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Can Customer Service Survive in the Blogosphere?

What they shouldn't do: Ignore the situation, or worse, try to intimidate bloggers into shutting up -- unless, of course, they are writing defamatory statements. More on that below.

"There have been some high-profile cases of companies ignoring complaints about their products on blogs and then having it blow up in their faces very publicly later on," he tells CRM Buyer.

There was, for example, the publicity about Dell's (Nasdaq: DELL) very poor customer service -- the catalyst for that PR firestorm was an unhappy blogger.

There was also the humiliating case of the Kryptonite lock. A blogger posted a video showing that its bike locks could be picked with a Bic pen in 30 seconds, confirming what had started out as a rumor. Within weeks, the video made its way into major media and the company wound up issuing a recall.

Taking a More Positive Approach

Dunkin' Donuts, on the other hand, provides an example of a company thinking on its feet to handle a negative blog posting correctly.

A few years ago, Cox says, he came across a Web site that announced Dunkin' Donuts would ship a case of coffee to any relative of a soldier fighting in Iraq. The blog was a misleading in many ways, he recalls.

For starters, the site was designed to look like Dunkin' Donuts -- indeed, Cox though it was an affiliated Web site at first. Also, as it turned out, the information was not quite accurate. Cox believed that it was, though, and passed the link to other bloggers who began mentioning it on their sites.

Hours later, Cox, who has two nephews in Iraq, called Dunkin' Donuts to find out more. He spoke with a woman who told him the company was no longer backing the offer, because it had gotten too many requests. Cox related the conversation on his own blog and passed that information along to the blogosphere as well. It got exactly the reception one might expect.

Next, Cox received a call from an ad agency that monitored the blogosphere for mentions of its clients. "They said, before I write anything further they would like a chance to investigate what had happened -- and could I please hold off," said Cox.

They called back with an explanation -- and a press release tailored just for him. The offer to ship coffee had never been a formal one; apparently it was made ad hoc without much thought concerning the total cost to the company. However, Dunkin' Donuts did want to do something to support the troops and said it would ship cases of its coffee to different units every month, on a random but regular basis.

Fielding Consumer Complaints

Web logs, or "blogs" as they are called, are increasingly being used to shine a spotlight on companies that provide poor service or otherwise annoy -- sometimes enrage -- consumers.

For consumer advocates, they are a true equalizer: Bloggers have been able to shame companies into fixing mistakes or changing policies, especially when they cause a mainstream media reporter to come calling.

Companies, for the most part, are reacting well to this shifting balance of power with consumers. As a consultant, "How do I shut these people up?" was a typical request Cox received from companies.

"That is still out there, of course," he said, "but I have seen a change among smarter companies that are realizing that blogs represent opportunities to engage with their audiences on a very large scale."

Louder Voice, Bigger Responsibilities

With the power of the blogger's voice, though, comes larger responsibilities -- not to mention potential liabilities. Many bloggers aren't aware of the danger zones.

A Louisiana woman was recently held liable for her blog posting about the service a Florida resident provided in a situation that involved her sons. What was unusual about the case was that the Louisiana native -- who lost her house in Hurricane Katrina -- had no money to pay the judgment, but the suit went forward anyway.

Legal observers expect to see such suits proliferate. "The interplay between the legal system and the blogging community is a developing one," Chip Babcock, a litigation attorney and partner at Jackson Walker tells CRM Buyer.

Taking Notes

Basically, bloggers are held to the same libel standard that any publisher is held to, Babcock explains. For bloggers unaware of what that standard is, a primer on the difference between a false statement and a statement of opinion -- which is protected speech -- is key.

Says Babcock: "If you want to call someone 'scum,' that is protected speech. You just can't say someone is scum because, say, they embezzle money," he advises, "unless of course that is true, and you can prove it."

More companies are monitoring the blogsphere, he notes, although many take a more adversarial stance than Dunkin' Donuts reportedly did. "I think corporate and legal strategies to deal with blogs [are] still very much evolving," he says.

Cease and desist letters are one tool -- but unless the blog is making false statements of fact, a blogger should have little to worry about.

"It is generally very difficult to prove defamation," Steve Smith, a partner at Preston Gates, tells CRM Buyer. "My guess is that for every ten lawsuits that are initiated for defamation, nine are eventually dropped once the person realizes how difficult it is to prove."