British Social Media Blunder

One of the major rules of business: Do not pass off your mistakes to someone else. 

Last week, when British Gas raised their prices by 9.2% then decided to host a Twitter Q&A using the hashtag #AskBG, the topic received an influx of negative tweets. The majority of the tweets were customers bashing the company for their greediness.

In response to these tweets, British Gas replied with excuses for their price increases. They said things such as, "We have cut prices four times in the past five years but the general wholesale energy trend is upwards." and "every £1 a customer pays us, we make 5p profit." This only fueled the fire. Customers were incredibly unhappy with the way the company dealt with the whole situation. The combination of the price hike and disastrous social media campaign will likely cause a sharp decline in British Gas' profits. 

The Lesson Here

When you make a mistake, apologize. That's all people want. When a mistake is made, there is no way that everyone will forgive you but it is important to minimize the damage. It should be clear to a company that a price hike will never come with a positive response from customers. It would be a smarter decision to let customers know about the price increase with a formal apology letter explaining the reasons for the increase. 

It Wasn't All Bad

No, British Gas did not handle this situation correctly in the slightest. However, Q&A sessions are a great tool for social marketers to use. It is important to know when to use them. Question and Answer sessions give a wonderful opportunity for honest conversation between a company and its customers. It is important to stay in touch with them and build loyalty. By doing so, if something like a price increase is necessary, having a strong customer base will lessen the impact.