News Blog

Rick Clancy, Sony blogger and senior vice president of corporate communications for Sony Electronics

(Credit: Stephen Shankland/CNET Networks)

SAN FRANCISCO--Could your customer complaint department become a profit center?

That general idea is now possible with the era of corporate blogging and Web 2.0 upon us, according to a number of marketing gurus at a panel discussion Tuesday at the Ad:Tech conference here.

Earning loyalty by winning over critics is nothing new for marketing and customer support experts. What is new these days is that the increasingly interactive Internet provides a way to directly engage with them--once companies understand it's possible.

"There is a real gap in organizations between the group that handles the complaint department and those who view this as an exciting communication touch point," said Beth Thomas-Kim, Nestle's director of consumer services. To show how to do it right, she pointed specifically to the example of online retailer Zappos.com.

"The CEO views the contact center as an investment opportunity," Thomas-Kim said. "Often companies are squeezing the life out of it...but he's using it as a way to drive the connection with the consumer."

Beth Thomas-Kim, Nestle's director of consumer services

(Credit: Stephen Shankland/CNET Networks)

There was a time when gripers had little recourse besides cranky letters to consumer advocates. Now with the Internet capable of amplifying their voices and helping them band together, they and the problems they are finding with products and services can't be safely ignored.

Providing them a forum for discussion on the corporate Web site can help companies respond directly--and avoid the likelihood that their opinions about the company will help elevate some other Web site in search results.

"By being proactive on the Web, sites like Sony Sucks and IHateSony don't rank as high as they used to," said Rick Clancy, senior vice president of corporate communications and now and now a corporate blogger for Sony Electronics.

A good case in point: Sony's massive laptop recall triggered by lithium-ion battery problems. "It would have been good to have the blog then to have a way to communicate in an unfiltered manner," to explain what happened, what the company is doing about it, and to steer people toward the support they need, Clancy said.

A more concrete example: Sony eliminated a $50 fee that it had charged for PCs that weren't loaded up with trial software often called "crapware."

Tom Asher, head of customer relations for Levi-Strauss

(Credit: Stephen Shankland/CNET Networks)

In a March blog post, Clancy wrote, "The fee was designed to cover costs associated with removing the programs from the PCs, as well as the loss of subsidies received from the third-party providers. Regardless of the intentions, we listened and eliminated the fee earlier this week. It's gone."

Direct communications--both soliciting feedback and telling customers about new developments--have become a high-profile element of Dell's attempt to reverse its financial fortunes, too.

"Brands are less afraid to say they're sorry in public," said Jordan Warren, president of Agency.com. And at this point, there's nothing to lose from acknowledging problems: "If you don't, others will," he said.

It's tough to bring the lawyers around to this kind of openness. "To apologize to consumers was a big legal risk for us even a few years ago," said Tom Asher, head of customer relations for Levi-Strauss.

Jordan Warren, president of Agency.com

(Credit: Stephen Shankland/CNET Networks)

And there's a strong financial incentive to work with those who call the customer complaint lines. Levi-Strauss has found that most folks who buy Levi's and Docker's brands spend about $90 per year on them, but those who complain to the company's call center spend $285 a year, Asher said.

Legal department reluctance to customer communications has been diminishing once lawyers realized that addressing customer concerns on the Internet directly was the lesser of two evils, Clancy said.

"The lawyers are starting to come around. Three years ago they were very resistant. There were a lot of barriers, skepticism, and concerns," Clancy said. "It's happening regardless of whether we participate, and without us participating it's happening in a way that's doing more harm than good. That was becoming more and more apparent."

Is Samsung's BD-P1200 a defective product?

(Credit: CNET)

Samsung was the first to market with a Blu-ray player, but it hasn't exactly been a smooth ride. Home theater enthusiasts will undoubtedly remember the brouhaha over the first Blu-ray player, the Samsung BD-P1000, which was blamed for the initial lackluster video performance of Blu-ray (although, we always thought the fault lied more with poor movie transfers, rather than the BD-P1000). More recently, we've blogged the entire slate of firmware fixes Samsung has released to correct compatibility issues with certain discs on its entire line of Blu-ray players.

Apparently those firmware fixes aren't enough for everyone, as a class action complaint has been filed against Samsung for selling "defective" Blu-ray players--most notably the . The main complaint is that the BD-P1200 hasn't been able to play certain Blu-ray discs, and although it doesn't specify which movies, we personally have experienced issues with Live Free or Die Hard, Rescue Dawn, and Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End. Now Samsung certainly isn't the only company that has had to update its player to accommodate new releases, but the delays have certainly frustrated the early adopter community past their breaking point.

The latest firmware update for the BD-P1200 has supposedly fixed the issue, which definitely won't help the class-action complaint. Let's hope that Samsung gets the message that a Blu-ray player that doesn't play all Blu-ray movies just isn't acceptable. As Senior Editor John Falcone will be quick to point out, it's just another reason not to buy Blu-ray--yet.

Complaining about an injustice is rarely enough to effect change. But when dozens, hundreds, or thousands of people kvetch in an organized and forceful manner, things can happen. Boycotts change companies. Unions end up controlling the direction of industries. Protests overthrow governments.

The Point is a new site to help instigators collect the wishes of the masses and to get participants to pledge to take action when a "tipping point" of participation is reached.

Fill in the blanks to start your own boycott!

For example, if you are upset that Southwest Airlines no longer lets families with small children board first, you can join the pledge to boycott Southwest once 2,000 other people also sign up. As soon as the desired number of people sign on to the campaign, the pledge is activated. But if they don't, you're not left twisting in the wind executing a meaningless protest.

The Point can also work with financial action: You can join a pledge to participate in an event if enough other people sign on, as well. If the pledge goals are met, your credit card (that you're previously submitted) is debited. If not, you're not charged.

CEO Andrew Mason's pitch to me was laced with modern political rhetoric. He says The Point "enables participatory democracy," and that "every shared problem has a tipping point."

Now this is a movement I can support.

What I like about it is that it can make users into small-scale union organizers (or, for that matter, strike busters): There's nothing to say that the service couldn't be used to organize a work stoppage or similar activity. But if you're afraid of participating, The Point campaigns can be set up with conditional anonymity. In other words, people can pledge their support of a campaign and remain anonymous up until the point that the campaign reaches it pledge goals. The means you don't have to stick your neck out alone, but when you know your movement has a head of steam, you can be sure your name will be part of it.

The challenge, for The Point or any other consensus-building service, is getting users onboard. You may be able to scare up a dozen people who don't like the color of the Cheerios box, but to take on a corporation or a government you're going to need to reach beyond your friends and family. So Mason sees The Point not so much as a destination, but rather a service that other activist sites can use as a back-end for campaign management. Complaints.com, for example, could aggregate customer dissatisfaction using The Point. Likewise any political site.

Integration into social networks is also coming, and is greatly needed.

The site officially launches next week but is in open alpha right now. It's a little buggy at this point but well worth checking out.

Other collective action sites include Fundable, Chipin, Eventful, HomeSlyce, and Causes on Facebook.