Is UHaul brandcoasting?
(photo credit – Heyrog )
UPDATE: February 3, 2009 – See update on the story below.
Today a lively discussion broke out on Twitter following a tweet I made about the poor customer service experience my wife had dealing with UHaul for our upcoming move. Dozen’s of people responded with their own UHaul horror stories. And there were many. And with each response post more stories came out of the woodwork – @catchuplady has a great post on the conversations that happened on UHaul today pointing to the real reasons businesses need to be involved in social media, and specifically Twitter.
What specifically struck me from a marketing perspective is how, in this day of “power to the people” social media, that a company with some much bad blood with customers could continue to stay the course with this kind of strategy, or more importantly, to stay in business? For those of us who spend lots of time in social media don’t we see it as the great equilizer – helping brands stay true to their customers and true to themselves?
Here we have a well-known North American brand seemingly oblivious to the goings-on in social media and to the pent up frustration with it’s brand. It’s almost, as some of the discussions pointed out today, that bad customer service is part of the formula – part of the price of a “low price offering”. But wait, there are other low priced options in other industries where excellent customer service is also offered. So what gives? How can a brand appear to continue to bring in customers to pay the bills with these kind of customer service issues?
Could UHaul be “brandcoasting”? Have they found the perfect storm in which to brandcoast on the laurel’s of their past brand image? I have no doubt they still sit in the number one slot for brand recognition in their moving truck category but can’t imagine that they got there on bad customer service. Something must have changed or been allowed to slip – perhaps on purpose.
Maybe brandcoasting can happen when:
- customers traditionally don’t research before buying
- customers purchase the services rarely or sporatically
- few market competitors exist creating monopolistic environment
- competitors have not successfully illustrated their competitive advantages
- the brand category is not an “exciting” one so little attention is paid to it
- category is price sensitive and often requires support from a national network
So is UHaul brandcoasting? Are there others?
Update to the story – February 3, 2009
A few weeks ago, I received a message from Shel Israel that Maria Palmisano from U-Haul wanted to talk to me. Shel is using this case study in his upcoming book on Twitter called Twitterville. He had posted the chapter and it had been found by Maria. We talked on the phone and she listened to the story. She apologized for a number of things where she noticed there had been a breakdown on their side. She also offered to help make good with $40 worth of U-Haul certificates – to be used for rentals, boxes, tape etc… Well, it was kind of her to call and to make the offer but I really didn’t see myself moving again any time soon. So I asked if she could send the certificates to a local charity. She also promised to contact the regional group about the dealer. I didn’t hear anything further from Maria and I started to wonder if nothing had happened. I was pleased to receive an email from her today stating that she had sent a notice to the Regional office and that the local Boys and Girls Club had been sent the certificates. Thank you Maria. I also wanted to include the final line in her email because it provides some hope for U-Haul users out there – “I hope you will allow U-Haul to redeem itself in the future, I know we can do better.” I hope to see more of this kind of response from U-Haul in the future because it can only be good for their customers, and U-Haul.
August 26th, 2008 - Posted in brandcoasting, social media, twitter | | 2 Comments
on August 28th, 2008 at 12:14 pm
Brandcoasting is a good term, and I’m sure there are many companies that are not yet up to speed on social media, as hard as that may seem to those of us that spend our days up to our ears in it. With Twitter being on the later edge of the early adopter phase of the adoption curve, it really doesn’t surprise me that a company isn’t monitoring it, or isn’t monitoring it as aggressively as would be needed to have seen your tweet and responded to it.
A few things to note: companies in distress are usually trying to stop the bleeding first, and pay attention to matters like customer service, PR, rouge franchises not living up to their agreements, and so on later. UHaul’s parent company, Amerco, has seen its stock plummet. It looks as though UHaul’s founding family is trying to regain some control of the company by purchasing shares, etc. Just a hunch, but my guess is that their attention (including any PR firm they might work with) is elsewhere.
I point this out only to note that while it’s obvious to those of us in PR that happy customers mean repeat customers, and that means a healthier company–this line of thinking isn’t usually welcome in a C-suite under stress. A parent company that has seen its stock plummet 42% in a year is unlikely to welcome proposals to have employees monitor Twitter, and they are unlikely to open their wallets to have someone else do so either.
Good, bad, or indifferent, I think it’s likely the truth.
My sister used UHaul once, and had a fine experience. Truck requested was available, in good shape, and made it from St. Louis to Arizona with no problems. Nothing to rave about, for sure, but acceptable.
Whether this was the planets aligning or the work of a great franchise, or a well-managed corporate location, I have no idea.
I think all of the six items you list would contribute to inattention on the part of a brand, particularly the sporadic use of the services.
Again, good luck with the move, and I think the move to Penske was wise.
Jen
on September 2nd, 2008 at 10:19 pm
Thanks for the comment Jen. Great insight into the stock troubles. While it doesn’t excuse a company from offering acceptable to great customer service it is a possible reason for their distraction. Often implementing the act of listening can in itself generate a positive wave amongst customers online which can then spread to traditional media and then out to the non-social media crew.
Thanks for the feedback on the post. And as you can see from my latest post I was totally thrilled with Penske.