I wrote about Tata and Skoda and how they are trying to use their own properties on social media to address some of their recent issues.
With Tata, I haven’t seen any progress, but in case of Skoda, I see massive progress.
Sample this.
Chinmayi, the Tamil playback singer who wrote a blog post titled, ‘Please don’t buy a Skoda‘, and followed it up with a lot of tweets, has now posted another one – no title, but it talks about the efforts that Skoda took, after that drubbing from her. The crux of this short post is ‘Looks like they are getting their act together‘!
That is nothing short of amazing. You may have the obvious question – will Skoda do the same for normal people too? Or is it reserved for celebrities alone? Yes, I have the same question.
So, next stop? Skoda India’s Facebook page. Beyond the obvious and much needed plugs for their new vehicle, Yeti, there are stories of how the page helped resolved issues. There are pending issues, but which brand doesn’t have issues. The few instances where the mods have responded to issues are heartening…for a auto brand which has got the worst social media drubbing even in India. Remember the Team-bhp imbroglio?
The other question is the fact that all of Skoda’s issues seem to be stemming from dealers and service, not the product itself. Even Chinmayi repeatedly talks about how much she loves the vehicle. So, the obvious query is to forget social media for a minute and look at why Skoda’s management even allowed this to happen? I have no idea, but they sure are portraying the image of a brand that is taking charge of the issues…head-on, on the ground.
Now, I’m not a Skoda customer, so I cannot comment on the alleged seeds of change personally.
But I’m in PR. From that point of view, the PR (PR is public relations, remember – not publicity) they are doing using social media is remarkable.
I’m not a Skoda fan and continue to love my Honda. But, when I’m going to consider replacing my Honda, I’ll, for the first time, add Skoda in my purchase consideration. Solely because of Chinmayi’s latest blog post and the effort Skoda seems to be taking on Facebook. For me, as a completely neutral bystander, it says that the products are fantastic and despite problems at the dealer level, we customers have a way to get things done.
This is something of a given in other brands like Maruti, Hyundai and Honda, but an unfortunate reality in case of Skoda, if we sum up the anti-Skoda sentiment online. But, with their recent efforts they sure seem to have moved the needle. At least with me!
Great going, team Skoda!