Social media is new territory for many companies so mistakes happen. Of course, there are mistakes and then there are mistakes that make you wonder, "What the heck?"
A case in point was the response by an employee of Price Chopper to criticism directed to the company's Twitter account by a customer. The shopper wrote, "Every time I go into a @PriceChopperNY I realize why they are not @Wegmans. Tonight - bare produce areas."
Had the Price Chopper employee responded to the unhappy customer and offered an apology and a pledge to do better, then perhaps the story would have ended there. Of course, that isn't what happened.
The Price Chopper associate looked at the unhappy shopper's Twitter bio and discovered he was employed by a company that does business with the chain. In an email to executives at the customer's company, it was suggested his negative views of Price Chopper could jeopardize the working relationship between the two companies.
Hearing of this, Anthony Rotolo, a friend of the unhappy customer who is also an assistant professor at Syracuse University's School of Information Studies, chose to blog about the incident. The result was that Price Chopper found itself having to address its employee's heavy-handed response.
Heidi Reale, director of consumer insights at Price Chopper, responded to Prof. Rotolo's blog.
"This associate (the Price Chopper employee) had no responsibility for, or permission from, Price Chopper to address customer complaints or the customer's employer," Ms. Reale wrote. "This is why we knew nothing about it when it was tweeted at us today. We are sorry for this unfortunate incident, and we are working to take the appropriate actions to repair the trust that has been compromised by this associate."
Discussion Question: What lesson should retail companies that use social media take away from this incident? How should retailers respond to criticism on social media sites?
- Syracuse area critic of Price Chopper gets reaction on Twitter - The Post-Standard
- Price Chopper Supermarket Emails Customer's Employer, Demands Disciplinary Action for Negative Tweet - The Consumerist
- The odd story involving Price Chopper, Twitter and a total overreaction to a negative comment - All Over Albany
- Price Chopper Attacks Customer's Job Over Negative Tweet - Price Chopper Fail