Rogers Communications is one of the world’s largest communications companies. Based in Canada, it’s a huge provider of wireless and cable TV.
And like every cable company, Rogers has plenty of critics. But unlike some companies experiencing negative word of mouth, Rogers doesn’t operate with noise-canceling headphones. It’s listening, it’s responding and it’s taking real action to convert critics into fans.
At our recent BlogWell conference, Rogers’ Keith McArthur shared a case study on how the company is doing it. A few of his big ideas:
- Be on the side of the customer. It would have been easy for Rogers to simply shrug and blame manufacturers when people criticized the company’s lackluster smartphone lineup. Instead, Rogers decided to work with manufacturers to bring better phones to Canada on behalf of customers — and the company communicated this effort to fans and critics.
- Meet online critics in the real world. Rogers invited in some of its highest-profile online critics to share their frustrations in person. Things were tense at first, but these critics eventually guest-blogged for Rogers (unpaid) and posted on their own blogs with headlines such as “Rogers employees are people, too.”
- Focus on the passionate critics. People who are speaking up the most are the ones who actually care — they’re the ones who have the biggest potential if you can convert them. Loud critics make for even louder advocates.
Watch McArthur’s presentation. Slides are available.