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If only Ocean Marketing had been versed in bilateral customer service

December 29, 2011

The Ocean Marketing public relations nightmare that played out in the blogosphere last week never had to happen. Providing good customer service is retail 101, so where did it all go wrong for Paul Christoforo?

The back story

It all started when a consumer, "Dave," sent an email to N-Control (a company which makes specialized controllers for video gaming) asking when he could expect the two video game controllers he ordered in November. He mentioned that he had been promised delivery in early December and wasn't happy about the delay and about the fact that he noticed that consumers buying the controllers now are getting a discount.

Ocean Marketing PR person Paul Christoforo,who handled N-Control's marketing, responded, politely at first, via email, telling Dave that he wasn't sure about the ship date. The exchange eventually got snippy, not to mention confusing, with Christoforo ultimately writing this:

"You placed a pre order just like any software title, the date gets moved due to the tweaks and bugs not being worked out and GameStop or any other place holds your cash and im sure you don't complain to activision or epic games so put on your big boy hat and wait it out like everyone else. The benefit is a token of our appreaciation for everyone no one is special including you or any first time buyer. Feel free to cancel we need the units were back ordered 11,000 units so your 2 will be gone fast. Maybe I'll put them on eBay for 150.00 myself."

The backlash

Dave sent the email exchange to the creators of the popular gaming comic strip Penny-arcade, who published it. Fellow gamers and PR specialists took to the blogosphere writing about how shocked they were over Christoforo's behavior. N-Control has received a lot of negative reviews on Amazon and many a dislike and abusive comments on its Youtube channel. N-Control has since fired him and is now doing its own marketing.

Any company that sells products online needs to make the customer service experience their first priority, according to Aaron Shapiro, CEO at HUGE. He recommends companies getting on board with bilateral customer service, which basically provides self-service options with a lot of customer support, but it also provides easy access to well-trained customer service representatives.

"Most people want to be able to get answers to simple questions, like 'Where are the controllers I ordered?' immediately and without having to talk to a person," Shaprio said. "But when they do want to talk to a person, they want highly personal service."

This situation would never have happened if Ocean Marketing had provided an easy, automated way for "Dave" to find out where his shipment was without having to talk to a human.

"Obviously, your marketing team should never be insulting customers and reporters, but they don't have to be responding to basic questions like this either," Shapiro said. "This whole situation could have been avoided if Ocean Marketing had just followed best practice procedure for customer service on the Web."

Mark Murray of The Store Channel, said he's surprised at how much attention is being paid to the fact that Christoforo was exposed rather than his actual behavior.

"Not since Bon Jovi's 'untimely' death have we seen how toxic and swift online transparency can become," he said.

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