everybody a lot of freedom but insurance is highly regulated. More often than not, things get settled by a lawsuit. If you have people out there creating their own messages is this just another place to get into bigger trouble?
WASILEWSKI: Absolutely. But the companies are getting in trouble because of what they’re doing, not necessarily how they’re doing it or where they’re doing it. So, the social media gives that opportunity for an environment where the companies can communicate, they can listen, find out what’s going on and maybe prevent problems. I think that’s part of the benefit of social media is when you’re listening in a social media space you hear things you wouldn’t necessarily hear otherwise.
WISE: That’s right and I heard that same exact question asked by some people on Monday of Kristen Brew with Esurance and she said let me tell you right now the conversation is happening about your brand online and if you aren’t paying attention to it or, better yet, out in front of it, you’re behind it and you’re in a bad situation. So don’t let compliance and those fears stop you from doing what you need to do to interact with your audience.
TINNIRELLO: You know a few weeks ago we talked about the amount of feedback that customers are giving to organizations on our own Websites and it’s a blessing that occurs. On the positive side, if things are going well and you get great feedback – as you talked about, Mike, on that Website that talked about body shops – that company is going to get a lot of business, but if there’s one bad review . . . if a customer had a bad experience, legitimate or otherwise, that could really turn business sour for that particular organization or company. I don’t know whether regulations are required or whether or not that’s just a part of the way business is going to be conducted in the future. Any thoughts on that, guys, as to what are the consequences?
WASILEWSKI: Well, it’s going to speed up that bad news circulating. If there’s a bad review or there’s a complaint, in the old the days the customer called the company and maybe they talked to the VP or what have you. Now, the post on the blog, Yelp.com, or they’ll make some comment . . . There was a famous You-Tube video I believe of a Comcast employee sleeping on a couch while waiting for a callback from Comcast’s service center. Those things, when they happen virally they happen a lot faster and are more widely spread. That’s the risk. As far as your original question about compliance, it’s certainly an open question. A very good, practical question is how do we make social media work where we’re talking about regulated products? How do we talk about homeowner’s coverage in 140 characters? It’s a very good question.
MCDONALD: Considering that every brochure has been through the lawyer six times and there’s a message and you don’t want to let people make up their own message because it’s incredibly dangerous. Mike, anything to add to that?
WISE: Well, Kristen Brew talked about Consumeraffairs.com and how a lot of times when there are negative claims situations someone will go to Consumeraffairs.com and post comments about the company and the brand. Well, she has registered herself on there so that she can now respond to those adverse impact scenarios and actually turn them around into positive scenarios. As Charles said, the issue is not the functionality or the technology, the issue is business practice. If you’re doing something that is a bad business practice you’ve got to fix that and what better way to do that than to see the interactions immediately and start engaging in fixing them immediately and maybe turn a negative into a positive. It’s not the technology, it’s the business practices.
TINNIRELLO: So, Mike, are you saying that if you’re going to play in this space you’ve got to be on the top of your game and make sure you’re paying attention to details and not let it get too far out of control; otherwise it can bite you and not help you.
WISE: Yes, as always.
MCDONALD: We’re coming to end of our time and I appreciate all the input here. I’ll recognize our panelists in one second. There are just a few other comments. Some people have noted that Nationwide has been very effective in allowing people to mash up their ‘Life Comes at You Fast’ campaign and it seemed to be a widely cited example by our viewers.
Thank you everyone. We had a nice turnout today. Thank you, Mike Wise, of IdeaStar and thank you, Charles Wasilewski of the van Aartrijk Group.
Just to let everybody know, next week we’re on with a presentation at 11:00 a.m. and an E-Fusion finalist appearance at noon. It’s the only time we’re doing this, but we didn’t want to inconvenience anybody for the - what’s an official but widely respected - Thanksgiving pre-holiday.
We’re up to speed, so if you go to E-Fusion 2008 you can register for those and if you go to the same site we have everything up online as of last Wednesday. So, Progressive’s up there and American Family, they’re finalists. We’ll have this one up there before next week’s presentation, as well.
TINNIRELLO: As always, we’d like to hear your feedback. Contact lee.mcdonald@ambest.com or paul.tinnirello@ambest.com
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