http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2009/06/05/omni-case-a-pr-suicide.html
Omni case: A PR suicide
Sherria Ayuandini
Exactly this month four years ago, a man named Jeff Jarvis lamented on his blog
of his discontent towards Dell Computers. He colorfully outlined his
frustration on both the quality of its product and the customer service he
received from the company.
To Jarvis’ surprise, and later Dell’s, that one comment spiraled into one of
the biggest customer relations nightmares ever recorded. A swarm of other
disgruntled customers came forward and a new jargon term was born: Dell Hell!
Without question, Dell’s carefully-built reputation was severely compromised.
In fact, the impact was colossal, and it took Dell more than two years to put
out the hellfire.
There was a lot to be learned from the Dell experience, especially with regards
to how customer relations have now evolved, thanks to a relatively novel but
very powerful and unstoppable ally: the Internet.
Angry customers tell 3,000? Try 300,000 others. This revelation sent shockwaves
through companies and service providers around the world, and resulted in
endless seminars and countless books to illuminate businesses about this latest
phenomena.
Today, Indonesian ventures and service suppliers may have the chance to learn
about this first-hand, with Omni International Hospital Tangerang’s handling of
one disgruntled customer, Prita Mulyasari.
Prita had been detained for around three weeks and is now facing trial at
Tangerang District Court for allegedly defaming the hospital and violating the
Criminal Code and Law on the Internet and Electronic Transaction.
Prita’s case began when she wrote personal email narrating an unpleasant
experience she encountered during her treatment at the hospital. This email
ended up on mailing lists and blogs and soon became a public affair.
Omni Tangerang obviously understood that negative sentiment snowballing on the
World Wide Web was bad for business in more ways than one. It subsequently took
action to try to put a stop on it. A fair decision, so far. It decided to
respond to Prita’s complaint via the mailing list, and even used mass media to
express its side of the story. So far, so good. But then, feeling that all
these measures were still not enough, Omni decided to sue Prita. Ouch! (for the
hospital)
The first rule about controlling “bad” press — which likes to blow up gossip,
rumors and the like — is to avoid making the story even bigger than it already
is. Suddenly, Prita’s case exploded. More and more people started to forward
Prita’s email, or if they couldn’t get Prita’s original email, they forwarded a
news article about it. What was once a mere electronic message with
questionable reliability, was now beheld as the hidden truth – simply because
Omni Tangerang tried to stifle it.
People saw this as confirmation of the credibility behind Prita’s story.
Omni should have done its homework before taking legal action. They could have
tried typing “bad hospital Indonesia” into Google, for instance. Omni
Tangerang’s name does not even come up in the first three pages of search
results, nor in pages and pages after that. But now, with the legal action,
more than 40,000 people in Facebook have joined a cause to support Prita. By
attempting to sue Prita, Omni achieved exactly what it so desperately wanted to
avoid: it made Prita’s complaints louder.
Now, not only has Omni violated the first rule of controlling “bad” press, it
has also violated the first rule of controlling online bashing: treat
complainers as humans.
Plenty of books and speakers on the new media of customer relations (the
Internet) note that one of the most important things to do is remember that
even though the outlook is electronic or an avatar, companies are still dealing
with a person, so they should act like they are dealing with a person.
As such, remaining humble and conversational is highly recommended in painting
a response to the critics.
But again, Omni did exactly the opposite. In resorting to legal action, Omni
sent out a message that it was a cold almighty private industry player and
Prita was simply a victim of blatant arrogance.
The hospital’s case was worsened further (and perhaps this was just rotten
luck) since its adversary happened to be a mother who, since being imprisoned,
was prevented from breastfeeding and cuddling her newborn baby.
Imagine the sympathy Prita gained from news of this situation alone! Who would
want to go to a hospital that did not care about human suffering?
What Omni Tangerang has just committed is public-relations suicide. But damage
control can still be done. Omni can opt to waive the verdict of the civil court
and not press for Prita to pay damages or make a public apology as ordered by
the court.
If Omni is still bent on suing defamers, it should start preparing lawsuits
against itself.
