Generally speaking, many companies have NO idea how their brand is being talked about online. And with the rise of blogging and the Internet in general, one very pissed off customer can make a HUGE difference...
The good folks at AdPulp point to a great Forbes article on the "Top Corporate Hate Web Sites." What's great about this article is that they interview the people who created the hate sites, as well as what the company has to say about it. While several companies declined to comment, Verizon had the following to say:
"What's really pathetic is not Verizon but this sort of lame Web site. In this day and age, anyone with a gripe can put up a Web site and make outrageous claims as the authors of this one did."
That's the typical response I'd expect to hear from a company that harbors some animosity about how empowered their customers are... And to get an idea of just how empowered their customers feel they are, Forbes asked the creators of these sites what the companies would have to do in order to get them to take down the site...
The person responsible for the United Airlines hate site said: "Replace their current staff. I'd need to see a shakedown from the top." If one person believes that they would shake down an organization by putting up a website, that's a pretty empowered consumer.
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