24
Jan 12It Pays to Do the Right Thing
A lot of “preventative” law in the online space is about understanding the way the business on the internet works. Where I work, we regularly counsel people that one of the best things they can do to prevent a legal issue is to “avoid making people angry.”
The internet has created so many reasons for businesses to spend a little extra money and time to do the right thing…
One broken guitar (and a lack of empathetic customer service) resulted in over 11 million views on YouTube of the catchy jingle United Breaks Guitars. A decision by GoDaddy to support the Stop Online Privacy Act led to an online petition on Reddit (and partially instigated by Tamar) that got thousands of domain owners to transfer their domains off GoDaddy, a revenue loss of around $370,000 a year. NetFlix’s sudden and dramatic increase in prices led to massive consumer backlash, including 67,000 negative comments on their Facebook page. Need I go on? How about Verizon’s decision (and quick retraction) to add a $2 convenience fee, or Bank of America charging $5 to consumers to use debit cards.
Social media makes it easy for like-minded consumers to band together and amplify their message, it spreads rapidly, and it always feels more genuine than the talking heads from a corporate PR team. As a result, we’re seeing large corporations closely monitoring any complaints on social media, and addressing them in hours, instead of weeks or months.
via Techipedia – Attack of the Consumer! The Many Ways Consumers Can Put You Out of Business Online