Lexie Perez & Julia Weeks

Price Chopper Attacks Customer for Negative Tweet

Background

Price Chopper is a chain of 128 supermarkets headquartered in Schenectady, N.Y. It currently operates stores in Upstate New York, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, Vermont, Massachusetts, and New Hampshire. It primarily competes with Hannaford, Shaw’s and Stop & Shop in the eastern portion of its trading area, while facing competition from Wegmans, and Tops Markets in the West, and ShopRite, Stop & Shop and Pathmark in the South.

In effort to build on their marketing efforts, Price Chopper implemented social media into the mix to further build brand awareness and accomplish their mission of offering great food at competitive and very affordable prices. Price Chopper’s social media efforts involve Twitter, Facebook, its blog and tie-ins with “mommy blogs” and “deal blogs”. The supermarket chain has made great strides in building a large and beneficial partnership with bloggers, so much that it has been known to make merchandising changes based on blogger input. Price Chopper’s Facebook page is concentrated on daily coupon offering, in order to receive an exclusive coupon you must “like” the page. Being present on these platforms allows Price Chopper to engage and connect with their fans in ways traditional media doesn’t. The ability to respond to their fans requests in real-time fashion and offer exclusive deals through coupons further drives their bottom line.

Incident

It all started with a simple tweet from a customer on September 20, 2010 that criticized the supermarket chain: “Every time I go into a @PriceChopperNY I realize why they are not @Wegmans. Tonight-bare produce areas & this sign 4 ex http:// (link was removed).”

A Price Chopper representative, Ameerah Cetawayo (@PJASchultz), who had only worked in the customer relations department for two months, saw the tweet and contacted the customer’s employer, Syracuse University (which wasn’t listed in the customer’s profile, however found through a LinkedIn search) and asked that he be disciplined. The Price Chopper representative (Cetawayo) replied to the customer with a direct tweet:

@PJASchultz @jjhoster @JPedde Now tell me what you really think about us. lol. When was the last time you visited a store?

Cetawayo did not wait for a response before dragging the individual’s employer into the mix. In an email to a random list of executives at the customer’s workplace, including the customer’s supervisor, she labeled the individual as destructive and negative. Cetawayo requested disciplinarian action be taken against Hoster because his negative tweet could jeopardize the relationship between his company and Price Chopper.

Aftermath

To publicize the situation, Anthony Rotolo, a professor at Syracuse’s School of Information Studies, created a “Price Chopper Fail” Tumblr blog. Rotolo sent a Twitter direct message to Price Chopper representative Ameerah Cetawayo to find out more details regarding the Tweet sent. Cetawayo quickly responded that she had heard about the Tweet and was looking into the situation. Later the same evening, Cetawayo informed Rotolo that she had commented on his Tumblr blog.

In the comment, Cetawayo said she saw the negative tweet and replied through her personal Twitter account. She explained that this was not how Price Chopper usually handles comments on Twitter. A Consumer Insights team member should have been in direct contact with the customer who had a concern through a Price Chopper Twitter account. Then the two could have worked together to resolve the problem. Cetawayo acknowledged overstepping her boundaries without the Consumer Insights team knowing. She concluded by saying she’s hopeful her mistake will help her assist Price Chopper’s efforts to better use social media and engage customers.

Shortly after Cetawayo commented on the blog, Heide Reale, Price Chopper’s Director of Consumer Insights, posted a comment. Reale issued a personal apology for the way Cetawayo handled the customer service opportunity and reiterated that it’s not how Price Chopper handles customer concerns. She said that Price Chopper works hard to personally respond to all concerns that come via social media outlets. Reale also said Price Chopper does not condone employers contacting customers directly as in this instance. She ended her post by saying that Price Chopper is working with the associate so she can learn from her error. Price Chopper’s Twitter account indicated that the company had emailed an apology to Hoster:

@PJASchultz We have e-mailed the customer with an apology and an invitation to speak directly with us. Awaiting a response from him.

@PJASchultz We will take all appropriate actions to repair the trust that has been compromised with this situation.

The story circulated around the web, and a link was tweeted to blogger Chris Brogan, who has more than 150,000 Twitter followers. He commented: "Hmm. Price Chopper might've handled this differently, methinks." Rotolo updated his “Price Chopper Fail” blog that in the end there was no connection between Hoster’s employer and the grocery chain. The biggest unanswered question is then why would Cetawayo contact Hoster’s employer in the first place? Price Chopper posted this the next day, Sept. 21, 2010, on its Twitter page: We want to make sure you know we welcome all concerns, praise and suggestions. That is how we make our shopping experience even better.

Current Status

Price Chopper continues to have a presence on Twitter, Chopper Shopper Chatter WordPress blog and Facebook page with an explicit Ground Rules section, see below. Despite the social media fail Price Chopper experienced, it is most certainly a lesson learned. What are some of the key learnings? What could have Price Chopper done beforehand to prevent such incident?