When bloggers speak, brands listen

About 18 or so months ago, I had an incident at a large retail store. In short, my credit info was stolen by a cashier and used to make the employee’s family members happy on Christmas morning. After receiving a bill for over $2,000 in my mailbox in January, I spent A LOT of time on the phone with the credit card company trying to get to the bottom of it, as well as to dispute the charges.

It was a lot of time spent on something I had no part in creating. And I was mad. Mad enough to take to my blog. Several times.

And then I started seeing more and more bloggers using their blogs as stomping grounds, and I have to admit it made me kind of uncomfortable. It sort of felt like when a friend starts bad-mouthing a mutual acquaintance, going off and becoming all crazy aggressive and sounding a tad insane.

Using social media responsibly

So I wrote this post, encouraging bloggers not to call out any and every person/brand/store who has ever wronged them, because it comes off as a little nutty. And it usually doesn’t serve much purpose unless you’ve exhausted all other avenues and simply are unable to bring attention to an issue pending resolution.

So, my point: last week I took my car in because it was sounding sick. Two days later, I was told that my transmission is done and it’ll be $5,000 to replace. The dealer was appealing to the car company for assistance, who came back with an agreement to pay 50% of the repair.

A high-end car with just 50,000 miles should not need a new transmission unless it’s faulty. So being left with a $2,500 bill I felt was not responsibility, I got on the phone with the company’s headquarters. I spoke to a woman who let us know that not only were we responsible for the payment, but that the decision was final and there was no one we could talk to.

So I tweeted:

The company responded quickly, and asked for my contact info. A few minutes later, I noticed someone arriving on my blog from Torrance, California where Lexus is headquartered. They were doing their homework. Not long after that, I got a call from the woman who had previously told us that the case was closed, letting me know that Lexus had indeed decided to cover my repair 100% and that the decision was based solely on the low mileage of the vehicle.

Later that evening, Lexus’s social media manager took time to call and thank me for my professionalism in the matter. I took this to mean, thank you for NOT taking to your blog and Twitter and publicly bashing our brand to smithereens.

Use your power for good

The point is this: bloggers do wield some power. However, it’s not always necessary to make aggressive demands on a public forum. I’d like to think that any Joe Shmoe would have received the same result had he just thought to be resourceful and query the Twitter contact. I was impressed with how this brand handled what could have been a big stress-factor for me. Just something for us bloggers to keep in mind next time our instinct tells us to use our platforms as a war zone.

Jill Notkin blogs at The Daily Grind of a Work at Home Mom when she’s not tweeting@AlexCaseyBaby. She is also the Managing Director of MotherTalk division at Mom Central Consulting.