”Hi, my name is Customer and I want One.

I am going to buy One of yours… I think…

But I just heard about your company. Is it true?

Don’t worry. I decided not to do anything before I checked it out. I want the full picture. I want to know what people are saying—the ‘word on the street’—before I decide. You see One is a lot of money and I saved for a while for this. I can’t afford for it to break, but if it does, I want to be able to trust you to fix it for me, without making a fuss.

I asked my dad what he thought of your One. He said ‘ask you friends, that’s what I always do’. So I did. Some of them said they’d heard something about your company. They told me they saw a letter in the paper, from someone who wasn’t very happy with you. That letter made me think. I am sorry, you see I’d still like One, but it’s the money; I have to be able to trust you. The man who wrote the letter said you wouldn’t agree to fix his broken One. He said that when he called you, you made him feel bad, and he’d really wanted his One, just like I do.

Another friend said ‘look on the internet’. I found a blog and it was all about the One I want. There were so many people angry with you! Unhappy people, telling each other what happened when they had a problem with their One. They said it was hard to speak to you. You’ve been ignoring their voices asking for help, for service.

So, what do I do now? These people, from all over the world, are talking to each other even though they don’t know each other. They’re so unhappy about how you treated them when they asked for the service they felt they should have received, but didn’t. They say you didn’t listen, that you didn’t understand what they wanted, and now they feel so strongly they want to tell everyone! And you know, they all started off loving you and wanting One, just like me.

I’ve been a fan of your company for years so I looked again, trying to find more information. I searched for a while because yours is the One I’d always wanted. This time I found another website. Someone dislikes you so much they had put up a site to tell people not to trust your company! They tell people to buy an Other, from a different company. The Other company listens and cares about its customers and asks them how it can improve. The Other company wants to earn trust.

I went to the store today. I looked at your One but I thought of all those unhappy people who tell everyone about how much you’ve let them down. I look at the One I’ve wanted all this time, but all those views and voices, all those unhappy people are shouting in my head!

I pick up the Other and head for the checkout.”

For more information about CEM, email us, with CEM Solution in the subject.