Baltic PR Awards 2010 Category: Issues & Crisis Management

IZZI, tweet to save reputation!

Situation

IZZI, one of the leading telecommunications companies in Latvia, introduced a high-speed

home internet service in April 2009. Right after product launch, serious technical difficulties

were experienced, but the company stayed silent on it for over 4 months. Meanwhile the

number of subscribers of the new service grew rapidly hand in hand with the number of

complaints. Client service info-line was overloaded and more 19 000 complaints were piling

up.

In June handful of dissatisfied clients started active negative social media campaign against

the company, creating snowball effect so that even non-clients joined in and were ready to

take some real action. Since IZZI was not represented in social media, the company did not

have a slightest idea on the negative buzz until traditional media started to get interested in

the story.

IZZI involved Consultancy and a crisis communication strategy was created overnight.

Research

Crisis situation demanded immediate action, so almost an over-night research was conducted

that included social media content analysis and stakeholder and issues mapping. Top

management, technicians and client service of the company were involved to understand the

reasons of the crisis and to work out action plan.

Affected clients, opinion leaders in social media, bloggers, employees, journalists, investors

and regulator were identified as key stakeholder groups.

The lists of each stakeholder group were prepared that included all the contact information

and history on previous communication with/on IZZI. Special attention was devoted to

analysis of negative campaign organizers and their Twitter activities. Two bloggers were

involved to work-out list of social media stakeholders. According to the principles set by

Consultancy, IZZI prioritized existent clients according to the level of complaints, interest and

communication to work out customized client communication plan.

Strategy

The crises management (CM) team was gathered straight after the client brief on June 30,

2009. The developed strategy was approved already on the next day and campaign was

implemented from 1 July till 28 July. CM team included relevant managers from IZZI,

Consultancy representatives and external social media expert.

Focus of the crisis communication strategy was to ENGAGE and speak openly with key

stakeholders: affected clients, opinion leaders in internet, employees, and journalists. Holistic

integrated CM plan covered all the tasks for stakeholder relations.

Objectives of crises management team were the following:

1. Stopped the potential transfer of the issue from social to traditional media. Criteria –

direct-sales result for internet services.

2. Reduced pressure among IZZI employees and client affected by technical issues.

Criteria – number of received complaints and number of client turnover.

3. Improved Google Top search results. Criteria – number of links to negative items in

Google Top 10 generic search results on keyword “IZZI”.

Consultancy prepared list of Q&As, provided trainings for involved employees, helped to work

out special offers for affected clients. Company involved extra persons to support the client

service and used only direct communication with each client to demonstrate the individual

approach and care about clients.

Consultancy identified most aggressive Twitter users, bloggers and other opinion leaders in

social media and treated them as the top priority stakeholder group providing them the most

updated information and asking advice for the best solution. First Latvian corporate Tweetup

was organized to explain the situation and to discuss the best possible corporate usage of

Twitter.

On the next day after Tweetup a vacancy of Twitter account operator was announced with

24h deadline and 140 characters long application letter. Selected person started the IZZI

Twitter account few days later, all the recruitment process had a wide coverage both in

traditional and social media.

Twitter account followed all the angry contributors, communicated directly and served as

online help-line for customers.

Pro-active communication with traditional media was carried out switching their focus from

technical problems to the power of social media and to local pioneering of corporate social

media usage. Media attention was used for explaining the advantages of technologies used

by IZZI internet.

Results

Successful crises communication contributed to sales and client service:

- sales of internet services dropped in July by 13% compared to June 2009 but

increased for 12% in August and for 48% more in September;

- complaints on internet reached the highest level in July (7248) that decreased by

29% in August;

- Internet customer turnover reached the highest point in July and decreased in

following months (August – 15% down, September – 2.5% down).

There were only 2 clips in traditional media on the client service issues and 16 clips on Twitter

pioneering.

In 3 weeks – 4 of 7 negative Top 10 Google generic search results replaced by neutral or

positive.

Soon after set-up Twitter account reached 483 Twitter followers (approx. 8% of Latvian users

at that time).

Until the end of 2009 the IZZI case is mentioned as the best practice for social media usage

by 7 different business and internet oriented media; campaign leaders invited to explain the

case-study in universities and professional associations.

Campaign was followed by structural changes in the company and additional trainings to

improve the client service performance. Consultancy continues to manage implementation of

necessary internal changes to minimize similar reputational risks.

TWEET TO SAVEREPUTATION?! ChallengeMajor technical breakdown results in severe problems with new internet service

Silence

Angry clients start active social mediacampaign against IZZI

Online negative buzz might switch to traditional media

2:42 AM Apr 24th via web

3:22 AM May 28th via web

3:52 AM Jun 19th via web

4:02 AM Jun 30th via web

ApproachAgency involved, crisis communication strategy created overnight

Top bloggers, twitterers and dissatis�ed clients engaged in solution process.IZZI Tweetup

First o�cial Twitter account operator vacancy in Latvia announced, media pick up IZZI’s positive story

9:42 PM Jul 1st via web

10:56 PM Jul 6th via web

12:16 AM Jul 7th via web

ResultNegative buzz kept within Twitter

After dramatic fall in July, sales go up 48%, complaints decreased 29%

1:43 AM Aug 17th via web

5:23 AM Sep 28th via web

Sales48%

http://youtu.be/R1A0ufSIqEk

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZT7dc4e734g

Potential clients

Social networks of affected clients

Ex-clients

Unaffected clients

Clients in regions

Affected clients

Employees Social networks of employees

Investors

Opinion leaders

Industry experts

Competitors

Media

Regulator

Consumer Rights AgencyNGO

Corporate clients

Suppliers

ERAF

Politicians

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Twitter statisticsJuly 2009 by tweetstats.com

Replies To (@ – 55.30% of total tweets)

Aggregate Daily tweets

Internet Service StatisticsJune - September 2009

Aggregate Hourly tweets (Your Local Time)