The article in the url link below from BusinessWeek highlights the importance of firms meeting the needs of their various stakeholder groups (Issues: Stakeholder Relations, p138) and the power of the internet to magnify any mistakes or inconsistencies (Issues: Internet, p237):
“Meet today's consumer vigilantes. Even if they're not all wielding hammers, many are arming themselves with video cameras, computer keyboards, and mobile devices to launch their own personal forms of insurrection. … After getting nowhere with the call center, they're sending "e-mail carpet bombs" to the C-suite, cc-ing the top layer of management with their complaints. … And of course, they're filling up the Web with blogs and videos, leaving behind venom-spewed tales of woe.”
Although there is an over-enthusiastic desire to shift all responsibility to the firm and the action is a little extreme in cases, firms, I think, have brought a large part of this burden on themselves:
“Behind the guerrilla tactics is a growing disconnect between the experience companies promise and customers' perceptions of what they actually get.”
This might always have been true. The only difference today, however, is that firms are no longer in control either of information about their operations or the means to disperse it (Figure 3.4: The Free Flow of Information, p56):
“Technology is aiding the uprising, empowering consumers to do much more to make themselves heard. Now, with the proliferation of online video, they can be seen as well. … And as the audience for more blogs and social-media sites such as Digg reach critical mass, it's easier than ever for consumers to wallpaper the Web with their customer-service nightmares.”
Take care
Dave
Bill Werther & David Chandler
Strategic Corporate Social Responsibility
© Sage Publications, 2006
http://www.sagepub.com/Werther
Business Week Online
Insider Newsletter
February 21, 2008
********************
Consumer Vigilantes
Memo to Corporate America: Hell now hath no fury like a customer scorned
by Jena McGregor
http://newsletters.businessweek.com/c.asp?694483&c55a2ee820194f0f&55
