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Trevor Noah and Cell C #brandplus or #fail
by Greg Schneider on 2010/09/10
This response had the BrandsEye team very torn. Some in the camp thought this was an ORM master stroke and other’s failed to understand why you would take this negative, isolated online incident and publish it offline to their entire customer base, many of who would have otherwise never known about Trevor’s rant.
A few days later everything was explained with Cell C’s public rebranding and launching of their new corporate mission of openness and honest. Trevor found himself with the new position of “CEO” (Chief Experience Officer) and the Cell C team went to work to reassure customers that Trevor was working with Cell C. The new CEO’s role is to help make life better for the customers rather than as a puppet to simply deliver carefully crafted press statements.
It is a month after the launch of Cell C’s campaign and time for BrandsEye to weigh in on this PR gamble. August saw 1158 online conversations about the Trevor Noah and Cell C relationship. This conversation reached 4 267 530 people and earned the Cell C rebranding effort R973 468 in free advertising. Some of this exposure was very positive, particularly straight after the Sunday Times advert, used by Cell C to apologize to Trevor, When the true motivation came out the sentiment of the conversation took an about turn and became overwhelmingly negative, as users questioned the integrity of both Cell C and Trevor.
So with a month’s worth of hindsight what can we learn from Cell C’s rebranding and ORM effort.
Lesson #1 – Be Authentic
Cell C knows that they have some unhappy customers. In fact there are probably thousands of “Trevor Noah’s” ranting about their connection on a daily basis. Cell C’s new positioning is focused on being open and honest with consumers and Trevor’s role is to put the consumer first and fight for the customer’s rights within Cell C. This whole notation seems hollow when you consider the entire launch was based on a lie. The same letter addressed to all Cell C users would have had far great impact and would have been a far more authentic approach. Trevor could still have been included but why have him lie and launch the campaign by deceiving customers?
?It’s clear from the online response that online communities don’t take well to being deceived. Trust is crucial to managing ones online reputation. It ensures communication is more readily received and provides credit to fall back on in times of online attacks. Cell C effectively destroyed their online credibility with the Trevor Noah campaign. Furthermore they destroyed Trevor’s image of being impartial before the campaign even began. How can consumers trust Trevor when he started off by lying to them.
There was clearly a negative sentiment to Cell C before; there was no need to fake it.
Lesson #2 – Join the conversation, don’t start it
As part of the campaign, Cell C set up www.telltrevor.com, a site designed to provide a forum for customers to communicate their concerns. Online customer complaint forums are great. Isolating all complaints to one domain that you can monitor closely and provide excellent customer service is the best situation for any brand. Over time with the correct positive stimulus customers can be “taught” to direct complaints to a carefully crafted domain.
As a company, you should not expect customers to adopt the new platform from the first day you launch the campaign. Furthermore you shouldn’t take the perspective that unless it comes through your site you aren’t dealing with it.
We have noticed a number of complaints on Hello Peter where the Cell C respondent has asked for the angry user to go and resubmit the complaint on tellTrevor.com.
This is a serious ORM fail! Why force an already angry user to resubmit their complaint somewhere else? Cell C should be dealing with complaints through the channel that best suits their users and not try direct all complaints to one area.
Cell C should be focused on dealing with the complaint rather than were the complaint was made. Their priorities are skewed.
Lesson #3 – Deliver on promise.
Cell C has made some big promises with this campaign and to date it seems they haven’t got the infrastructure in place to deliver on it. Answering my call at your call center, so that I am able to complain quicker isn’t fixing the problem - improving connectivity so I don’t have the problem in the first place is the real solution.
Cell C should have focused on getting their housekeeping in order before promising an improved service offering. Failure to do this has meant users are feeling further deceived because the promise of better service isn’t being delivered on.
Looking back on the first month of the Cell C new corporate identity roll out, one can’t help feeling it was fraught with mistakes. However, the intention is noble and the campaign is not unsalvageable. I also believe that Cell C’s relationship with Trevor Noah could be a valuable asset, if managed correctly.
Comments
Gillian Snyders on 2010/11/19
I am a client of Cell C for a very long time. I love the shop and the people in the shop. The
problem I have is the products that I’ve purchased from the shop. I ‘ve bought my daughter a
cell phone which is due for upgrade next year July 2011 but now at the moment she is without a phone.
The one minute she was using the phone the next minute the phone just went dead and would not go
On again. This is not the first time something like this happens. I am very disappointed in the products we
Get. It is not like we getting it for nothing, we have to pay for it which I am now still doing. I feel I am paying
For products that I cannot even use or trust. Every time this happens we need to send it away for repairs that
Takes forever and when the product comes back you sit with the same problem. I’ve upgraded my second phone
On the contract two months ago got a brand new phone to now have problems with this product as well. This is
Becoming a concern to me as a client. Now I call the shop and they tell me to bring the phone in for repairs. This
To me is unacceptable. Two months old and you have problems and just to add I know someone that bought the exact
Same phone a month later and also have problems with the phone. He purchased the phone from MTN which means
This make of cell phone is problematic. Please look into this matter as I have three contracts with cell c and wish to
Cancel this because of all the problems with the products I received. I was thinking of asking my company to publish this
Because it would not cost me a cent as I work for a media company. I am not threatening you do not get me wrong, I just
Want this sorted out please. I am not prepared to send it away for repairs I just want the products changed please. Makes
Of the products that are faulty:
1). Samsung M3200 Beat box edition
2). Nokia 5230
Please regard this as very urgent because I cannot be without a cell phone.
Gillian Snyders
Phone: 0842667214
Work: 0860 007 827
Email: Gillian.Snyders@onthedot.co.za
Lindie Gericke on 2010/12/28
I have never ever in my life seen such bad service from a company. I should have listened to the people when they said dont take a cell c contract. Its trouble. And now i c it for myself. Its been 7 days of phoning constantly. I have been on the phone from 08.00 this morning to 13.00 with cell c no luck.
Ryan chetty on 2011/01/04
I have been a cellc customer for over 4 years now.Recently i upgraded my cell phone contract to blackberry and a month later the phone stopped coming on.I went to cellc they said the will send it for repairs.21 days past and i never even get a call from them.I went back to the shop and the staff member at cellc tells me that they can't fix the phone cause there visible corrosion meaning water damage.It is totally unacceptable that they never phone and secondly they use water damage an escape goat for not fixing it and to add insult to injury they want me to pay a fee to bring a broken phone back.I am stuck now paying for a phone i don't even have thank you cellc for putting urself 1st and not your customer.
Stacey Rumble on 2011/01/06
Succinct a-nalysis :) - I'm sure you've seen Nando's cheeky ambush of this campaign?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jkRnZWc5xsE&feature=aso
gloria on 2011/01/28
Hi Trevor my huband has contract with cell c and he is with out a phone for 3month now its astory after story your sevice at cell c is very bad i wont renew my contract with cell c its a primise i'm making to you