It seems that the Internet is constantly abuzz with tales of coporate woe and shame. Take Dominos Pizza, which was recently blindsided by a handful of employees who recorded themselves as they violated practically all known health codes — and then posted the videos to YouTube. Dominos’ hamfisted response to the social media storm that followed only worsened matters.

You might be tempted to think: “Hey, I work for a bank, not a a fast food chain, so what’s the worst that could happen?”

Then consider the case of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania-based Metro Bank, whose recent name change (from Commerce Bank) sparked a chain reaction of failures and public complaints. The mishaps allegedly included mistaken overdrafts, ATM cards canceled without notice, a Web site that crashed due to high traffic and call-center wait times in excess of 45 minutes.

The incident prompted the blogger floor9.com to post a scathing rant about his experience. In the days that followed dozens of disgruntled customers posted comments.

The highlight, however, is the comment posted by “Shannon,” who claimed to be a Metro Bank employee. After offering a tepid defense of the bank, which drew angry replies from other commenters, Shannon lost her cool:

“Everyone ”F” off!!! I am sure they still have all of their GOOD customers!!!”

The popular Consumerist blog soon picked up on the story, which, as PR professionals know, virtually guarantees that the story will persist and be amplified by other blogs and larger media outlets.

As of this writing, the Consumerist story shows up in the #7 slot on a Google search for “Metro Bank.” A search of “Metro Bank”+Harrisburg fares worse, with the floor9.com blog posting coming up in the #1 position.

If it is indeed true, the comment left by an anonymous poster on the floor9 blog is probably the most enlightening, as it describes an organization that is in the throes of chaos:

“Well everyone, I am another one of those Metro Bank employees. I will tell (you) right now. We have no clue what is going on with our own bank.

I can’t even explain how much it hurts going into work. We all want to leave. I know..you dont want to hear this from an employee..but seriously back office has no damn clue.

Don’t worry…if you cant see your balance…neither can I. I have no idea how much money I have…as well as all the other employees of the bank. …neither does one of the Regional Presidents of the bank it turns out.

the poor tellers..I cant even feel their pain. they are getting literally yelled at by everyone…and they make NOTHING!..literally, I hired many.”

While we can’t verify any of the above information, it should serve as an object lesson for bankers who are contemplating transitions of any kind, whether it’s a brand-name change or the switchover of a back-end system.

In the end, it’s impossible for any bank to avoid the kinds of errors or system glitches that might cause the website or other back-end systems to fail. Mistakes happen. But what can be avoided is the kind of total information blackout that appears to have consumed Metro Bank employees as they tried to help customers cope with a difficult situation.

Employee communications has always been the linchpin of successful retail marketing. The best marketers work very hard to make sure that employees are aware of, understand and enthusiastically carry out campaigns at the local level.

Clearly, employee communications are also critical as a means of averting or at least mitigating disaster. What if Metro Bank’s tellers and customer-service reps had known ahead of time about the coming transitions and system changes? Or, what if Metro Bank had a communications channel that ensured the fast dissemination of accurate information to employees as the problems unfolded?

To be fair, even well-informed employees might not have been able to solve Metro Bank’s underlying problems any more quickly. But with good information — including plans for how to handle transition issues — they might have been able to help customers cope better and keep customers like floor9 from creating a PR nightmare.

Update:
Here is a list of top customer service/consumer advocacy blogs. Note that the Consumerist ranks at the top. Definitely not a site where you want to discover an expose about your brand!