Social Media Podcast 53 - Amy and Samy feel the heat in the kitchen - What are the customer service lessons?

For some time now we have been planning to do a Social Media Podcast about the increasing importance of social media for customer service however, the recent incredible story of Amy's Baking Company Bakery Boutique and Bistro has prompted us to make the podcast now. We were alerted to the story on the evening that it started to unfold on Facebook by Meilee Anderson, a Social Media Podcast listener from Seattle - thank you Meilee for bringing this to our attention in the UK.

Because Meilee contacted us early on we were able to see much of the story unfold and when we first looked at the Facebook page it had around 1680 likes; we actually did a screen grab at 1802 likes and now, 48 hours later, the page has 62,685 likes. During the podcast recording earlier today the total went from around 48,000 to 50,109.

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Normally growth like this is good news but not for Amy and Samy, the owners of Amy's Baking Company Bakery Boutique and Bistro, this is a genuine kitchen disaster that even Gordon Ramsay couldn't have predicted. In fact, Gordon Ramsay was instrumental in flaming the fire that very quickly got out of control.

In the podcast we discuss this monumental kitchen nightmare and explore what went wrong, what is continuing to go wrong and whether the situation is in any way recoverable - listen to our opinion and feel free to leave your own comments here on the blog.

Having examined the issue, we then go on to explore the wider issue of customer service in a social media environment. We look at the sharp increase in customer service enquiries on social media platforms and the willingness of consumers to commit their enquiries, complaints, and compliments to public platforms.  

Many organisations are not fully prepared for dealing with customer service issues on social media platforms; there is a tendency to leave it to the marketing team rather than hand it over to the customer service experts. We discuss what should happen and what action organisations need to take if they are to successfully deal with customer service issues online.

Some of the things we discuss in this podcast include:

• Amy's Baking Company Baker and Boutique
• Velocity Digital - Mike McGrail's blog post on the Amy and Samy Facebook meltdown
• Who should respond? - Marketing Department or Customer Service Department
• The blurring lines between marketing and customer service
• Virgin's recent Facebook problems
• Why you should embrace negative comments
• The Drum article about the cost of bad customer service
• Zappos - An excellent model for online customer service; practicing what their core values preach
• Humour - Can you defuse a situation with humour?

We hope you enjoy the podcast, if you have any comments to make or topics you would like us to discuss, please leave them here on the blog or on our Facebook Page.

Play the podcast here:

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Would you like a presentation on social media and customer service?
We're offering a range of bespoke or generic presentations on the topic of social media and customer service, if you would like to find out more please go to the following link: Are you prepared to lose control?

Have you listened to the digital copyright podcast?

We continue to see people using images, video content and other files taken from the internet without consideration to potential copyright issues. We would encourage all of our listeners to download Social Media Podcast 50 which clearly outlines what you should and shouldn't do with images sourced online. Find it on iTunes now.

WHAT WOULD YOU LIKE US TO TALK ABOUT?
If there is a specific topic you would like us to cover in a future podcast please let us know. You can email gordon@fatbuzz.com or send us a message on Twitter @MediaPodcast or, you can post it as a comment on the Social Media Podcast Facebook page.

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