PR Squared: Coming Up ACES

IStock_000005499524XSmall Josh Bernoff, a Forrester analyst, gave some well-deserved linklove this week to my colleague Chris Lynn at SocialTNT; thought I’d return the favor to one of his own colleagues!

Bruce Temkin of Forrester blogs at Experience Matters. Back in March, Bruce came up with a clever acronym to help gauge a company’s Customer Service responsiveness, called ACES.

Accountability (take responsibility for fixing the problem)
Communication (clearly communicate the process and set expectations)
Empathy (acknowledge the impact that the situation has on the customer)
Solution (at the end of the day, make sure to solve the problem)

It felt pretty straightforward when I read it at the time – clever if not groundbreaking. Then again, I felt the same way when Forrester originally talked about its POST model for Social Media Strategy, and yet I have referred back to it often!

Thus it wasn’t too surprising to find myself genuinely impressed when Bruce revisited the ACES theme with a specific example – American Airlines’ recent breakdown. The elegance of the ACES method struck me as an ingenious approach to measuring any brand’s Crisis Communications response.

I’m not sure that Bruce knew about American’s “dark blog” effort at the time of his assessment (nor how it might have impacted his overall grade of D+ for American), but I do recommend you read his post to appreciate his methodology …

… And more importantly, consider it as a guide to how your own company will be judged, the next time the craphammer comes a’slamming.

Comments

Todd - great post that really rings true for any company - whether it is dealing with unhappy customers due to website downtime, a faulty product, or a poor business decision. People just want to know what's going on and why, and providing clear communication, empathy, and taking accountability comes back to the most important thing in managing relationships - the people.

Posted by: Larissa Fair | April 17, 2008 11:19 AM

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