Fresh Chat

The other day I was at the park when I noticed a van pull up with a logo www.scooteria.com.au with some great graphics of Italian Vespas.

That night my first instinct was to plug the web address in and see what sort of online profile they had – after all the scooter community is a particularly vibrant and social one.

The first thing that struck me was that their website had a very low interactivity level.  A small section called Scoot Scene was evident with an invitation for social events to riders but no opportunity for UGC user generated content.

You could only imagine how a regular blog to engage with readers, items on flickr etc and possibly even a facebook page could be very useful and entertaining.

Anyway, apart from checking out their site I noticed that on the first page of Google and at number four position was a post about Scooteria’s allegedly dodgy service – it certainly caught my eye .  The original post was made on www.Netrider.net.au  a forum and site connecting riders. The first line in bold was Netrider :: View topic - Scooteria dodgy service, or just an …So naturally I had to view the posting.

Essentially the item was about a disgruntled scooter owner who had had their bike serviced by Scooteria in a less than suitable fashion saying “So is Scooteria a dodgy dealer, or am I just an overprotective owner”

What was interesting was that the posting was made in Oct 2007 yet the story was still going strong in December with over four pages! of postings.

The disgruntled owner (who had been posting email comments from Scooteria into the forum)  highlighted Scooterias lack of forum engagement when he said:

“After two months, I got a refund for the service and I have booked with another dealer to perform the service again, correctly this time. I begged Scooteria to comment, they said: “I don’t want or feel the need to be involved in any forums”.

More interestingly recently a poll appeared on the posting with forumites voting for whether Scooteria was the problem or the scooter owner. At this stage the dealer is coming out better. Who posted that poll? Not sure.

While we often think of larger international brands such as McDonalds getting bad publicity online yet  smaller home grown brands can also come under fire.

Lessons Learned:

Be aware about what your customers are saying about you

Listen and respond to their concerns in forums where the discussion is taking place as your emails may end up in the forum anyway!

Consider a blog for your website – in cases such as the above it would have been useful to discuss claims and listen to customers – keeping the discussion on your site and timely.

Consider more interactivity with your customers – forums on your sites, flckr photo competitions, videos etc to help engage and continue to build good will with your customers.