British Gas experiences social media nightmare with live Twitter Q&A
Here's a hint: After making an announcement about massive price-hikes, be prepared for the onslaught of a disgruntled British public.
Here's a hint: After making an announcement about massive price-hikes, be prepared for the onslaught of a disgruntled British public.
British Gas’ Customer Service Director, Bert Pijls, faced an onslaught from the public this week after taking part in a live Twitter Q&A on the same day that the gas company made announcements regarding a 10.4% hike in its electricity cost.
As reported by the Metro, the social media disaster began at 1pm, with @BritishGas tweeting: ‘We’re here with Customer Services Director, Bert Pijls, who will be answering your questions until 2pm. Tweet your questions using #AskBG‘ alongside a picture of the gentleman at his desk. The company received an enthusiastic if, well, disagreeable response from its social-media savvy customers as a result.
@TiernanDouie asked: ‘@britishgas is it true your top shareholders heat their homes by burning loads of £100 notes they have from excessive profits?’ with another inquiring ‘How hard is it to sleep at night with Cameron’s foot on your head, and the stench of dead pensioners in your nostrils?’
Others took to the net to demonstrate their photoshop skills, with @BiscuitAhoy creating a mock up of British Gas logo accompanied by the slogan “Freeze to death, we don’t give a shit” alongside the tweet ”#AskBG Have you considered changing your corporate slogan to something a bit more honest?’
The less-than smooth social media experiment, which may have seemed a good idea at the time, was found amusing by many, including BBC tech guru Rory Cellan-Jones, who tweeted: ‘The #AskBG idea from @britishgas seems certain to win all sorts of social media marketing awards…:-)’
Despite interaction with customers via social media usually being an excellent move for companies looking to foster good online relations, the idea to embrace social media during that particular time was probably slightly ill-advised.
Global media agency We Are Social reported that that 10,000 users on the micro-blogging site tweeted using the #AskBG hashtag.
‘This kind of social media mistake is nowhere near as prolific as it used to be,’ commented managing director Robin Grant
‘But still too many brands are making crises worse for themselves through making this kind of easily avoidable error. They need to learn the lesson that all areas of their comms need to work in a joined up way, and they need well rehearsed crisis plans in place – just hiring a new social media manager will not be enough….’
[…] four days after the head of customer services at British Gas volunteered to be on the receiving end of a torrent of abuse during a similar flirt with social […]