Well, I guess we can chalk it up to real time optimization. TGIF has now overcome two major consumer backlashes/frustrations with their current Free Burger, Friend Woody campaign.
Instead of hearing over and over on next year’s conference circuit about the hard lessons learned from a social campaign gone awry, we will instead praise TGIF for on-the-fly listening and reacting. Ultimately, salvaging the campaign. [prediction: this will be a trend we hear a lot about]
First, was the “first 500,000 fans” get a burger. The mistake did not come because fan 500,001 was pissed. Woody gave plenty of notice that it was the first 500,000. The backlash came because of two things:
1. It was promoted with media that could not be pulled down once the 500,000 was complete (read: tv and print)
2. Once fan 500,001 and beyond made it to the site, there was no indication that they were too late. TGIF collected their email, got the fan and then told the “too bad, so sad. better luck next time.” ‘Fans’ felt tricked. They held up their end of the bargain and Woody did not.
Solution: Open it up to 1MM people- immediately. And over-communicate as we get closer and closer to 1MM.
The current cluster fuck they are dealing with: online coupon redemption and security. TGIF used CouponsInc. to serve and track the coupon. From a brand side, it’s great. It gets security (can’t over print it), it gets tracking, and they don’t have to mail out 1MM coupons. But wait… consumers get mad when you force them to fill out a form for something free, they are for sure going to get pissed off when you make them download an applet. Which is what you have to do as a consumer.
When you run online couponing one can usually plan and predict a few things:
1. a percentage will give up and not print, not a huge loss
2. another chunk will call in and you will have to spend the extra $2 to mail them a coupon on secure paper
3. the final chunk will do it. YIppy! everyone is happy or at least not pissed off.
Enter facebook. Instead of complaining to your poor poor customer service operators, they bitch, moan and voice their frustration online for all to see. and they don’t stop at this one promotion – they start talks of trust issues, never eating there again… uh oh.
that is why I was not surprised when I received an email that was entitled: Your burger coupon is right inside. No, really.
The header: OUR COUPONS SHOULDN’T BE ROCKET SCIENCE. (I guess this is not going to be the awesome case study CouponsInc. was hoping for)
“I hear there are a few unhappy fans out there, and I’m not gonna stand for it! So I talked T.G.I. FRiDAY’S® into making their coupons easier to print. Now you don’t have to download anything. If you haven’t already printed your burger coupon… Print this! But show your coupon to your server BEFORE you order. That way they know Woody sent ya!
P.S. I couldn’t talk them into removing the serial code. So don’t bother forwarding this onto everyone you know, as this coupon can only be used once.”
WIN! In the new age of real time customer satisfaction, it is essential for a brand to solve your issue as close to the “FRUSTRATION PEAK (TM)” as possible. If you wait too long, it’s over. If you do it quickly enough you have a good chance that the frustrated throw you a bone and at least post something that says you tried to make it right.
Don’t worry TGIF, it is almost over- and you will get a good case study out of this. and I will see you talking about it on multiple panels next year.
But someone will probably be talking about how the coupon was only good for 4 days. Eh, you can’t win ‘em all.
the world according to schmogel. 