Yesterday something very remarkable happened in the Twitter spheres. The global vehicle glass specialist Carglass suddenly became the center of attention after the hashtag #carglasszuigt became a trending topic on Twitter.
It all started with some people complaining about the quality of Carglass’ latest advertisements, tagging their tweets with #carglasszuigt.
It seemed that Carglass was observing & joining the conversation via the Twitter account @NL_carglass, sending out warning-messages to everyone using the #carglasszuigt hashtag that they would be sued if they continued using it.
This and other bold reactions of the @NL_Carglass account were so striking that they were retweeted massively as a case of total miscommunication. Later on, it seemed that the Twitter account was fake and that the official (unfortunately inactive) account of Carglass is @Carglass_NL.
This case clearly shows that companies really need to join the conversation, and at least need to start observing it, to be able to react quickly upon such a critical situation.
So what should Carglass have done:
- Being proactively present in the conversation (they have an official Twitter account @CarglassNL, but it’s inactive)
- Communicating proactively about the fake Twitter account by observing the conversations
- Giving immediate and clear reactions on all media channels (both on-and offline) to avoid speculations (it took a long time before official messages came through)
However, it is not too late for Carglass. Now that the brand is being discussed by a great number of people, it is time to take positive action. What about using the hashtag #carglasszuigt as an ongoing customer satisfaction survey? Carglass could openly communicate that it has picked up on the buzz, and that it knows that it’s a hoax, but that they however are always willing to listen. Whoever really thinks that Carglass sucks, could use the hashtag to give feedback to the company, so that they know what to improve. There is a wave out there, it might be the ideal time for Carglass to ride on it!
Follow me on Twitter via @dadovpeteghem