A couple of years ago, Don Imus was doing a broadcast out of Scranton, PA.
Now don’t laugh, but I was born in Scranton and my grandmother still lives there. It may be down on its luck – has been since the mid-20th century – but it still has its pride. And the pride and joy of the City of Scranton is the old Erie Lackawanna Train Station in the heart of town – one of the few grand old train stations left in the US. 20 years ago it was converted into a suitably grand hotel, the Lackawanna Station Hotel.
Trust me, this is possibly the only time you will ever use ‘Scranton’ and ‘luxury amenities’ in the same sentence.
So, when Mr. Imus stayed in Scranton, he naturally spent the night at the Station Hotel. That is, until a desk clerk annoyed him and he left in a huff, under cover of darkness, canceling the next day’s broadcast and spending the next day or so trashing the Hotel and the City of Scranton on national radio.
I won’t go into the whole “PR Nightmare for City and Hotel” story here, that’s for other bloggers and other entries. My point is that this really does happen all the time, but so subtly and under the radar that most of the time the companies involved don’t even realize what’s being said about them.
Forget about Kryptonite for a moment. Do you think anyone at the Old Fort Garry Hotel has any idea who Jeremy Wright is?
Jeremy Pepper has another great example. Adam Curry did not have a very nice experience flying America West and he’s more than happy to tell you all about it.
Jeremy has contacted the corporate communications folks at America West (being a good Phoenician and all), but he wonders what companies can do to monitor what’s being said about them in podcasts, as opposed to blogs where you could easily check PubSub or Technorati.
I think there’s a bigger thing (can’t think of a better word for it, sorry) going on here. More and more people are ceasing to be passive consumers and are now producers in their own right. From reviews on Amazon and epinions, to blogs and podcasts, more companies, large and small, are going to be hearing it from their customers. The question then is, are they even listening?
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