme park made headlines: SeaWorld experienced a terrible accident when one of its killer whales from the Shamu show attacked and killed one of their most experienced trainers.

Full disclosure: I just visited the park last week and saw the show while I was on vacation, so I felt a personal twinge on hearing the news. In addition, in a when I was with a previous employer, I had an opportunity to go behind the scenes at SeaWorld and to hear about the inner operations of the park. I can understand the devastation that must be rippling across the park staff, as both the trainers and the animals are an integral part of a very unique family there. My thoughts and prayers go out to all involved.

The team at SeaWorld and its associated parks have a solid presence online; a huge portion of their ticket sales are from the web. But outside of a blogger outing through IZEAFest, I hadn't really heard much of their social media efforts. So today, when I saw "SeaWorld" and "Shamu" trending on Twitter, I knew there was probably some unfortunate news behind it.

I'd like to take a look at some of the good things that SeaWorld did in response and some areas that need attention.

The Need for Speed

When a brand is affected by a breaking crisis, the first thing I do is check Twitter. Not just for mentions of the issue, but to see how the company is responding or if it even has an account. And in this case, SeaWorld was covered, as they have an account: @SeaWorld_Parks. As of 11:30 p.m. on February 24, there are 814 followers.

You'll note that one of the most recent updates on their account is a clear statement and link to what they had to say about the crisis:

Within a few hours, the park had updated the blog with an entry "A Message from Jim Atchison, President and Chief Executive Officer, SeaWorld Parks & Entertainment" that acknowledged the tragedy and put a human feel to the statement:

February 24, 2010
It is with great sadness that I report that one of our most experienced animal trainers drowned in an incident with one of our killer whales this afternoon, February 24, 2010 at our SeaWorld Orlando park.
We have initiated an investigation to determine, to the extent possible, what occurred. There are no other details to share at this point, but we will make our findings known in due course.
I must emphasize that this is an extraordinarily difficult time for the SeaWorld parks, and our team members.
Nothing is more important than the safety of our employees, guests and the animals entrusted to our care. All of our standard operating procedures will come under review as part of the investigation.
We extend our deepest sympathies to the family and friends of the trainer and will do everything possible to assist them in this difficult time.
We appreciate everyone’s understanding and will share more information as it becomes known and available.

Any time a crisis hits, it's a good idea for a company to have a hub where information can be posted quickly to address misinformation, provide clarity, and exhibit some semblance of control over the situation. In today's world, there's no time for weeks or even days of war gaming and message creation. Companies need to be prepared to act within a matter of hours, if not more quickly.

Fortunately, SeaWorld maintains a blog at SeaWorldParksBlog.com and has been actively blogging since September of 2009. So they've already established themselves in this space, rather than waiting for a crisis to hit to create a blog. By updating that blog with timely & relevant information, they were able to reassure the public, which is especially important at a time rumors and conflicting reports are floating around. And with an associated Twitter account, they can continue to share information.

In addition, SeaWorld has used its Facebook page to post the message from Mr. Atchison as well as to announce the incident:

But there's a little more going on here that deserves some consideration.

Not So Fast

While it's great that SeaWorld has a Twitter account and Facebook page (as well as a YouTube & Flickr account), there are a few things that are worth addressing. The first is that it's probably a good idea to get more interactive with the Twitter account (although I'll admit it may be too early yet, as information and relevant facts are still coming in). But clearly, with SeaWorld being a trending topic, there's a reason to at least acknowledge some of the concerns.

Next is the inevitability of animal rights activists who will come of of the woodwork to criticize SeaWorld for keeping animals in captivity. Based on my experience behind the scenes at the park, I know SeaWorld is very sensitive to such criticism and I can say that they're absolutely committed to caring for these animals and treating them humanely. Nothing could be more important to the staff there. However, when online activists really want to make a firestorm out of something, they certainly can. And the park staff should be prepared for that. As we can see, they already had to take action on Facebook:

Also, it's important to note that there's a second Twitter account associated with SeaWorld - in fact, it's actively promoted by the park on their home page: the @Shamu account. This was formerly the @RealShamu account, but they must have acquired the @Shamu name since the account was created. Here's a shot of their Twitter page:

It's not your typical account, as Shamu seems to have a bit of an attitude. One of his tweets from nearly a year ago reads:

Now, I get that they're trying to take on the persona of the whale, but seeing that you're dealing with an animal that is in close proximity to humans on a regular basis, I would think the team might want to take a little bit of the "killer" out of the killer whale.

Similarly, notice this back and forth between @Shamu and a follower, as recently as 5 days ago:

With over 9,800 followers on the @Shamu account - more than 10 times the amount on @SeaWorld_Parks, one would think that this would be the place for updates to be taking place. However, SeaWorld has kind of painted themselves into a corner here. Because they've used a persona and because the physical manifestation of that persona (the actual whale) was involved in the incident, one of the most popular social media channels of the park is unable to be activated.

At the very least, if I were managing the account, I would consider going back and remove any references to violence in the stream, out of respect for the victim. While that may violate the tenet of keeping conversations whole on the social web, it does show a sensitivity to this very regrettable circumstance.

In short, it's important to have a crisis preparedness plan and a rapid response strategy in place, using the tools that effectively allow a company to get messages in place and respond where the conversations are happening. And as channels are being created, it's important to understand the implications of potential negative stories and how those channels might be affected. In a crisis, a popular channel that needs to be silenced is of no use to anyone.

UPDATE: Please be sure to check the comments below. They include a great back-and-forth discussion between readers, as well as a post from someone at SeaWorld's digital marketing staff that includes information on how they're handling things.

Labels: corporate blogging, crisis, enterprise, facebook, strategy, Twitter

Posted by Scott Monty at 11:49 PM

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Saturday, October 10, 2009

Why Apple & Google Win - and Your Company Doesn't

It's all about usability.

googleproduct

Common sense dictates that the easier something is to accomplish, the more readily it will be passed along. What information do you ask your customers to submit? And of that, which is really necessary? Less is more.

Courtesy of Stuff That Happens.

Posted via web from The Full Monty

Labels: Apple, customer relations, enterprise, Google

Posted by Scott Monty at 10:03 PM

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Wednesday, September 30, 2009

Fear and Loathing in Social Media

You would think at this point that we'd be up to curiosity or even playful experimentation.

But it seems that, according to the e-tailing group and PowerReviews' survey earlier this month that brands are still hesitant to entirely give over to the power of social media for fear of (what else?) loss of control of their brand and concerns about their competence. A secondary fear is that consumers might find social sites more engaging than the brands' sites, and therefore stop visiting the brands'

sites.

I may be oversimplifying this a bit, but if I were at a brand that was concerned customers might leave my site for a better site I might, oh, I don't know...maybe BUILD A MORE ENGAGING SITE?!?!?!

That's only a start. Another course is to engage with consumers where they want to be reached. When the surveyed companies state that their goals of using social media are: to increase engagement, build brand loyalty, and spur word of mouth. If that's the case, you don't get there by (a) ignoring where the rest of the world is going; or (b) burying your head in the sand in terms of these sites.

The good news is that half of the suggested activities/sites mentioned in the survey (Facebook page, Twitter, customer reviews, blogs and viral [sic] videos) are already accepted or used by more than half of the respondents. That's a great start, but there's more potential.

Before I make a recommendation, I'd like to review a crude approximation that I've been working on - it's how some brands and agencies approach social media with trepidation. Because it's not unlike how humans deal with grief, I've developed a similar model for marketers:

The 5 Stages of Social Media Grief

(With apologies to Elisabeth Kübler-Ross.)

Denial - first stage of social media grief in which the marketer refuses to acknowledge the existence of social media. This was the case early on in the industry's development. Luckily, I don't think there are many companies left that think like this.
Common phrases: "It's just a kid's thing," or "It's just a fad."
Common behaviors: avoiding the Internet, putting hands over ears and singing "I can't heeeeeaaaarr yoooouuuuu. La la laaaaa."

Anger - In the second stage, jealousy and rage are misplaced and rage ensues.
Common phrases: "This is stupid," "I've got better things to do with my time."
Common behaviors: full-fledged slave to work email; increase in print or television media buy to show effectiveness and superiority.

Bargaining -Anger gives way to hope that incremental adoption of social media will be enough to make a difference.
Common phrases: "If we have a Facebook page, we should be covered," "Let's just create a blog," or "Let the agency figure it out."
Common behaviors: the use of social media only in time-limited campaigns; half-hearted efforts on a limited number of social sites.

Depression -The fourth stage manifests itself in an understanding that the inevitable cannot be delayed and the marketer becomes doleful.
Common phrases: "Twitter/Google/Facebook is taking over the world," or "We're overwhelmed with choices."
Common behaviors: moping; pacing; complaining to friends on Facebook.

Acceptance -With the final stage, the marketer finally realizes that social media is here to stay and begins to determine ways to integrate activities and craft strategies that are truly integrated.
Common phrases: "Let's craft a comprehensive social media strategy," or "Let's spend some time listening to what consumers are saying about us."
Common behaviors: integration of marketing and communications functions, determination of measurement goals, online and offline alignment from the beginning of projects.

As we know in dealing with emotional grief, you can't skip steps - you have to go through them. Some folks may be stubborn and may take a while, while others may be ahead of the curve and breeze through them quickly. [Aside: in 2004, when I heard Elisabeth Kubler-Ross died, my grieving went as follows: "No that can't be true. Curse you, Lord, no just God would take her from us. I wish she was back. Geez, life stinks. Oh, well, that's the circle of life."].

Now, in order to address those fears and to get on with the acceptance, why not start by aligning your social media activities with your business plan and your overall marketing and communications objectives? A second step would be to listen, listen and listen - get a sense as to what's being said about your brand and how people engage on these social platforms.

And then if you'd like to make a more engaging site for customers, consider integrating or aggregating content from third party social sites or services right there on your own web page. Give people a chance to find contextually relevant material from other sources on your site. We've done it on the Fiesta Movement site and we continue to do it in a variety of ways on The Ford Story.

The thinking there is that people will go out and search for other peoples' opinions on your products anyway. Why not give them something contextually relevant while they're on your site and provide value? It's an acknowledgment - dare I say acceptance? - that the world around us is changing.

Photo credit: tavopp on Flickr

Chart credit: eMarketer

Labels: enterprise, social media, strategy

Posted by Scott Monty at 2:14 AM

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Tuesday, June 30, 2009

The Herculean Effort to Stop Ignoring Customers

via The Buzz Bin by Geoff Livingston on 6/30/09

Note: this is somewhat of a guest post by Geoff Livingston. I saved it to my Posterous page with the intent of bookmarking it; evidently, it resulted in a posting to my blog here. Full credit goes to Geoff.

If social is but a channel, then the real issue for companies lies in embracing feedback from their most important stakeholders: Their customers.
That was the focus of the Forrester Customer Experience Forum last week in New York City (photos here).

Organizations struggle with corporate barriers to moving towards their customers. Controlling the experience has long been the domain of various departments from product marketing to customer service. Giving stakeholders a voice in that process — via phones, email, mail, participation and yes, social media — has been the antithesis of many corporate cultures for decades. Yet according to Forrester, by failing to embrace their customers and bulwarking their experience, companies are denying themselves serious benefits:

14.4% of customers would purchase more
15.8% of customers would be less likely to switch brands
16.6% of customers would refer the brand more often

Yet in spite of these beneficial numbers, progress seems daunting. During the Chief Customer Officer panel (yes, this is apparently a title), two panelists indicated they were making progress, meeting with company executives as often as once a month or more… Once a month? That’s it?

But for every ten companies haltingly talking to and listening to their customers, there is a Virgin America. The entire company seems to be built around creating the ultimate, enjoyable (gulp) airline experience. As CEO David Cush went through his session, you couldn’t help but smile and admire the audacious brilliance of Richard Branson as he turns the American airline industry on its ear. This is how companies should be built.

Barriers to Adoption

We’ve discussed this before here on the Buzz Bin. There are serious cultural barriers to adopting social media, and in general, customer feedback (find a link to a white paper here). Siloed corporate structures prevent companies from listening to and embracing their customers.

Forrester outlined a five stage process that organizations need to go through to foster the evolutionary change towards a customer-centric organization:

1) Interest - Discuss that there may be a problem with customer interaction and that the company may need to research its stakeholders

2) Invest - Upon realizing that there is a lack of understanding about customer needs, get the company to invest in a “voice of the customer” program

3) Commit - This is where getting C-Suite buy-in is absolutely necessary for success. The company must commit to responding to customer feedback.

4) Engage - Take the feedback from customers, and apply it across the line. Change the experience.

5) Embed - Make the customer experience feedback loop and product innovation part of the actual cultural lifeblood of the organization.

According to Forrester, most American companies are either in stage one or two of the five stages. I think part of the failure to adapt has to do with the tendency to use old ways to affect change. Consider the siloesque idea of a customer department or initiative, rather than realizing customer centric behavior affects a company across the line.

Consider how David Armano and the team at Dachis are starting to address the challenges of cultural barriers to customer interaction (pictured above). They see multiple nodes touching hubs throughout an organization. Similarly, Charlene Li’s latest research is focusing on how companies embrace their customers to become socialprises.

The challenge to becoming a customer-centric organization is not as easy as simply listening. It involves reinventing many an organization’s actual structure and workflow. Cultural barriers to success cannot be underestimated.

The Social Backlash

Throughout the conference there was a very clear and present resistance to social media hype. Every single discussion around our new media certainly recognized its value as a great way to converse with customers. Every successful company featured at the Forum had some kind of social component, even if it was just listening to feedback.

But more and more, you heard executives rejecting social media as a panacea for customer ills and feedback. In fact, there were discussions about the viability of Twitter in the long term as a scaleable tool, and whether it really could supplant news organizations for information.

While companies recognize social media for its value as a toolset, they don’t see it as the cure all for an actual experience, and don’t see it as the alpha and omega for customer contact points. Instead it is one of several ways customers discuss their experiences from calls, web site chats, email, etc. There was a huge emphasis on multichannel integration of customer voices throughout the conference.

This backlash seems to me be a result of overhype. A smart communicator can see this. Customers don’t touch a company in one, singular channel. They have many touches from ads, news, web sites (standard and mobile) and packaging all the way through to the actual product experience. To think that social media is it for a company is a horrific error. And the implication of the current hype cycle would only have companies communicating in 140 character sound bytes. Thus the very natural backlash.

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Labels: customer relations, enterprise, social media

Posted by Scott Monty at 8:36 AM

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