RAC Berth: Social Media War: Amul vs Angry Consumer: Usually on social media, the conversation between a brand and its customer is a predictable one: a customer complains about a certain product or service and the brand responds with an apology. In some cases it even offers compensation. But the story of Amul and a certain customer is a new one that shows how social media can be a double-edged sword. Amul, the dairy giant, with its 1.2 million Facebook fans and about 27,700 twitter followers has always been fairly active on social media. So when a distraught customer came knocking, they answered. Neha Tomar, a resident of Gurgaon purchased a packet of Amul Gold milk which on heating turned into an awful looking stretchy dough. To share this bizarre experience, she took to Facebook and published the following post: It didnt seem like a conscious strategy to go viral, but it did. The post got over 99,000 shares and 10,000 likes. To investigate the matter, Amul sent a team to the customers house. Then something strange happened. Amul published a long statement to clarify their side of the story, only that the story seemed to be suggest that the user may have been out to get them. Neha Tomar Senior Legal Officer at Public Health Foundation of India · October 13 at 10:53am · New Delhi · Dear all, Thanks alot for sharing my post on amul milk. I happy to inform you all that amul executives met me on saturday regarding the issue and promised that they will going to take cognizance of the matter. Today again they have contacted me. A team of Q & A and production will be comming to meet me regarding the issue. I am hoping to hear good answers from them. I am glad that they have shown interest in their consumer complaint. Will keep you all updated about the matter. Thanks Neha Tomar Amul added 2 new photos — with Amit Mittal and 2 others. Company · 1,210,993 Likes · October 14 at 3:16pm · Edited · This is regarding the Facebook post that Ms Neha Tomar has shared on her wall. The details of the matter are as follows: The consumer called our customer care on 10th morning at 9.22 am and shared her experience of using Amul Gold Milk on the very same day. She also emailed the complaint to our official email ID on 10th afternoon. As informed by her, the use by date of the Amul Milk was 9th of October. The milk got expired in her fridge which was later used by the consumer. However, it may be noted that Ms Neha posted her grievance on her Facebook page on 9th October, a day prior to her informing us about the same. Ms Neha Tomars post on Facebook on 9th Oct, screenshot attached. Our officials asked the customer that if she has faced the problem on 10th Oct, how is it possible for you to post the same on 9th on Facebook? We now see that the timing of her post has been changed to 10th. On 11th, we visited her residence in Gurgaon and discussed the above. On 13th we once again visited the customer and provided technical reasons for the incident. We informed her that we checked all the batches of the same Amul Milk and found that there is no problem in any batches including the one which consumer had purchased. As mentioned in her post, the consumer was trying to make cheese from sour milk which turned out to be a stretchy mass. Let us explain why this happened. Any natural milk (branded/unbranded) which is acidified (sour) in the chilled condition and then heated shall result in curd mass which shows stretching property similar to that of mozzarella cheese. We have demonstrated the same in the video attached in which we have used fresh milk, acidified to the pH 5.2 and heated to obtain similar mass as shown by the complainant. Video: goo.gl/kOJ74R We do not understand that why the consumer used her official position to make such complaint without knowing the fact. The customer when contacted and replacement was provided on 11th Oct, was requested to update her post with a clarification of her satisfaction with explanation provided by us. However it took more than 48 hours for the consumer to mention the same on her wall. She even told that our officers that she will update the same post on 13th evening. But till time of posting this, it has not been updated with correct information. Also, the facts have been carefully concealed by her to generate and sustain the hype. We wish to clarify that there has been absolutely no problem with the fresh milk that we supply in the market. Based on the misrepresentation of facts by the said consumer, we infer that the expired milk used by the complainant was deliberately abused to malign the brand. As a brand owned by 3.5 million milk producers, we are serving you from last six decades and we take utmost pride in the quality that we provide to you. Neha Tomar Senior Legal Officer at Public Health Foundation of India · October 15 at 12:19am · New Delhi · I am extremely disappointed with the way amul has moulded and represented the whole story. Very smartly they have played the blame game. I would like to share with everyone if i would have had any mala fide intentions then i would have demanded a handsome monetary compensation from them. As many of my consumer frnds feel that i have did this for publicity. I am just an ordinary consumer but yes i am not like those who are not bothered to tell the wrong doer about the wrong they do. The xplanation amul is posting now is their liabilty and responsibility. Being a consumer i have full right to question about a wrong product. Amul peple have moulded the whole story just to favour them. I have done no wrong by spreading awareness about what i faced. I shared the pics and post cuz i m a mother and i was worried and afariad after seeing what came out of that milk. Being a layman i do not know what it was. In order to know and to tell everyone it was needed to bring the issue in knowledge of everyone. Amul would have not bothered if it was not posted on their page.(any one can try posting anything now on their page, but not allowed now) shows who has got mala fide intentions. I have timely updated what happend when and i have no fears. I have done good to society and atleast to my family and friends by spreading this awareness. I would also not deny the effort done by amul to visit me and addressing the issue. But the way they have posted the ending of the issue is totally wrong and moulded for favoruing them. Earn trust of consumers by being true and polite to them. This is all i have to say. I am happy that i took some initiative and i was not a part of that crowd who simply walks and lives and dies in the crowd and never stand like an individual. In a social media climate, companies have very little control over what people think of their brand. But like in the case of Amul, responsiveness and transparency are key. They can make or break your brand and also re-define how brands should be using social media.
Posted on: Fri, 17 Oct 2014 17:50:24 +0000