Customer relations: getting the balance right
An electronics brand has been expelled from Amazon.com for threatening a customer with legal action for making negative comments about one of its products on the site. The customer had said that the product in question was simply a rebranding of another, cheaper product, alleging that many of the reviews of the company’s products were bogus. Said customer subsequently received a letter from a law firm representing the company, threatening to bring charges for defamation, calumny, fraud, and libel.
The law firm added that legal action could be avoided if the customer removed the comments from Amazon and made no further comments about the company’s products, or bought any of them. Needless to say this rapidly turned into a classic example of the so-called Streisand effect after the customer discussed the issue on the Reddit legal advice forum, setting off a chain reaction of negative comments from around the world about the company in question’s products. Once Amazon.com heard about the brouhaha it immediately withdrew the company’s license to sell its products on the site.
It’s too early to say whether we’ve heard the last of this. The company might decide to carry out its threat of legal action, which could well end up costing the customer serious money; or it might decide to quietly drop the matter. There are many cases of people finding themselves mired in legal costs, fined by courts for defamation, or denied loans.
What we have to ask ourselves here is who is the winner when a company threatens somebody for saying something negative about its products on the internet? Typically, the only winners are the lawyers. These are complex cases in which the company is trying to show that somebody has deliberately set out to damage its reputation instead of simply making a reasonable criticism. In many cases, in countries where customers’ rights are protected by free speech law, these kinds of cases are known as SLAPP, Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation. Usually, nobody wins.
If the customer had known before making the comments how much time and money he or she would have had to spend on lawyers, then he or she might have thought twice. The company also discovers that regardless of the outcome, its image has been damaged. Most people’s sympathy will go to the perceived underdog. Unless it is clear that the customer in question has behave in an offensive manner, most of us are likely to identify with him or her, rather than with some goonish corporation that is trying to break a butterfly on the wheel. Pursuing the case to the bitter end, even if the company wins, will simply inflate the egos of its directors, who have probably taken the whole affair very personally and are out for revenge.
So what should a company do when its products are criticized in this way? To start with, just about anything other than calling the lawyers in. Contacting the customer to find out more about the problem is a good idea. If that is not possible, then the company should leave some kind of message next to the customer’s comments, asking him or her to get in touch. Above all, be proactive. Talking to the customer, demonstrating genuine concern, and trying to make sure that such episode are not repeated is the best way forward. The idea is avoid conflict, and to give the impression that retaining this customer is the most important thing, not battering them into submission, winning at any cost, or trying to set some kind of precedent.
There are two kinds of companies: those that have problems when people leave negative comments about their products online… and those that don’t. Not all opinions are acceptable, particularly when couched in insulting and abusive language; at the same time, these kinds of comments tend not to be taken seriously anyway. Only in very exception cases should legal action be considered, and even then, it is probably better to look for another way of resolving the issue. We live in a bidirectional age, and must learn to live with the fact that sometimes we are going to hear things we don’t like. When this happens, the best thing is to act quickly, show genuine concern, and prevent the matter getting out of hand. Understanding, patience, and a friendly approach will always achieve more, even if the customer’s attitude does not seem to merit it.
Years of control over one-way communication channels has led some companies to think that they have the upper hand and do not need to worry about what customers have to say. Well, the rules have changed, and it is clearly time some businesses woke up to this fact.
(In Spanish, here)
