Last Friday was Valentine's Day, many kinds of skincare products were on sale on Neiman Marcus. Me and my roommates were attracted by a Kiehl's set, so we decided to buy 4 sets together. Everything seemed to go smoothly. We placed our order successfully, and the order was confirmed. We were delighted and looking forward to receiving the package. However, three days later, I got an email saying that our order was cancelled, for no reason. I immediately contacted Neiman Marcus's customer service online, he told me that the company had the right to limit quantities a customer might buy. I told him I totally understood if the company had this rule, but I preferred to know this
rule before I placed the order, and Neiman Marcusshould have shown this rule to customers on the website, instead of canceling orders later on. Then, I got nothing useful to solve my problem but apologies. I was so disappointed. Well,Neiman Marcus, to some degree, "listened" to me, and "talked" to me. However, I didn't think our chat could be deemed as an effective conversation because they did not understand what I was thinking; even after I told them my thought, they still didn't get me. What's worse, it was just reported days ago that "over 1 million credit cards' data were stolen" in Neiman Marcus. Some friends of mine got in trouble in this Hackers attack, and they had warned me not to buy things in Neiman Marcus. Now, having this dissatisfied shopping experience on Neiman Marcus, do you think I will "spread the word" of this shopping mall to my other friends in a positive way? No. Definitely not.
From my point of view, the purpose to start a conversation between groundswell and company is to understand "what people are thinking" (p. 80) and build a friendly, trustworthy relationship with each other, then the groundswell will help "advertise" the company in certain way. According to Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff's "Word of Mouth Marketing Association (WOMMA)" theory in Part Two of Groundswell: winning in a world transformed by social technologies, "word of mouth 'is the honest form of marketing, building upon people's natural desire to share their experiences with family, friends, and colleagues.'" (p. 131) Li and Bernoff believe the importance of energizing the groundswell. So do I.
Lancôme is one
of the companies that do a great job in energizing the groundswell. The
video below is posted on Lancôme's official website; it tries to tell customers some
beauty tips.
You don't have to finish the video, because what I want to talk about is not the video, but the girl in it. Who is she? Well, I would like to tell you, she, Michelle Phan, is originally just one of Lancôme's customers. But her videos are now on
the official websites of Lancôme's
products, and she becomes very famous in social media. As many other Lancôme's ordinary customers, Michelle Phan loved Lancôme's products, so she wrote her reviews on various social media, and put videos on YouTube to share her personal experience with others. In her makeup videos, she introduced many Lancôme's products, and more and more people followed her on Facebook and YouTube.
Just like Jim Noble, who is an example in Groundswellas a fan of eBags,Michelle Phan is an enthusiast customer of Lancôme. Lancômeunderstands the importance of word-of-mouth and the power of energizing the groundswell, so the company put her videos on its websites and attract people to believe that Lancôme's products are as good as advertised. As stated in Groundswell, "it's energizing -- finding enthusiast customers and turning them into word-of-mouth machines." (p. 130) Now, Michelle Phan is hired by Lancôme, being a professional makeup girl, sharing her feelings and experiences of usingLancôme's products. If you type "Lancôme" on YouTube, there are about 330,000 results shown on the screen, and MOST OF THEM are reviews from ordinary customers.
Compared to itsstrongest competitor, Estée Lauder, Lancôme is almost three times search results greater than Estée Lauder. To Lancôme, Groundswell is energized, and customers are encouraged to give feedbacks. As Li and Bernoff say in the book, "Energizing the base is a powerful way to use the groundswell to boost your business." (p. 130) I believe Lancômewill benefit a lot from the groundswell in the future.
Great post! What a bummer that Neiman Marcus canceled your order, but what a great (and timely) example of engaging with the groundswell (or, in their case, not engaging effectively). Truthfully, I will probably never order from them because of how they handled your experience...word of mouth at work! I thought you did a really nice job connecting the reading to interesting examples and your use of videos and images was great. Thanks for sharing!
Thank you for your comment, dear Kayla! ^_^ I don't usually contact customer service even I get broken goods, because I think they don't want that happens, but this time I just wanted to know why they cancelled my order without telling me in advance, and I wanted them to alert other customers that they have a limitation per customer. However, NM's attitude made me feel unreasonable!!! Unbelievable!!! >_<
I really enjoyed your post Yolanda! Turning the power over to customers is something that definitely improves their engagement. Lancome showed this by actually featuring a customer in their marketing. I also like how you emphasize the need for companies to try to figure out what people are thinking, and therefore figure out exactly how to serve them. I think Neiman Marcus should have handled this a lot more professionally. Hope you can find some great products elsewhere!
^_^ Thank you Madeleine! The meaning of an effective communication is to know what people are thinking. Everyone can listen, and everyone can talk, but not everyone can understand "why they communicate." I feel so sad about Neiman Marcus regarding their poor sense of listening to customers' feedback. I will definitely find some great places to shop!
I'm surprised to hear Neiman Marcus handled your order this way, not a good business practice in the era of social media. Also interesting info on Lamcombe and how they embraced one of their customers who was promoting her use of their products on-line.
7 comments:
Great post! What a bummer that Neiman Marcus canceled your order, but what a great (and timely) example of engaging with the groundswell (or, in their case, not engaging effectively). Truthfully, I will probably never order from them because of how they handled your experience...word of mouth at work! I thought you did a really nice job connecting the reading to interesting examples and your use of videos and images was great. Thanks for sharing!
Thank you for your comment, dear Kayla! ^_^ I don't usually contact customer service even I get broken goods, because I think they don't want that happens, but this time I just wanted to know why they cancelled my order without telling me in advance, and I wanted them to alert other customers that they have a limitation per customer. However, NM's attitude made me feel unreasonable!!! Unbelievable!!! >_<
I really enjoyed your post Yolanda! Turning the power over to customers is something that definitely improves their engagement. Lancome showed this by actually featuring a customer in their marketing. I also like how you emphasize the need for companies to try to figure out what people are thinking, and therefore figure out exactly how to serve them. I think Neiman Marcus should have handled this a lot more professionally. Hope you can find some great products elsewhere!
^_^ Thank you Madeleine! The meaning of an effective communication is to know what people are thinking. Everyone can listen, and everyone can talk, but not everyone can understand "why they communicate." I feel so sad about Neiman Marcus regarding their poor sense of listening to customers' feedback. I will definitely find some great places to shop!
I'm surprised to hear Neiman Marcus handled your order this way, not a good business practice in the era of social media. Also interesting info on Lamcombe and how they embraced one of their customers who was promoting her use of their products on-line.
Thank you Kimberly! I think everyone feels surprise about the way that Neiman Marcus handled. I hope they can change in the future.
Post a Comment