Hey Davina, thanks for the comment! Not sure how this one slipped by me. I’ve been thinking about the social “PR” crisis issue for years. My gut is that for some of these larger companies in monopolistic/oligopolistic situations, they don’t matter much to long-term growth or profitability — though they can certainly be devastating to smaller orgs.

I had a pretty bad airline experience on Monday with a discount carrier, but I really wonder how much the bad experience I had, which seems pretty typical, will affect the average consumer’s choice. They’ve got certain routes and a discount ticket price/nickel-and-dime fee model that seems to work for them. Do I think they could do even better by improving the customer experience — of course — but with such limited competition, they might manage to do just fine without it.

The ‘they got away with it’ b/c it’s the ocean drop or monopoly. THAT I’ve been thinking about in PR terms a while under the ‘marketing proof’ label. It’s those big cable guys b/c really, it’s not like the other guy ain’t worse so what does it matter? Or a big box store or airline or any other brand that’s got the right location, prices, market that it really doesn’t matter what they say, what social tweet ‘crisis’ hits or how badly they mishandle PR and Facebook.

What’s to be done? cross your fingers you don’t see your company up in flames isn’t a plan; you need to listen, read, learn, teach, then listen some more. Listen to customers, listen to the reps and find ways to be better. You can’t please everyone all the time, have to have a plan to make the best of what you can do. Or at least, that’s what I try. FWIW.

No question Ben. I didn’t delve into it much in this piece, but there is definitely a dynamic at play in these large monopolistic/ologopolistic industries where the impact of these sorts of stories is reduced. Here’s to hoping the firms that need it get the message anyway!