'Two Left Feet' - a cautionary tale

You may have been following in 'In the News' the story of 'Two Left Feet' - the online baby clothing and equipment company - which went into administration on 24 March, leaving expectant parents in the lurch. The story of how they got there is not straight-foward, but is definitely a cautionary tale on what can happen if you do not get customer service right.

'Two Left Feet' (TLF) started as a small independent family business in 1998 and grew fast to a £7 million turnover business. TLF failed to match the growth with investment in the ordering and customer-service systems they needed and customer experience began to suffer. Complaints started pouring in, mainly about missing orders and failure to pay refunds. Customers struggled to get through to anyone on the phone and TLF finally removed the customer phone line all together, accepting communication by email only. Frustrated and worried customers, desperate for their order or money back, had nowhere else to turn but sites like Plebble and the media to vent their feelings.

The BBC's 'Watchdog' programme featured TLF in 2006 and following an unprecedented flood of complaints, aired another feature in February 2009. Already struggling with cashflow because of lack of credit in the retail system, this was the final straw for TLF. The bank pulled emergency funding and the business collapsed, leaving the owner and staff devastated.

It goes to show that there are very real consequences for leaving customers feeling alienated and not prioritising engagement and retention. This was an extreme case, but as the recession bites, I fear more businesses will be tempted to cut or not invest in customer service. I just hope the story of 'Two Left Feet' serves as a caution to those businesses to put reputation first. I cannot put it better than the ex-'dragon,' Richard Farleigh, commenting on TLF on the Watchdog programme: "word of mouth, that's all there is."

And the cautionary tale for the rest of us... Search Plebble and other sites for other customer's experiences before you buy. Installing Plebble's browser toolbar will help alert you of companies with poor performance.

Skittles 2.0? Close but no cigar...

This is fast becoming old news but I thought I'd add my 2c as it ties in with a lot of what we're saying to brands about what's going on on the Web right now.

So, Skittles have embraced Web 2.0 by putting a Twitter search for the term "Skittles" as their homepage? Brilliant, forward-thinking piece of brand-building or gimic? A serious attempt to engage with customers via the 'social web' or a headline-seeking stunt?

I applaud any brand willing to take a chance and throw themselves open to praise or ridicule in equal measure, whatever the social web wants to throw at it. That's exactly what we advocate - because of blogs, microblogs, social networks, etc, information moves instantly from one side of the globe to the other, from 1 blogger to an audience of millions in a matter of seconds. The truth will out in the end - no matter what your advertising budget. Therefore, you might as well be proactive and the rewards from doing so in terms of endorsement from your customer-base are potentially huge.

So, have Skittles taken up this battle-cry? I've noticed three main reactions from people to Skittles' new Twitter-based homepage:

(1) warm welcomes (and congratulations) for a well-known brand entering our world in an apparently open and transparent way - great

(2) attempts to game/understand the system by swearing and/or dissing Skittles to see whether they'd allow it - "Skittlefisting" was on Trending Topics for a while thanks to a coordinated effort by (apparently) some Australian bloggers - interesting and ultimately (I think) great because Skittles were tested for 'authenticity' and passed

(3) attempts by people to get their own messages/links viewed by thousands when they realised that the 'Skittlesphere' was abuzz - by including #skittles in their otherwise unconnected tweets - not great but inevitable

The question for me is whether Skittles' experiment is a success. Personally, I'd be surprised if it is - long-term. This is for 1 very fundamental reason: they're not actually engaging. All they're doing is trying to push their advertising message using a website, Twitter, that's getting a lot of attention at the moment from the mainstream media. Notice the big ol' banner ad sitting on top of everything. I didn't notice any actual responses from Skittles or attempts to discuss new flavours, health issues, etc.

So, in the end they made a nice-looking playground. People Twittered in for a while and then will Twitter away again. No doubt Skittles got a bit of market research from the things people were saying and some dates of birth (hands up who entered their real one??). No attempt was made to keep people interested though by having a discussion or reaching out on a human peer-to-peer level that characterises the social web. Hopefully Skittles will realise its missed opportunity and have another go...