Hactivism: Home Depot Forced to Respond to Message Board

The web continually enables the masses to not only whine and complain, but actually channel a loud enough voice to force change from brands and corporations.

Consider this: after readers flooded MSN Money's message boards with tales of lousy service, Home Depot's new top executive says change is on the way!

Last week, MSN Money published a column by Scott Burns that focused on customer-service problems at Home Depot.

The response was overwhelming: THOUSANDS of readers posted messages on the MSN Money boards and more than 10,000 took the added steps of e-mailing editors to MSN to share their own stories of time wasted at Home Depot's stores. Oh, and did I mention that Home Depot is in a announced a 28% decline in earning for 4Q, and same store sales are down 6.6%?

In response to message board outcry, Home Depot’s new CEO, Frank Blake, posted his own message promising change. Below is his posted promise of change:


I'm Frank Blake, the new CEO for The Home Depot. I've read a number of the postings on the MSN message board (unfortunately, there were a lot of them), and we've dispatched a dedicated task force -- working directly with me -- that is ready and willing to address each and every issue raised on this board. Please give us the chance.

There's no way I can express how sorry I am for all of the stories you shared. I recognize that many of you were loyal and dedicated shoppers of The Home Depot . . . and we let you down. That's unacceptable. Customers are our company's lifeblood – and the sole reason we have been able to build such a successful company is because of your support. The only way we're going to continue to be successful is by regaining your trust and confidence . . . and we will do that.
We've already taken steps to cure many of the ills discussed on this message board:

We will be and already are increasing our staffing in the stores.

We're also in the early stages of launching a nationwide program to recruit and hire skilled master tradespeople to staff our stores so that our customers receive the kind of service and expertise that made The Home Depot great.
We're investing significantly in the appearance of our stores to make them an easier and more fun place to shop.

And we're making it clear to all our associates that nothing is more important than you, the customer. Every associate knows that his or her number one job is to make you smile and to help you solve your home improvement problem … no matter how big or how small.

But the real judge of all of these changes we’re making is you. All I ask is that you please give us the opportunity to win you back. When you enter our stores, you should receive a personal greeting. After that, you should encounter a helpful associate who will walk you to find the tools, material or service you need. If you don’t, please let us know . . . just like Scott Burns did.

A response box has been opened at wehearyou@homedepot.com

More Hactivism +/+/+


via Consumerist

Asterisk Advertising

Consumerist notes amusing "Badvertising" such as this slightly misleading sandwich board in LA. I'd say this is a fitting metaphor for our ongoing deteriorating relationship with people: the ubiquitous "*" and "small print" to lure in the sheep only fuels escalated Hactivism (financial service brands and auto dealerships take note).

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Another one to grow on from a Consumerist reader. Funny how ad lies incite passion and inspires people to recall "a similar experience when..."


If anybody has other example photos, send links, I could use them for an upcoming deck.

Hactivism: 20/20 Reports on "Consumer Revenge"

ABC 20/20 informs us (late, but hey, at least they're tryin') many consumers are realizing that the internet acts as a powerful tool to talk back to companies. Savvy companies are listening, because they know just how damaging the internet can be to brand recognition.

View the video here

AKI COMMENT: Watching these kinds of reports is like listening to your Dad validate the new "hip hop thing" to you, or Mom explaining the "hot new blogging thing". But these mainstream reports do serve as good primers (and "official" validations of the times) for the newbies nonetheless.

Trend: Hactivism: FUH2

Hactivists who share a hatred of HUMMER H2's gather BY THE MANY THOUSANDS at http://www.FUH2.com to post their amusing photo salutations.

And you thought Chevy Tahoe had it bad...

Trend: Open Source Intelligence (Conference)

Here is a fasinating companion to all the recent posts about CITIZEN JOURNALISM>MASS INTERACTION>HACTIVISM>USER CO-CREATION, COLLABORATIVE TECHNOLOGIES, etc.

INTERVIEWS from the Open Source Intelligence Conference. (who knew that Washington was awake on this?):
http://www.echochamberproject.com/osint

some excerpts about the conference:
There were over 300 people from within the intelligence community, retired analysts, other corporate contractors as well as other attendees who were interested in the concept of open source intelligence.

One of the common values that seemed to unite all of the attendees was the perspective that classified sources of information do not necessarily mean that the information is any more relevant or useful than information that can be collected from open sources (i.e. newspapers, Internet, academic literature, reports from non-governmental organizations, etc.)

Another common value seemed to be that open source intelligence provides a more collaborative and transparent environment for generating knowledge. There were many people who have been fighting the compartmentalization of intelligence for many years.


AKI COMMENT: Now I think the purpose of this conference was to discuss open source with regard to Washington and espionage-type perspectives. But these interviews are good for our repurposing, too (I think this idea is the conclusion they came to at the conference).


But also as interesting is this site that collected the interviews, www.echochamberproject.com, which classifies itself as "...an open source, investigative documentary about how the television news media became an uncritical echo chamber to the Executive Branch leading up to the war in Iraq." The director, Kent Bye, gives you accesses to help with (transcribing interview notes, for instance) and track the production of the movie!

Kent says, "The Echo Chamber is a documentary on the failures of the mainstream media, and how I produce this film will hopefully provide some solutions to this infotainment bottleneck. I'm trying to develop more sophisticated techniques for citizen journalism by open sourcing my interview material and collaboratively producing The Echo Chamber on a Drupal/CivicSpace platform."

Can Hollywood get fluid like that? How 'bout CNN? The movement just keeps grinding forward...