Everything’s Coming Up Roses for 1-800 Flowers. Or Is It?

Posted on by Epic Staff

Roses are red, violets are blue.  1-800 Flowers knows the importance of crisis response, and you should too.

This Valentine’s Day, 1-800 Flowers failed to deliver hundreds of orders, sparking a flurry of online criticism and negative tweets (they actually experienced a similar problem last year, but faced even greater criticism when they failed to respond to the social media backlash). However, it  looks like 1-800 Flowers learned its lesson this year.

With many angry customers tweeting their dissatisfaction, the company responded on Twitter. They reached out directly to individual customers, inquiring about their orders and apologizing.

The company has responded to critical comments on the Facebook page too. 1-800 Flowers response strategy makes for a great case study about how to handle negative customer service issues on social media.  It highlights the following social media rules:

1)      Monitor for issues. There are countless public conversations taking place online. If it’s about your brand, competitors,or industry issues, it’s essential to know what’s being said. This includes keeping an eye out for negative or damaging posts. Many people are so concerned about getting people to respond, share, like or post about a brand, they forget that not all engagement is good engagement.

2)      Respond in real-time. 1-800 Flowers got it right this year by responding quickly to negative tweets and posts. One bad comment will often to encourage others to do the same. Move quickly to minimize damage.

3)      Utilize various platforms. This includes blogs and websites. 1-800 Flowers may have missed the boat here and should have posted a blog response as well.

4)      Be human in your response(not generic). Most consumers who post negative comments or tweets just want to be heard. By responding empathetically and honestly, it lets them know that you are listening, and you value their input.