August 2
Social media has shifted the balance of power
Companies these days must understand that everybody has a voice. So the best way to avoid a public relations nightmare is to give great customer service right out of the gate. “It’s a bad day when a customer’s upset,” says Dave Carroll, creator of the musical trilogy United Breaks Guitars.
United repeatedly refused to listen and take corrective action after damaging the guitars of Dave Carroll. He eventually wrote a song in response that have been viewed 8.8 million times since it went live a year ago and is among the most-watched video in the history of YouTube. The incident has gone down as perhaps the ultimate self-inflicted customer relations screw-up by a major corporation in the social media era of empowered customers.
“Companies providing poor customer service can’t ride out the situation as in the past,” Carroll says. United ran Carroll through the bureaucratic ringer for 9 months before giving him a definitive answer about his compensation claim: No. “I was almost out of options but I wasn’t because social media allowed me to express myself in a creative way,” he says.
As for Carroll, his viral hits on YouTube have helped juice his career as an independent musician and, now, a public speaker. CD sales are “through the roof,” he says, and he’s fielding offers to play gigs and to write songs. The trilogy has taken on a life of its own: see Taylor Guitars’ video response and the below UBG Song #3:
This is definitive a proof of how social media has shifted the balance of power toward customers and away from arrogant multinational corporations.
For another examples, see Web users turn to social media sites to channel anger and frustration, Transparency in a social media age and Social media as an activist tool.
Short URL & Title:
Social media has shifted the balance of power — http://www.torbenrick.eu/t/r/lkc
