“Dell to Arik Air, come in please….”
"Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it."
George Santayana
George Santayana
Dell Hell should never have happened
but it did. It all began when global PC manufacturing giant, Dell Computers
ignored a justifiably aggrieved customer. The customer, Jeff Jarvis
incidentally was a blogger and owner of the already popular blog,
buzzmachine.com. In June 2005, the
laptop he purchased from Dell Computers developed a fault almost immediately
after he took delivery, leading him to lodge a complaint with the company. The unsatisfactory
customer service he subsequently received compelled him to take his
frustrations online and make his experience known to the public via his blog.
It is probable that Jarvis did not
expect the initial responses he got; 253 comments by fellow aggrieved customers.
Dell Computers returned the laptop, still not functioning and what began as a
rant gradually turned to rage and then hell for Dell Computers. Jarvis continued
to update readers on his blog about his correspondence with Dell’s customer
service attendants, highlighting their incompetence and refusal to listen to
his complaints. The term ‘Dell Hell’
was likely coined from the first few words of his third postabout the subject
on his blog “My Dell Hell continues…”
It may be safely assumed that a vast
percentage of active Twitter users in Nigeria have heard or read about JaphethOmojuwa’s
on-going experience with Nigerian airline, Arik Air. Howthe airline permitted the
situation to degenerate to this level is quiteperplexing.According toOmojuwa,
he forgot his Apple iPad on an ArikAir plane and when he went back for it, was informed
by an attendant that the device had been found and put into his luggage. Contrary
to that assertion however, Omojuwa did not find the iPad in his luggage and
thereafter took the matter to the court of public opinion via his blog.
It seems the airline was prepared to
offer some form of compensation but insisted that the aggrieved customer take anoath
of silence. This is not strange as the company obviously seeksto avoid opening
a floodgate of claims, real and otherwise if Omojuwa publishes information
regarding any compensation. The legal slant in this demand is evident but the
question is; Should that bethe most criticalissue to the airline at this point
given the thick storm that has been kicked up already?
Arik Air need not be enlightened about
Omojuwa’s right to complain publicly, a right he has assertedby creating the #ArikWhereIsMyiPadhashtagon Twitter to pursue
his cause. Twitter users in Nigeria have built a conversation around that
hashtagwithpeople sharing rather negative experiences they have had with Arik
Air.
#ArikWhereIsMyiPadshould
never have happened but it has. Omojuwa’s first tweet about his iPad
effectively placed the matter squarely within the domain of the airline’s
Corporate Communications Department. They ought to have spearheaded the drive
to resolve the matter swiftly and with finality, perhaps even score a few
social media points in the process.
On the 17th of August 2005,
Jarvis sent an email to Michael Dell, founder and President of Dell Computers, with Michael George, the Chief Marketing Officer in copy. Excerpts
from his mail:
“…I shipped back my computer today
and only — only — because I wrote an email to you, Mr. George, did I manage to
get a refund. I’m typing this on an Apple Powerbook. I also have bought two
more Apples for our home.
But you didn’t just lose three PC
sales and me as a customer.
Today, when you lose a customer,
you don’t lose just that customer, you risk losing that customer’s friends. And
thanks to the internet and blogs and consumer rate-and-review services, your
customers have lots and lots of friends all around the world.
I blog. And I shared the story of
my Dell travails here. The topic resonated with hundreds more people…”
Anyone reading this must have noticed
that Jarvis did not mention Twitter and Facebook. Twitter, according to
Wikipedia was created in March, 2006 and launched in July of the same year
while Facebook was launched in 2004 and may not have played a significant part
in that episode.
The difference between the
circumstances of Dell Hell and #ArikWhereIsMyiPadmust
be pointed out; the latter involves the social media, associate bloggers and a
blogger who obviously invests more time in nurturing his relationship with his
followers than most Nigerian brands do in satisfying their customers.
As Nigeria’s designated national
carrier, Arik Air must recognise this scenario for what it is; a crisis
situation, one that requires a speedy resolution devoid of further drama
especially asthe airline has more to lose.Perhaps its Corporate and Marketing
Communications Departments need to be told that people choose brands the same
way they choose friends. An individual will generally befriend someone he can
trust and should he lose trust in someone he has befriended, that relationship
will wither and likely die. The same applies tobrands.
Dell Hell was prolonged as a direct
result of the company’s refusal to listen. As a matter of fact, it closed its
online customer forumat the height of the crisis. Regardless, readers commented
in droves on Jarvis’ blog and linked to it from theirs thus heightening awareness
of the issue and increasing public displeasure with Dell. At the time of
writing this piece, Arik Air’s Twitter handleas advertised on the corporate
website indicates that thehandle does not exist. Hopefully, the airline has a
logical reason for the 'disappearance of its Twitter handle.
Case studies oughtto serve as pointers
and from an abstract perspective, could be treated as a person with whom a
professional may consult. Dell Hell is a popular social media case study and it
is shocking that Arik Air’s Corporate Communications Department has not been
able to use it as a means of avoiding their own version of the damaging
incident. On a lighter note, it is quite easy to imagine Dell Hell repeatedly
calling ArikAir on a dedicated radio channel; “Arik Air, do you copy? Come in
please…” in a frantic bid to redirect the airline from this adverse flight
path.
It must be said however, that the
situation is not beyond redemption even though a lot of damage has been done. This
crisis provides an opportunity for ArikAir to reposition itself as a listening
company; Dell did it and from the ashes of Dell Hell, the phoenix of a dynamic and
transformational customer engagement system was created. Today, over 24,000
Dell employees have undergone social media training at the Social Media and
Community University (SMACU) with various departments represented in that
number; Legal, Customer Service, Sales, Marketing & Public Relations etc. Initiatives
like Direct2Dell, IdeaStorm and @DellOutlet have become the basisfor positive
case studies.In effect, Dell Computers has created an exemplarymodel for
customer engagement and customer service responsiveness.
It is imperative that Arik Air engage
Omojuwa positively and tone down the legalese while at it. This saga certainly
bodes ill for a brand that is virtually the standard bearer for Nigeria’s
airline industry and does little to reassure foreigners. Additionally, and in
the light of this issue, the airline must constructively engage its customers
online with a view to reducing the trust deficit they have incurred in the past
weeks. A few lines from Jarvis’ now famous letter to Michael Dell will
highlight this point;
…Listen to all your bad press and
bad blog PR and consumer dissatisfaction and falling stock price and to the failure
of your low-price strategy and use that blog to admit that you have a problem.
Then show us how you are going to improve quality and let us help…
It sounds so simple, so downright
silly, doesn’t it? But that’s what you’re not doing now. And that’s why you
lost me as a customer…
Two years after the crisis, Jeff
Jarvis visited Dell Computers Headquarters and interviewed Michael Dell. He subsequently
acknowledged on his blog that the company had heeded the advice of its
customers and made wide reaching changes successfully. As he had previously
said to Dell via email, ‘…if you
join the conversation your customers are having without you, it may not be too
late.’ According
to him, Dell Computers now listens.
Arik Air can make this right by
simply doing the right thing.
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