Page 159 - Free the Idea Monkey

Hmm...There is already a conversation going
on that involves you. The real question is,
do you choose to be part of it?

Raff recently addressed a national association of hotel execu-
tives, and one person, a vice president at a huge chain, raised the
“what-if-a-customer-writes-something-bad-about-us?” issue during
the Q + A.

He listened patiently and then hit him with some research he’d
done about his company in preparation for the meeting.

“I did a Google search about weddings held at the biggest hotel in
your region,” he said. “And while I found all the wonderful pictures
you posted about the facility on your website, I also found troubling
items that came up on wedding-related blogs—in particular, two
women who went on at great length about the problems they had
with their receptions at this hotel. There was no response from the
hotel anywhere.”

“The posts were three years old. What kind of impact do you
think the comments by those women are going to have on someone
looking for a place to have their wedding?”

His point was if the company had been monitoring mentions of
its hotels on social media, it could have responded to the complaints
for all the world to see. Instead, the company missed its chance
to redeem itself and probably cost itself revenue. Even if only one
potential customer was scared off after reading those negative blog
comments, it was too many.

144 S O C I A L M E D I A : N O W A N D F O R E V E R