Real Life Disappointment with Second Life — the Sequel

My previous blog documented my disappointment with Second Life’s public relations. Here is an update on the situation. The day after my blog appeared, I received both a voice mail and an email from the lady at Lewis PR (her name should have been Kristin, not Christen as I had thought at the last writing). According to her email, she had attempted to send the requested information to me via two emails. But I assume both emails were lost in transition, because they were not in my inbox or junk folder. When I called back to Lewis PR, someone did pick up the phone this time. When I said my name, he was apparently aware of who I am. He sounded courteous and helpful on the phone. Since the information that was sent to me was already something I knew and not quite what I had hoped for, he even told me that they would consider putting the information together internally, as it would be eventually useful for the company itself as well.

Overall, I am glad that the situation was resolved successfully. I had heard about the power of customer complaints on the Internet. In fact, a fellow blogger and PR specialist Michelle Rogerson had documented such a situation with PBWiki. But it is not until I have experienced it personally that I truly feel and believe in the power. So what are the lessons learned from this whole event?

1. As Rogerson’s blog pointed out, a company should actively monitor the blogsphere (and I would add the websphere in general) for customer opinions. They are very valuable market research information that has been enabled by today’s participatory Internet.
2. Ignoring negative feedback carries grave consequences. But dealt with properly, negative feedback can turn around and become a blessing to a business. This is analogous to service recovery in the services research literature. No one is expected to do everything right 100% of the time. If recovered properly, a service failure may actually lead to higher customer satisfaction.
3. Email as a communication channel can be unreliable sometimes. Therefore, for important customer/public requests, companies should follow up through other channels of communication (online or offline). This would help avoid ill-will and negative word-of-mouth from happening in the first place.

Good things are better shared!