What you are about to read is just one of the many occurrences of consumer ire and its dreadful consequences on a brand. There are, to say the least, several such true-life incidents that have badly marred the reputations of well-known companies.

Read on to discover what went wrong with this Fortune 500 brand and how they managed to rise and regain their goodwill.

“May you burn in Dell!”

This incident dates back to 2005, when Dell Inc was doing exceptionally well. They were selling a large number of laptops and quickly becoming the preferred choice of people all over USA. Then, something astounding happened—and Dell nose-dived from being everybody’s favourite brand to being everybody’s most hated brand.

And it all began because one particularly angry Jeff Jarvis took his ‘Dell-didn’t-service-my-computer’ experience and pasted it on his blog. Before Dell could understand what was happening, a few hundred unhappy Dell customers had joined forces with Jeff Jarvis and were viciously slashing Dell’s reputation in the online world.

“For bloggers’ sake, Dell me what to do!”

As the fury grew, Dell realised the need for immediate action. Almost overnight, they pumped $150m into their customer service operations. As a result, they managed to drive down the average waiting time for support calls from 9 minutes to 3 minutes.

Just when life was beginning to look rosier, things blew up in Dell’s face—quite literally. At a conference in Japan, a Dell laptop exploded. And sure enough, bloggers lapped up the incident and took it to town.

That’s when Dell was compelled to launch Direct2Dell, a blog where customers could easily reach Dell and lodge their service complaints. This not only heightened customer connection with the brand but also directed traffic away from Dell’s overloaded hotlines, thus saving the company millions by way of customer support costs.

“Dell me more”

In 2007, two years after that war with Jeff Jarvis and his fellow bloggers, Dell launched StudioDell and IdeaStorm—two social media sites especially designed to enhance customers’ experience of Brand Dell.

So, What Exactly is Online Reputation Management?

To put it simply, Online Reputation Management is the practice of:

		Consistent research and analysis of one’s personal or professional, business or industry reputation as represented by the content across all types of online media; and,
		Taking action thereof, by managing content and engaging in interaction so as to transform a negative image into positive and maintain it.

What Objectives Does ORM Meet?

Someone’s Said Awful Things About You! Now What?

Here’s how you can subdue the effect of negative comments:

Monitor and analyze the content   •   Monitor every platform; be it search engines, blogs, social networks, consumer forums, microblogs, videos or anything else for that matter. •   Analyze the impact the posts have created on your brand and/or your organization. Brands that have been there, done that: Skoda Click for a larger image
Interact with your customers   Answer their queries, solve their problems, take their feedback. Listen and understand.   Brands that have been there, done that: Dell	Click for a larger image
Don’t be too defensive   Understand that the customer who has written the negative comment has personally experienced the problem. Instead of trying to defend yourself, explain the clear picture: Why did the problem occur in the first place?   Brands that have been there, done that: Dominos	Click for a larger image
Be honest and transparent   The truth is that consumers believe other consumers more than they believe you. They would have done their background research hence make sure you're honest with them.   Brands that have been there, done that: Dell   Jeff Jarvis’s response to Dell’s blog Rubel’s response Dell’s response   Take Action   Only talking or listening isn’t enough. The solution is to rectify the error. If you can’t do this, do something that will reduce the intensity of the negative effect on your brand.   Brands that have been there, done that: Starbucks Click for a larger image

5 Ways to Ensure You Do ORM Correctly

Where Should You Engage in ORM?

Here’s a list of places you’re sure to find customers speaking about your brand.

Who Can Assist You to Expertly Engage in ORM?

So ask for your ORM report right away!

Microsoft has launched its web browser Internet Explorer 8 in 18 additional languages, including Hindi. With this, IE8 is available in 43 different languages, to internet users around the world.

The company hopes that the inclusion of Hindi will take Internet Explorer to the heart of India and ensure users across the country will be able to truly benefit from technology.

They shall soon be launching IE8 in 20 additional languages including 11 Indian regional languages: Assamese, Bengali, Gujarati, Kannada, Konkani, Malayalam, Marathi, Oriya, Punjabi, Tamil, and Telugu.

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