This week, Ashley Furniture HomeStore launched its official Twitter and Facebook pages. The big-ticket home furnishings retailer wants its Facebook page to be a place where visitors can “browse the hottest styles in furniture and stay updated on the company’s latest promotions, exclusive offers, community events, news, store locations, charities and more.”
I visited the official Facebook page today and was impressed with all the helpful information available to page visitors. But that was the second Ashley Furniture HomeStore Facebook page that I came across after typing the retailer’s name into the search box in Facebook. The other “community” page has more than double the “fans” and, rather than offering helpful tips and tricks, the page features a Wall full of comments. Within the first few posts, I found a disgruntled ex-employee and an unhappy customer. It made me think about our customers and whether they are proactively monitoring social networks in order to protect their brand.
Ashley Furniture has a great opportunity to interact with the Facebook users who posted these comments and convert them to real fans of their “official” organization page. Proactively monitoring unofficially branded Facebook pages (especially when you have franchisees who may have set up their own localized accounts) allows others within that community to see how you actively alleviate issues and concerns as they happen. In this case, Ashley Furniture has the opportunity to demonstrate that the company is dedicated to providing excellent customer service.
Bottom Line: It’s good for business to portray your brand as one that not only cares about happy customers and employees, but the unhappy ones too.
Copyright 2010, Official Blog of Blueport Commerce
I visited the official Facebook page today and was impressed with all the helpful information available to page visitors. But that was the second Ashley Furniture HomeStore Facebook page that I came across after typing the retailer’s name into the search box in Facebook. The other “community” page has more than double the “fans” and, rather than offering helpful tips and tricks, the page features a Wall full of comments. Within the first few posts, I found a disgruntled ex-employee and an unhappy customer. It made me think about our customers and whether they are proactively monitoring social networks in order to protect their brand.
Ashley Furniture has a great opportunity to interact with the Facebook users who posted these comments and convert them to real fans of their “official” organization page. Proactively monitoring unofficially branded Facebook pages (especially when you have franchisees who may have set up their own localized accounts) allows others within that community to see how you actively alleviate issues and concerns as they happen. In this case, Ashley Furniture has the opportunity to demonstrate that the company is dedicated to providing excellent customer service.
Bottom Line: It’s good for business to portray your brand as one that not only cares about happy customers and employees, but the unhappy ones too.
Copyright 2010, Official Blog of Blueport Commerce
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