Beware the bad news virus

In the “good old days” of retail we were taught that “bad news” travelled faster than “good news”.

Actually, the often quoted and supposedly statistically proven data showed that whilst happy shoppers may not tell their story to anyone, angry shoppers would tell 10 others of the experience. The lesson naturally was it is dangerous to let shoppers have a bad in-store and/or customer service experience and ignore the consequences. The impact on the retailer’s reputation could be catastrophic and if there were enough of these disgruntled shoppers it would not be long before the store would be closing its doors for good.

Fundamentally it is true that people by nature shout the bad news to everyone who will listen and in today’s world of technology “spreading the bad news” is instantaneous and widespread.

Nowadays the bad news can be infinitely more damaging to the retailer’s reputation simply by nature of how easy it is tell the story and the incredible reach that is available in this age of technology. The arrival of the email network accelerated the speed of spreading the message and at the same time made it possible to tell a greater number of friends with the same click of  the “send” button. The number of recipients receiving the “news” is only limited by the number of email addresses on the sender’s mail list and this could be 10, 20, 50, 100 or even more.

The advancement of technology in cell phones and tablets has further accelerated the speed with which the “bad news” stories can be launched in the marketplace. The story teller can leave the retail store and sit in the nearest coffee shop and with some rapid tapping and an equally fast click on the send button a text message is in circulation in minutes if not seconds.

Now the newest generation of communication technology – social networks – have created an even more dangerous position for retailers to be wary of. Posts on Facebook, Tweets and blogs can, like text messages, instantaneously broadcast “bad news” stories. The big difference is in the potential size of the audience as these social networks make it possible for the world to see the posts.

Now let’s put the potential of the audience size in perspective:

Word of mouth – if one disgruntled shopper tells 10 friends of the bad shopping experience and the story is concerning enough that each of those 10 people tells 10 more this means 111 people are aware of the incident. Each of these folks can then develop a negative attitude to the retailer.

Email – if one disgruntled shopper emails to all his friends, let’s say 20 email contacts, then it is possible these recipients may also forward the “bad news” story to their email contacts so the mathematics suggest 421 people know the “bad news” story and the danger of greater damage to the retailer’s reputation increase almost 400 per cent. Not only does the audience size dramatically increase but even more concerning is the time to broadcast the message is infinitely faster than word of mouth!

Social Networks – here there is no need to do the hypothetical calculations as any posting that goes viral where readers spread the word like wildfire, the hits can get into the 10’s of thousands or 100’s of thousands for the really viral driven stories millions of visitors will know the “bad news” story quicker than a retailer can close up shop!

The message for retailers is very simple: if it was dangerous before the age of advanced technical communication to risk “bad news” stories circulating in the marketplace then today it is suicidal.

Once the “bad news” hits the social networks the damage is done and recovery is impossible.

The lesson: do not let shoppers have a “bad news” experience in your store. Today more than ever before it is critical that store ambience, product availability and customer service standards exceed the shopper’s expectation. We live in an age of speed and to ignore this lesson will result in closing the retail doors for good in world record time!

InsideRetail.Asia columnist Darrell Wisbey has 30 years retail experience, living and working in Australia and Asia. He is based in the Philippines and a member of Impact Retailing. Email Darrell.

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