Thomson Holidays – how a blogger can impact your brand reputation
21st September 2009, 02:40 pm by Matt Rhodes
- Image by Micah Dowty via Flickr
Thomson is a well-known package tour and holiday brand in the UK and part of the global travel group TUI. They have a good reputation and brand in the UK, supported by a relatively strong High Street presence. But one traveller’s bad experience on a holiday to Tunisia has caused them and their brand problems in social media, and in their search rankings.
Andy Sharman went on holiday to Tunisia with Thompson in June this year and had, by his own account, a fairly disappointing time. After his complaints failed to receive a response that satisfied him, Andy wrote about his experiences on his blog.
Whatever the truth of what Andy was told or what happened to him in Tunisia is not important. For your brand, and your business, satisfaction is a balance of expectations and reality as seen by the customer. Andy was unhappy and he wanted to complain.
Using traditional media, this complaint would have taken a fairly standard path all of which is done in private:
- Customer complains to Brand (by telephone or by letter)
- Brand responds to Customer (typically by letter)
- Customer is either delighted (and may then tell their friends and colleagues in person) or dissatisfied (and will also tell their friends and colleague, but this time a very different story)
With social media, this pattern has been disrupted quite severely. Rather than a private exchange between Customer and Brand, the first few steps are public from the very beginning. From the minute the customer wants to complain their thoughts, experiences and attitudes (whether justified or not) are public knowledge. The brand’s job is no longer to assess and respond to a single complaint, but to manage an attack on their brand reputation. It is now bigger than just customer service.
With social media, complaints have moved from being a customer service issue to being a branding and corporate reputation one.
Andy’s blog shows exactly how serious these complaints can be. Within a couple of months his post had been read by over 10,000 different people and, perhaps more worryingly, was appearing above Thomson’s own sites for searches on Google for terms relating to Thomson and Tunisia.
Blogs, and social media more generally, are a great way for people to distribute their content. They can get it seen by a large number of people who can link to it, comment on it and reproduce it on their own sites. Very quickly a brand has a story that is no longer private and is also no longer contained. Other people have linked to or reproduced the complaint on their own sites and forums. Some publicly and others in places that even Thompson cannot see.
So, what should brands do in this instance. Earlier this year we wrote about how to react if somebody writes about your brand online and included a great process diagram developed by the US Air Force. The process is simple and clear, showing when you should respond (and when you shouldn’t) and how you should respond if you do.
The most important thing for a brand to do is to engage in the same media that the complaint is made in. Have good buzz tracking and monitoring in place so that you pick up on potential issues early and then respond through the same media – be that by commenting on a blog, joining a forum, responding in Twitter or on Facebook. When you do respond (and if this is appropriate) you should consider five things:
- Be transparent about who you are and your role. Give your name and some means of contacting you
- If you want to refute some claims in the post only do so if you can source your side of the story
- Be timely, but make sure you give yourself enough time to get a real response together
- Respond in a tone and manner that reflects your brand
- Focus on those blogs that carry the most influence
Customers are using social media to turn what were once private complaints with the brand into public discussions. Brands can capitalise upon this if they respond in the same manner, in the same public forum. This is the best way to take back some control of the situation and to begin to restore your brand’s reputation online.
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Agustin Benito:
nice post. I have written some ideas related to it:
http://toscalix.blogspot.com/2009/09/social-media-cuts-both-ways.html
21 September 2009, 4:49 pmEmma Barker:
This links interestingly to the work FreshMinds Research have been doing into Marmite brands: http://blogs.freshminds.co.uk/research/?p=1070
Whilst we found that most consumers are indifferent when it comes to travel brands, we did find that the higher-end brands – Virgin, Marriott and the like – were viewed more positively than the more ‘budget’ brands.
One might imagine that this has something to do with customer service – the more expensive brands might hit you in the wallet a bit harder, but it’s arguably worth it to get more bang for your buck.
It’s interesting what you say here, though. Admittedly, Andy Sharman’s complaint was about customer service, but this becomes almost irrelevant as the brand’s reputation is battered by his comments. The human tendency to ‘follow the crowd’ has been exaggerated by the growth of social media. One might imagine that in time, as consumer views become almost entirely aired in public, brand perception will become ever more polarised and individual opinion (at least as is publicly offered) a thing of the past.
22 September 2009, 12:36 pmAndy Hanselman:
Great stuff Matt. A excellent example of the power of ‘word of mouse’. As more and more people find it easier to ‘spread the news – good or bad’, it’s the businesses that can’t or don’t respond to their customers’ problems and issues that will suffer more and more.
22 September 2009, 2:40 pmNever has there been a stronger need for making sure that people can spot and deal with ‘disappointment’ proactively and quickly. Often solving someone’s problem promptly, swiftly and courteously ‘on the spot’ leads to positive word of mouth and mouse! So many businesses just don’t get that.
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23 September 2009, 8:34 amAlison Macleod:
Number 5 gives me some pause. OK for protecting your brand maybe, not OK when it comes to solving customer service issues – sounds too much like focusing on the loudest voice. Blogs which boost the signal may or may not be the ones to engage with.
23 September 2009, 10:10 amSocial Media Agency UK: Qube Media: Blog : Bloggers can knock down your brand reputation and Architects can build up something amazing (5 of the best):
[...] Thomson Holidays – how a blogger can impact your brand reputation [...]
23 September 2009, 2:29 pmSocial media and customer service – some examples | FreshNetworks Blog:
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24 September 2009, 3:17 pmPromotional Products:
This is so true, you can spend large amounts of money trying to promote your brand and all that can be destroyed by one unfortunate experience. What do you think has more effect on your brand; a bad review or a glowing review?
24 September 2009, 10:49 pmFootprints (25.09.09) | Chris Deary:
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26 September 2009, 1:06 amKelly:
Does anyone have any suggestions for how to deal with a disgruntled ex-employee who is threatening to use social media to discredit a brand? His claims are unfounded – and we followed all the correct procedures when dismissing him – he just bears a grudge. How should we go about refuting his claims? Should we go into the details of what happened (which seems petty) or try to be dignified and ignore his comments?
29 September 2009, 3:05 pmMatt Rhodes:
Hi Kelly,
A good starting point for deciding what to do would be the US Air Force Blog Assessment tool – it’s actually a really good process to go through, thinking about what the person is saying and how you should respond.
As it’s likely to be a negative post your main options are whether you should respond or not.
Typically you should respond where there are facts that need fixing (fix them) or if they have had a genuinely negative experience with the brand (rectify the situation).
If the post is a rant, rage or joke, or is on a site which is set up to degrade others, the best option is not to respond, but to monitor what is said and reassess if you need to.
We posted about this process earlier this year. Take a look at our post on How to react if somebody writes about your brand online and see if it helps.
Matt
29 September 2009, 11:02 pmOur top five posts in September | FreshNetworks Blog:
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3 October 2009, 12:32 pmSuzyB:
Thomson Still haven’t learnt. They still have sub-standard customer service. http://suzyb.net/?p=565
26 January 2011, 12:33 pmAnders Rent Nielsen:
I will soon start a new blog with related content. Can I borrow parts of your content?
The used website is my working email and not my blog.
24 March 2011, 4:37 amSheridan Williams:
We were never compensated by Thomson for the worst return flight from Florida we have ever had, and we’ve flown hundreds of times.
3 January 2012, 5:12 pmWe got a derisory voucher but would certainly never travel with Thomson again, so this was useless.
Thomson staff also lied to us on several occasions.