An early example is the case of the customer who asked for Neiman Marcus’ cookie recipe and was outraged when the quoted price of “two-fifty” turned out to be $250. Unable to get a refund, she distributed the recipe via email chain letter. The story actually was a hoax, as Snopes explains. Neiman Marcus themselves explain (followed by the recipe in question):

An urban myth is a modern folk tale, its origins unknown, its believability enhanced simply by the frequency with which it is repeated. Our signature chocolate chip cookie is the subject of one such myth. If you haven’t heard the story, we won’t perpetuate it here. If you have, the recipe below should serve to refute it. Copy it, print it out, pass it along to friends and family. It’s a terrific recipe. And it’s absolutely free.

Social media and Web 2.0 have changed the rules of the game. Whether the allegations are true or not, complaints about the misdeeds of big, evil corporations are able to spread and gain traction in ways never before imagined. Every PR practitioner now knows that a PR nightmare can appear on the horizon in a matter of minutes.

Below are some recent and striking examples of social media PR distasters:

Motrin Moms

In November 2008, when a number of consumers (particularly a subset of bloggers sometimes referred to as “mommy bloggers”) found this commercial offensive, they launched a firestorm of criticism on blogs and Twitter. Within hours, Motrin.com site was down, and stayed that way for nearly a day. When the site came back up, the ad was gone and in its place was an apology.

Domino’s Pizza

In April 2009, some employees in a North Carolina Domino’s store filmed themselves violating all known food safety laws and posted the results on YouTube. The original video has been taken down, but you can see segments at The Consumerist.

Word of the video spread quickly, especially on Twitter, where users wondered why Domino’s was not weighing in on the issue. Hours (a lifetime in Internet time and an eternity in Twitter time) passed before Domino’s spoke out publicly. By then, Consumerist readers were working hard to track down the identities of the Domino’s employees. Ultimately, they succeeded in identifying the store location and passed the information on to the company.

Domino’s president responded a day later in his own video:

Whether Domino’s could have responded sooner is debatable, but there’s no denying that the company was simply blindsided by wreckless employees and could have done little to prevent the situation. In an email exchange with The Consumerist, Tim McIntyre, Domino’s Vice President of Communications summed up the situation quite nicely.

The “challenge” that comes with the freedom of the internet is that any idiot with a camera and an Internet link can do stuff like this – and ruin the reputation of a brand that’s nearly 50 years old, and the reputations of 125,000 hard-working men and women across the nation and in 60 countries around the world.

United Breaks Guitars

As of this writing, the above video, posted to YouTube only 4 days earlier, has 1.4 million views, up from yesterday’s midday count of 600,000. In other words, it’s hot. The song tells the story: United Airlines mishandled this fellow’s guitar and then refused to compensate him for it. Since posting this clever video to YouTube, Dave Carroll has appeared on CNN and the Ellen DeGeneres show and has been covered by many major news outlets. In fact, five of the top-10 Google search results for “United Airlines” are about this story.

Needless to say, United is now paying attention and trying to make the best of a bad situation. On its Twitter account, the airline stated, “This has struck a chord w/ us and we’ve contacted him directly to make it right,” and “(The video) is excellent and that is why we would like to use it for training purposes so everyone receives better service from us.”

Can this happen to banks?

In fact, a similar kind of social media nightmare happened recently in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, when the regional Metro Bank changed its name and some back-end systems. One customer complained on his blog that his ATM card stopped working and that he had to wait on hold more than an hour to be told that his direct deposit was unaccounted for.

The blogger must have struck a chord. Other angry customers left supporting comments on his blog. And so did some Metro Bank employees, one of whom told the customers to “F-off” and stop complaining.

The whole sordid affair caught the attention of The Consumerist, a local TV station and this blog, among others. In fact, the story is still unfolding, with the possibility of an investigation by state regulators.

What does this have to do with branch marketing?

Well, on the one hand, nothing. As a retail marketer you certainly have no control over corporate commercials, product design or back-end systems. On the other hand, when customers have complaints, who do they contact? Front-line employees, often in person, at the branch. And how prepared your branches are to react to emergencies — by fielding tough questions, diffusing customer anger and constructively solving customers’ problems — may be your single greatest defense against a social media nightmare. Taking over the digital signage network with emergency messaging at affected branches is a capability that could help alleviate a situation like Metro Bank’s. Yet few banks have the ability to do so on a moment’s notice.

It seems that branch-level crisis management should be a top priority for banks in this day and age. Because you simply never know which one of your customers has a huge following on their blog or on Twitter, or knows how to craft a clever country music video and post it to YouTube.

Trash cans: an essential part of the Disney experience.

Trash cans: an essential part of the Disney experience.

At his How We Work blog, Peter Bregman writes about how small changes in environment can result in big shifts in behavior. He describes a number of situations where relatively simple changes can transform the dynamics in an office or retail location. He cites the example of client who was contemplating sending a frosty receptionist to communication training. Bregman’s suggestion: why not simply remove the glass window the receptionist sits behind?

“To a larger extent than you probably realize, your environment dictates your actions,” Bregman argues. “In your company, think about what you want people to do and whether the environment around them supports the behavior,” he advises.

Disney has known and practiced this idea for decades. Famously, its “guestologists” solved the one problem that plagues any well-trafficked public space, which is trash. Looking beyond the obvious question of how to clean up the garbage, Disney sought to actually prevent in the first place the problem of guests tossing trash onto the pavement. The solution? A one-two punch of employee vigilance (every employee from top to bottom is charged with immediately disposing of even the smallest bits of trash, which creates a level of cleanliness that discourages guests from littering) and ubiquitous placement of trash cans. In fact, receptacles are placed every 27 feet, which means that guests are never more than a few convenient paces from a receptacle.

The lesson for experience designers (yes, that’s you, if you use your branches to market to customers) is that you have more control over the customer experience than you might imagine. You don’t need to make expensive changes, so long as they’re effective ones.

The key to changing customer experience and behavior is first understanding customer experience and behavior. Not in theory, but in everyday, observable reality. As you take out your notepad and pencil, here are some things to look for:

• Orientation -  How do customers orient themselves when they enter the branch? Where do they look first? What clues help them determine where they should go to fulfill their mission?
• Flow – How does the placement of hardware (desks, counters, signage, etc.) affect traffic flow?
• Proximity – How near or far are the essential tools (check writing station, pens, trash can, calendar, etc.) that customers need at each step of their branch experience?
• Obstruction – What or who hinders customers from fulfilling their mission in the branch? How do customers react to those obstructions?
• Interaction – How, when and where are employees interacting with customers? How do customers react?
• Recovery – What happens when service goes wrong (systems go down, long queues, etc.)? How do customers react? How do employees resolve the situation?
• The unexpected – What happens in the branch, good or bad, that is surprising or unintended? Why does it happen? How could it be discouraged, or (if desirable) encouraged?

Photo credit: mrkathika