From blogs to print - Nokia Singapore’s image gets a hit!
You may heard the term from print to screen where books are turned into movies and it seems journalists from Singapore’s mainstream media are looking at social media for their source of the story.
It is, therefore, even more important for the brand protectors, like the PR and the corporate comms, to constantly be aware of the going ons of the social media scene.
It all started with postings on two SPH forums at omy.sg and asiaone.com about how the forum member won her case against Nokia to refund her the full amount of a Nokia phone which she bought stopped working after a few days.
Unable to get the mobile phone repair, the forum member asked for a refund and got it through Singapore’s Small Claims Tribunal.
However, when the forum member called Nokia to check on the refund, Nokia office replied they did not receive any notice from the Small Claims Tribunal.
So what did the forum member do?
She got the courts to call in the Repo Man.
Wrote XiaoYun at OMY.sg on Feb 18 2008,
I then applied for WSS (Writ of Seizure and Sale) the next day. An appointment date was scheduled on 11 Feb 2008.
I accompany the bailiff officer to Nokia HQ. Nokia was then given two options by the bailiff officer. One was to make settlement and the other one was let the bailiff officer to sticker their movable assets.
They finally woke up and agree to make payment. By then, they got to pay $1,018.43 instead of $778.
The forum post ended in Singapore’s popular blog aggregation site, Tomorrow.sg on Feb 22, 2008.
The Straits Times posted a teaser on its online site today to highlight that the Nokia incident will hit the pages of the print papers on Feb 25, 2008, with the headline “Nokia forced to cough up more than $1,000 over faulty phone“.
Wrote Alfred Siew of The Straits Times,
EARLIER this month, Ms Tan Geok Hoon marched into Nokia’s office, brandishing court documents and threatening to seize the assests of the cell-phone giant.
A bailiff stood at the side of the 43-year-old sales manager, ready to reposess the company’s things.
Ms Tan was enforcing a small claims court decision that ordered the world’s largest cellphone maker to pay her $778 for a faulty cellphone she bought last year.
The moment, which Ms Tan recalled recently, marked the culmination of a seven- month David-versus-Goliath battle.
The story of one woman’s fight against a mighty firm made its rounds in several online forums last week, casting the spotlight on how the world’s top phone maker handled unhappy customers.
This shows that the mainstream media are reading forums and blogs for a story source and I believed this isn’t the first time that it has happened.
However, I went through Nokia.com.sg Press Center and failed to find any official respond to the incident.
Neither could I find any Nokia response in the forums.
The question here for Nokia is that while the company promotes its mobile phones as a blogging tool, what type of respond mechanism does the company have when it comes to addressing the social media scene?
Or do they wait for it to be blown up in the mainstream media before they respond to them?
Very typical of large corporations… issues management are typically reactive, rather than proactive.
Well, this will surely grab the attention of the man/woman at the top to do something about it instead of the customer service reps. Hopefully that translates to better service -)
I find that the problem with a lot of SG-based companies (or should I extend it and say Asia-based companies) is that we’re way behind in using new media tools/platforms to talk 1-to-1 with our customers.
It’s all fine and dandy to be announcing leading-edge technology and waxing lyrical about your customer service, but if companies don’t have additional online channels for customers to get information, seek help and give feedback, we’re looking at trouble. Support FAQs and the usual email/feedback links can only go so far.
I like how Dell does it with their Direct2Dell site. Real voices from Dell employees conversing with customer voices all over the online space. It’s measures like these that help to 1) alert a company to potential fiascos brewing and 2) give the company a chance to respond 1-to-1 and FAST in a non-corporate voice.
The irony of this is that Nokia is a mobile phone company that encourages its customers to blog using their mobile phone, yet all bloggers got from Nokia Singapore was a printed responded in ST more than 14 days after the forum post appeared.
If Nokia Singapore say its difficult to comment on every blog, then have a blog site of its own to deal with them, with a “a non-corporate voice”.