Cause

A customer, Keara O’Neil had a negative customer experience and wrote to GASP. She shared her story (see emails below). An unnamed GASP representative replied with a scathing email.

Effect

After receiving the email on the morning of Wednesday, 28 September, O’Neil elected to pass it onto her friends via email, with a note encouraging them to do the same. The first forward by O’Neil to her friends was after 4pm on Wednesday. By Thursday morning, the email had gone viral, begun trending on Twitter and featured in several blogs. By Thursday afternoon, it was the number one (unpromoted) Twitter hashtag, #GASP and #GASPFAIL was also trending strongly. The story featured on the first page of The Age and Herald Sun news sites.

Today Tonight, The 7pm Project, Sunrise and several other mainstream consumer (although not trade) media covered the story on Thursday evening.

Response

Apart from the initial email, GASP were absent from the conversation for most of Thursday. A publicist called GASP to enquire as to whether the email was bona fide and this was confirmed, however no statement was made. A representative from GASP confirmed with The Age that the email was bona fide. Negative Facebook wall comments were removed from the page, and the page taken down late on Thursday afternoon.

A representative from GASP was interviewed for television segments, and defended their employee’s actions, both in their treatment of the customer, and in their response email.

The GASP Facebook page reappeared on Friday, promoting its online store.

Outcome

Whilst the impact on GASP’s business is yet to be seen, we can take this as an example of how not to handle complaints and crisis PR.

The speed at which a viral email escalated to mainstream media coverage is also of note.

Another way

It’s difficult to use GASP as an example of crisis management as its representatives do not acknowledge fault. For brands wishing to mitigate the risk of viral dissemination of negative material, it is useful to set up monitoring of social media platforms for mentions of your brand (and your brand plus likely negative terms) so that trending topics can be identified and addressed early and appropriately. If something is amiss most experts recommend an apology quickly, unequivocally and loudly.

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Emails

O’Neil’s email to GASP

 

Subject: customer complaint-Chapel St store

Hi Chad,

I had the privilege of shopping at your brand new Chapel St store on Saturday 24th September with my three bridesmaids in tow. On the hunt for bridesmaids dresses and a hens dress for myself we walked into the store and were automatically pounced on by a male staff member, I understand that this is protocol for many retail outlets and ours is no different. The staff member was initially funny and extremely helpful with sizes etc. I chose a bright pink dress to try on but was unable to do the zip up so asked for the size up, when I eventually got the correct size and came out of the change room I was unable to discuss the likes or dislikes of the dress with my bridesmaids as the sales assistant kept saying “you should just get it”, when I told him I would think about it, he pulled me aside and whispered “Is it the price your worried about”. By now I was extremely frustrated, and again told him I’d think about it, I walked back into the change room and closed the door behind me, only to have it pushed open with the sales assistant half standing in my change room, again whispering “I think you should just get it”, when I gave him attitude and said rudely, “I already told you I would think about it”, he then replied, “With your figure I really think you should buy it”.

I’m not sure exactly what he meant by that, but considering the attitude used to deliver such a statement I can only imagine that it was an immature dig in relation to my healthy size 12 frame. I got changed in a hurry and walked right out of the change rooms and out of the store, I could hear the sales assistant yelling out to me, but I just ignored him and continued to leave, assuming my bridesmaids would follow. After waiting down the road for my bridesmaids to come out of the store I was told by one of them that the sales assistant yelled out “Have fun finding something at Supre”, when one of them approached him in regards to his comments, he replied “I knew you girls were a joke the minute you walked in”. When my bridesmaids walked out of the store another two customers walked out with them, they too could not believe the immaturity of the sales assistant.

I have worked in retail for 12 years and have come across an array of customer complaints over the years, none of which come even close to what I encountered on Saturday at your store, I wish I was exaggerating but unfortunately for your company this person actually exists and is working in one of your stores. I am pretty laid back and was quite happy just leaving your store, it was my bridesmaids who felt the need to say something to him.

I dread to think how many customers he has not only offended but how many customers have left your store due to the pressure placed on getting the sale, and then to be harassed when that sale hasn’t taken place.

Ring me, don’t ring, not fussed………I’m just one retailer notifying another of an extremely inappropriate sales assistant.

Keara O’Neill

 

GASP’s email to O’Neil

 

Dear Keara O’Neil,

Having now had the privilege of having both version of events, I am now in a position to respond to your complaint.

From the very outset, one thing that you should be mindful of is; Our product offerings are very, very carefully selected, so to ensure that we do not appeal to a broad customer base. This is something which is always at the forefront of our minds when undertaking buying duties. The reason for this is to ensure that we only carry products which appeal to a very fashion forward consumer. This by default means that the customer whom is acclimatised to buying from “clothing for the masses” type retailers, is almost frightened by our range, sometimes we have found that this type of customer, almost finds our dresses funny, and on occasion noted comments such as ‘it looks like a dead flamingo’. When we receive comments like this, we like to give ourselves and our buyers, a big pat on the back, because we know we are doing our job right, and modus operandi is being upheld.

Our range is worn by A list celebrities to the likes of Kim Kardashian, Selena Gomez and Katy Perry to name only a few. Now, as one might appreciate, the style counsel for these types of celebrities are not ones to pick “run of the mill” type clothing, and they do so on the basis to ensure that the styles are cutting edge, and only worn by a select few. Similarly these items are priced such that they remain inaccessible to the undesirable.

Insofar as our employee goes; Similar to our product offerings, our employees are selected with a similar approach. Chris whom served you is a qualified stylist whom has a sixth sense for fashion, and Chris’s only problem is that he is too good at what he does, and as I am sure you are aware, people whom are talented, generally do not tolerate having their time wasted, which is the reason you were provoked to leave the store.

Whilst I concede that you work for chain retailer, unfortunately that does not make us like for like. It is probably fair to assume, a lot of what I have said in this email, either doesn’t make sense to you, or you totally disagree with it all, which is what I would expect (unless of course I have you totally wrong –which I doubt). Let me guess, you would never, ever hire Chris in the course of your duty, would you? This is the very reason, why your comment “from one retailer to another” is so disproportionate, it’s almost as though we are in a totally different industries. Chris is a retail superstar, who possess unparalleled ability, and I am sorry you feel upset by him, but he knew you were not going to buy anything before you even left your house.

So if you would like to do us any favours, please do not waste our retail staff’s time, because as you have already seen, they will not tolerate it. I am sure there are plenty of shops that appease your taste, so I respectfully ask that you side step our store during future window shopping expeditions.

Thank you for your enquiry.

GASP Online Customer Care

 

O’Neil’s email to friends

 

Dear friends, family and colleagues,

PLEASE READ THE BELOW THREAD

For your enjoyment I have decided to forward an email from a lovely employee at GASP Clothing, one who funnily enough chose to remain nameless.  In quoting the company I have been advised to do them a favour and “not waste their retail staff’s time, as there are plenty of other shops that would appease to my taste”.  To quote the gutless employee, I am what they consider to be a “broad customer”, if you too fit into this category then I suggest you also “side step” their store, as they have so bluntly asked.

Replying to the below email would be pointless, therefore I ask instead that you forward this email onto friends, family and colleagues, and by all means feel free to post on facebook or twitter, after all we would be doing GASP a favour by forwarding the below response on.

As my boss [name removed] has kindly reminded me, the internet is a very powerful tool and one in which a customer like myself would be silly not to utilise.

As shocking as it is, this email is real!! Happy Reading.

Thanks

Keara

 

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Twitter role:

Article by: Lou Pardi: @loupardi @smkapac