In his book Who cares wins, Havas CEO David Jones calls the current business climate the Age of Damage - and he's not talking about the post-crash performance of western economies. Rather damage, in this case, refers to the revolution social media has wrought and the pitfalls it presents to businesses in trying to manage interaction with their customers. Citing some familiar examples, such as BP, he outlines the enormous difficulty businesses have today containing risks to their corporate reputation. No longer is it possible to cover up or ignore questions over your commercial, financial or ethical probity when Twitter can transmit stories of wrongdoing around the world in a flash. Rather than worry about their reputations, businesses are better off trying to fix the problem.
Returning to my more humble social media interaction, I recently noticed in Tesco they were using QR codes in a store with no 3G signal, an obvious #fail. So I tweeted this observation to my followers, (but not to Tesco), yet within 10 minutes received the following reply:
Nice tone, non-defensive and a helpful solution offered - free wifi! This encouraged me a week later to tweet them back when I was unable to find any blonde hair dyes (shopping for a friend, you understand!) in the same store:
Again a reply that was quick, self-deprecating and attempted to be helpful in a situation when there was nothing much it can do. I get the sense I am being listened to, no matter how trivial or whiny I am.
Contrast this with Greater Anglia, the train company that took over my local train line from National Express East Anglia, and who now runs the commuter train service I must endure every day. There was much trumpeting on the local news of the turning of this new leaf in train services, with big emphasis on the increased staffing levels from their PR team. Now, if you ask fellow commuters what they want from this new train service, it's two things: trains that don't break down and signals that don't fail. Between them, these are the two biggest causes of delays outside the uncontrollable elements such as bridge strikes, suicides, overhead cable damage or trackside fires. More staff sounds a great idea, but in practice all that means is more people to announce delays and apologise for any inconvenience caused. Better information is perceived to be better customer serivce, when the best service is not breaking down in the first place. And I tweeted as much to @GreaterAnglia, who replied:
A complete failure to understand my point, or tackle head-on the real issue behind the question. And therein lies the difference. Tesco can engage me with social media, because it has the ability to tackle my comparatively simple needs, and stakes its reputation on the delivery of great customer service. By contrast, Greater Anglia must constantly firefight against the daily frustrations of its customers because it is fundamentally unable to give them what they want, so must, instead, mitigate it through improved information provision. Their twitter feed was a part of that - and it must be said a very useful and diligent attempt, for the most part, to keep passengers up to date with delays and cancellations. When taken as a whole, however, the @GreaterAnglia twitter stream reads as a littany of failure.
After my exchange of views, I was followed on twitter by @SnailRail who has developed a website that, for a small charge, will automate train delay compensation claims by commuters who use the Greater Anglia service. A neat business that feeds off the failure of the hidebound Greater Anglia, using social media to drive its business, and the inability of the train operator to respond to its customers' needs. In the Age of Damage, it's all about control.
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