New Years Eve 2008, Rabobank.be makes a mistake in calculating the interest fees for 50% of its clients. Half of the clients receive less money than they were supposed to get. You can image... that did not make people too happy.
The same night (New Years Eve!!), some clients start to share their frustration about this mistake on a financial community site (spaargids.be). All night long, people report this mistake and some of them are getting really mad. The forum is covered with frustrated reactions from Rabobank clients.
The next morning (New Years Day), at 10am, Dirk Dewulf, Conversation Manager at Rabobank.be, looks at the forum and discovers the mistake and the reactions of clients. Dirk reacted immediately and wrote the following sentence on the forum (as Rabobank): "I just checked my personal account and you are right, we made a mistake. So, you are right, we made a mistake. We'll look into it and solve the problem as fast as possible. Sorry for the inconvenience."
Easy, simple but yet so powerful. Dirk reacted as a peer and very honest. The reactions on the forum changed right away. The negative tone became a more positive tone. People were amazed that Rabobank gave customer service on New Years Day. More than 5000 people read this discussion and saw the reaction of Rabobank followed by the changing opinion of clients.
The power of conversations is enormous and using it can be so simple.
