Social media has given companies the opportunity to create a two-way street for conversation with their customers. Reaching your target audience has never been easier, but dealing with customer complaints now takes place in a public forum.
Flower Failure
As Valentine’s Day 2015 comes to a close, it’s become an annual tradition to see 1-800-Flowers.com deal with customer service fallout. 1-800-Flowers.com had a terrible year on social media in 2014. Pictures of dead flowers or comments about undelivered products circulated the internet long after V-Day.
It looks like 1-800-Flowers.com didn’t learn their lesson from last year, as an almost identical slew of problems followed them this year. Unsatisfied customers flocked to Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram to share their opinions on the flower delivery service. More dead flowers, undelivered flowers, and automated customer service robots. At this point, it’s hard to see why the customers are still coming.
It’s No Secret on Social Media
Photos and comments like these could have dire consequences for the brand. One year is an accident, two years is a trend. Personally, I see these complaints and tell myself to never order from 1-800-Flowers.com.
At this point, the brand needs to step back and apologize for their poor service. This is an opportunity to fix their mistakes and learn for next year. Whether this is a quality control issue or a delivery issue, this can’t happen again next year. In a world where similar services are popping up everyday, they don’t have room for mistakes of this caliber.
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