I read this article recently on AdAge and this really brought up the questions of whether conversations between company and consumer were always worth it. As described in the article, frictionless communication between companies and consumers are wholly possible and are actually the norm nowadays. How does one selectively reply to consumers? Is it worth it to reply to non-threatening comments? Has the industry really transitioned from bouts with the disgruntled customer to everyday chit-chat with random pancake enthusiasts?

First off, I’d actually like to sum up the article. The article is about a certain writer’s exchange with IHOP’s Twitter account; a funny little back and forth about really nothing in particular.

@IHOP: #WhyIDidntTextYouBack I was busy eating pancakes.

 

I couldn’t resist tweeting back:

 

@simondumenco: @IHOP That’s no excuse. You can eat pancakes any time you want! It’s clear you really don’t care about me.

 

Within a few minutes, to my surprise, @IHOP wrote back, which led to a slow-motion exchange over roughly the next half hour:

 

@IHOP: @simondumenco Don’t say that, Simon! You know that we care about you, don’t be silly!

 

@simondumenco: @IHOP Well, then put down the fork and let’s talk.

 

@IHOP: @simondumenco Forks down. What would you like to chat about? 🙂

 

@simondumenco: @IHOP I just need to feel like this relationship is going somewhere.

 

@IHOP: @simondumenco Let’s take it one pancake at a time. 😉

 

@simondumenco: @IHOP I stopped seeing @WaffleHouse because I thought you were serious about us. And now you want to take it one pancake at a time?

 

@IHOP: @simondumenco No need to rush things, the right breakfast companion is worth the wait.

 

@simondumenco: @IHOP Wow, did I just get friendzoned by IHOP?

 

@IHOP: @simondumenco We need a little time, we just got out of a relationship with French toast.

After poking some fun at it, the writer then goes on to point out that IHOP actually does this with regular everyday consumers that interacts with their Twitter handle. It’s fantastic to think that companies are willing to go out and do things like this, but from the back end of things, is this really something worth their time? In this manner, one would guess that the writer’s handle was recognized as a writer from a well known news outlet but otherwise, would interacting with any random person really do anything for a company’s brand or its bottom line? It’s a study in micromanagement that probably entails more than a tiny blog post but it’s an interesting sentiment to mull over.