What is the problem with companies that operate in Brazil? Aren’t they aware that web 2.0 technologies like blogs and social networks can turn angry consumers into real threats against their brands? Don’t they have marketing people working for them who understand the concept of social media [define] and within this context, the power of 1? Do companies in Brazil still think they can get away with bad customer experience or being unethical? Haven’t they heard of Dell Hell, the negative, yet very effective, viral campaign initiated by 1 single irritated North American Dell customer that reached hundreds of thousands of other people within a few days? Or Starbucks sharp stock price drop during 2007? John Moore, former marketer for Starbucks and author of Tribal Knowledge, business wisdom from the grounds of Starbucks corporate culture” offers a simple explanation for the company’s losses: “The customer experience isn’t as remarkable as it once was.”
Word of mouth has always existed face to face. Statistics tell us that 1 unsatisfied customer will contaminate negatively 10 other people and part of these people will pass the information forward. However in social network sites, forums, blogs, YouTube, Twitter and other Internet platforms that allow information sharing among people with similar interest that 1 customer’s voice gets amplified. Online 1 person can potentially reach 1000 people or more – spreading good or bad word of mouth about a company brand, its products and services!
What puzzles me is this: being this the reality, how come companies like the financial institution Banco Real ABN AMRO operating in Brazil can be so deceiving to consumers? Am I the only one having problems with them? I have been trying to close my account with Banco Real ABN AMRO for over a month but I can’t. My account remains open till this date and they have been charging me bank fees. They simply ignore my follow up requests to close the account. It took me 10 minutes to open the account 4 years ago. It should have taken me 10 minutes to close it. It’s been a hassle and it is wasting my time! I wonder if this is what happens when trying to close accounts with other banks… or banks in other countries…
Banco Real ABN AMRO not only lost me as a potential future customer (no marketing services recovery strategy will work on trying to get me back in the near/long future) but also got them a negative advocate for their services and brand. Talk about the relation between customer experience and branding!
Both Dell and Starbucks seemed to have learned their lessons and now have open lines of communications (or conversations, marketing author Joseph Jaffe would rather put it and agree) with their consumers through Direct2Dell and MySatrbucksIdea respectively. I am sure that if Brazilian companies invested on similar initiatives we would start having better service and customer experiences.
