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I cringe every time I read the words #FAIL , #boo or thus like on Twitter, from users who might just have given a cursory glance to a tool or barely used a service.

This is someone's brand we are referring to, a brand that's dear to someone; a service in whose creation someone has put a lot of time, effort and money. How easy it is for us, to sit at a distance and boo, setting someone up for failure, without sometimes giving the other party time/ opportunity to make amends on genuine gaps.

I find that on one side social media gives opportunity consumers to transparently share feedback, on the other, our usage of it is often knee-jerk and may I dare say, even juvenile.

Here, however, is a case of genuine customer agony upon discovering at the airport that your ticket for overseas travel; for which you paid in advance; is void. You end up buying another ticket to make it to your destination. This is what happened to my friend, and power blogger, Kiruba. The culprit - Cleartrip.com

I have often said to marketers attending my talks, workshops that how a marketer responds to negative feedback is the key to success with social media. Going on the defensive is not going to help. A mistake has been made - own up; mistakes do happen, and the moment you acknowledge and convey that to the customer, half the battle is already won.

'Resolution' is the only apology acceptable, not a verbal apology that everyone seems to offer. Now go on, top it with something that says 'We care' and you can expect forgiveness, even make friends.

Cleartrip shares how they resolved the complaint in this transparent post - transparency has become their hallmark, besides a clear, purposeful interface on the site.

Cleatrip, is rightly disappointed that not as many people shared the positive resolution, as the ones who contributed to the initial negative burst. Well, you have earned some more trust and customers in the process is all I could say to them. I have been buying regularly from Cleartrip and would not just continue but likely recommend them to more people after this episode.

Thanks Manpreet for sharing the case-study post with me.

UPDATE - 16 June, 2009 at 3.42 pm - Kiruba gives his side of the story on this blog update (2nd part of the story still pending)

UPDATE - 26 June, 2009 at 4.25 pm - Kiruba put up part 2 of his story a couple of days ago. Here it is now.

The rules:

1. Translating from source - the original is in Hindi- I will use text in colour brown


2. Rest of the text, by me, little as it will likely be, in colour black :)

Baloo, a trader, lived in Gujarat. So stingy was he with money that he didn't like spending money even upon himself, leave alone others. Coming back from work one day, he spotted a Date tree with rich fruits hanging near the top...he was tempted.

The question now was, how to reach the top? Paying an expert tree-climber would cost money, and he didn't know how to do it himself. Preferring to save money, he decided to climb the tree himself, and somehow managed to reach the top.

Just as he was reaching out to finally pluck the fruit, he looked down, and nearly fell - land seemed far away, he hadn't noticed how far he had come, and now he had no idea how to get back down.

He looked around for help, finding none, he started to pray to God. He promised that if he reached to safety, he'd feed a thousand brahmins.

The prayer seemed to have bolstered his strength and somehow slipped down a bit, land seemed closer by...and "feeding a thousand brahmins for 'just this much' does seem a bit steep, five hundred should suffice," he thought.

Five hundred became two hundred, and then even less. Finally when his feet touched the ground, he heaved a sigh of relief and promised to God that he will feed ONE brahmin, for sure.

On the way back home he kept thinking about ways to keep the cost of feeding the brahmin as low as possible and decided that the trick would in finding someone who ate really little.

He reached his village and after some asking around, was told that Janki Das, a brahmin, ate very little. What he did not know was that Janki Das was also a very sharp and wicked creature. When Baloo extended the lunch invitation to Janki Das, he promptly accepted.

Baloo reached home and told his wife Shyamali about the promise and about Janki Das coming for lunch the next day. He also advised her to keep the cost as low as possible.

Next day, which was the weekly bazaar day, Baloo thought he would be better off doing business to make up for the loss incurred on feeding Janki Das, and decided to let his wife fulfill the lunch commitment.

When Janki Das, the brahmin, saw Baloo leave for work and landed at his place early, smelling an opportunity. Shyamali was surprised to see the guest come so early. Janki Das told her "I thought let me see if you need any advice on how to prepare for the feast, so enroute to the temple, I decided to stop at your place."

Shyamli listed all items on the menu; Janki Das appeared pleased but cautioned her that while he is coming for lunch alone, quantities for about 10-12 people needed to be prepared. He also advised Shyamali to prepare 3 different sweets to please Lord Ganesha, the remover of hurdles.

Later when Janki Das returned for lunch, he advised Shyamali to offer 2 gold coins as to please the Gods. "Baloo didn't mentioned anything about the coins," thought Shyamali, but not wanting to displease the Gods, she got the coins and offered them to Janki Das.

Janki Das ate his fill, and packed the rest for his family. On the way out, he demanded 10 more gold coins as his dakshina (traditional gift given to a priest as part of a religious ceremony). Shyamali was baffled and knew that her husband wouldn't like this, but, again, didn't want to displease a brahmin either.

Janki Das, satiated, reached home and warned his wife that an angry Baloo would likely come home and explained a few things to her...

Baloo reached home late evening and heard the episode from Shyamali. Livid, he rushed to Janki Das' place, armed with a thick stick.

As soon as Janki Das' wife saw an enraged Baloo coming at them, she started to cry out loudly, beating her chest "You poisoned my husband, what did you feed him? If anything happens to him, you won't be spared by the police, I promise you that..."she cursed.

Taken aback, Baloo was now terrified. "Please don't speak so loudly," he pleaded and continued "Why don't you call a doctor?"

"Call a doctor? Where do I have the money for that. Give me 10 gold coins so I can call for a doctor," said the wife.

"If he dies, you will be dead too."

Baloo asked for the priest's son to accompany him back home, and , trembling, handed over 10 gold coins to the boy.

"God, save me please - I will feed a 1000 brahmins." he promised.

So what are the learning?

1. Some clients are penny wise, pound foolish
2. They'd rather get conned by a dis-honest party than pay an honest expert, their honest fee
3. Some clients have short memories - amnesia hits as the crisis passes, until it hits again

Encountered a Baloo, a Janki Das yourself? :)

Keep writing.

Driving to work this work morning, I was listening to this recent podcast by my friend Kamla Bhatt "Social Media in India, what's missing" where she interviewed me and Anurag Batra, Managing Director, exchange4media. I thought I should share it here...

Some of the points we discussed:

1. Social Media environment in India
2. How do Indian marketers see Social Media, is there a disconnect at the top
3. Will corporate blogging takeoff in India?
4. RoI of Social Media
5. Are marketers lazy?
6. Misplaced focus on tools
7. Social Media and Bollywood

Much more...but why don't I just let you listen in to the discussion :) - here you go.

Last Tuesday's (9 June 2009) Financial Express featured findings from the India Social Media Survey Report - Edition 1 in its Brand Wagon section.

Here is a JPG of the coverage.

View image

Last night, I and a friend and peer of mine, a very senior & respected public relations professional, were chatting over the phone about personal stuff and the talk swerved towards Twitter for a few minutes.

He, a Twitter newbie, probed on why are people motivated to broadcast essentially one-to-one messages over a public stream on Twitter?

Intuitively I replied:

1. In an increasingly exhibitionist world people increasingly want to 'flaunt their conversations/ thoughts' to a larger audience - ever so often the person with whom they/ we may be conversing with, over Twitter, may in fact be live with us on GTalk too
2. This flaunting is also sometimes about 'who' you are having this conversation with - the equivalent of a 'names dropping' - for fans there is a certain kick in being able to have one-on-one conversations with @gulpanag, on Twitter

Both harmless...

1. In a more productive way, a purposeful conversation that first started one-on-one, might be joined into by our respective friends and peers, adding perspective and thought - not possible in a private one-on-one tool
2. More people in the public stream who found the conversation interesting might join in to add value, and also become friends
3. We/ others could easily share links/ sources/ resources adding further value and knowledge

Collective knowledge creation and sharing...

For marketers and communication professionals like us, Twitter, and other social networking sites, are subject matter about people behaviour and how content and knowledge is being, or will be, created and shared besides trend-spotting.

It's been over a year since I wrote this piece about Twitter uses for HT. What are the new ways in which you are using Twitter?

UPDATED 11 June, 2009 - 10.25 am - Even as I decided to unpublish the post, within minutes of it being published, many had already read it. Next morning the newspapers carried an item on the front page about an alleged retaliatory attack against perpetrator of the first attack against an Indian citizen in Australia. Some people have requested me to publish the post again and I am doing so now...

The original post is below:

The recent racial attacks against Indian students in Australia had me searching for this insight that I had shared in focus group, a few months ago.

India and Indian have, for centuries, been victims of racial discrimination . When it wasn't the colour of the skin, the accent of its people gave them away. As a poor, third-world country with a large illiterate population its people suffered meekly for decades.

However, advent of satellite television; urbanization of landscape and changed demographics with a large youth population coupled with rapid economic growth that put India amongst one of the fastest growing economies in the world (even after the slow-down from which India too is impacted) have led to a new, confident Indian, which is good.

Slowing economies in the developed world, jobs lost to India and elsewhere have polarized the populace in some way, sometimes leading people to react there the way they previously may have - discriminate based on race - e.g. Outburst again Indian outsourcing (abuse that BPO employees face).

India's youth however is not prepared to take it lying down anymore - he/ she is turning brash too. Today they simply quit jobs where they face abuse, tomorrow they might turn back and respond.

Should we fear reverse racialism?

Impact

It is difficult to predict impact yet but clearly this is not a face of Indian youth known to the world:

1. Indians are considered a hospitable community and that feeling may take a dent


2. Can impact cultural relations between populations of countries: India Vs Australia cricket series (Symonds versus Harbhajan, or the other way round) soured relationship, even though it was limited to cricket grounds

Indians are at the receiving end again. And it only adds to my fear, and forbid were that scenario were to ever emerge, it would be truly sad.

Please note: I will be strictly moderating all comments on this post, so please stick to the subject of societal impact and do not deviate from the purpose of social studies. Thanks in advance.