Today’s lesson for me: Be aware of people who might feel animosity towards you even though you haven’t seen them for years. They can reach you in virtual world!

This morning my former high school classmate lost $70 because of virus on Facebook. Here is the story: His former classmate and very good friend sent him a message where she asked him to text his mobile number because she needed to try whether her new phone works properly. The message also contained a link to some online survey. He believed that she really needed his help because she is about to run her own business so he sent her the number and clicked on the link. A few minutes afterwards his mobile operator announced him that he gave the approval to the payment of $70.

Of course this is his huge mistake and a lesson for him. But the whole story has even more interesting continuing. We figured out that the virus was aimed just at people (and their relatives) from our former high school class. Well, there must be some aggrieved classmate or teacher who really hates us.

This experience leads me to the thinking that worse than unsatisfied and unhappy consumer is the consumer who wants a revenge. In today’s world, you would not find better place for his revenge than social networks and virtual world. In some cases you can be incredibly lucky and your company gets clean from the trouble. But there are so many cases when even one customer ensured that particular company will experience sales decrease, reputation dent and outflow of consumers. One for all: four years old famous story that “United Airlines breaks guitars”.

To avoid similar situations be sure that you behave towards your customers according the scheme called “Social Media Triage”:

As we often say in Czech Republic: “Pride will have a fall.” So don’t be lofty and behave to your customers with respect. Hopefully it will lead to better business world with fewer vindictive persons.