A few months ago Bord Gais proved themselves to be ahead of the pack when they launched their ‘Big Switch’ campaign on Twitter. I for one was really impressed with how they communicated their message online, though I did wonder at the time was it really worth it for them i.e. the old ROI question. Was the time dedicated to tweeting to 800 or so followers worth it in terms of conversion to sign ups? How much did that contribute to the impressive 100,000 sign ups to date?
Whatever questions there were about the campaign, one thing for sure is they managed to shake the Irish PR industry a little. All of a sudden every Tom, Dick and Harry PR agency set up a Twitter account and followed media people and other PR people - mind you, I’m not sure if they did anything else with their tweets, but that’s another story. They also ensured communicating with bloggers was on their standard campaign ‘to do’ list - as I’ve said in previous posts, I’m not sure about this ‘practice’ either.
All that aside, I was sorry to hear on the RTE radio news at 6 pm yesterday that Bord Gáis were in a spot of bother. RTE’s Environment correspondant reported 4 laptops had been stolen from Bord Gáis.
What’s more, it happened 12 days previous… something sure to rattle a few cages. Bord Gáis hands were apparently tied here though, as the gardai had not wanted the information in the public domain for operational reasons.
Thankfully, the official statement appeared on the websites and was tweeted late last night.
According to the statement, the laptops contained names, addresses and bank account details of 75,000 Big Switchers. Only one of the four laptops was encrypted, the other three had ’sophisticated password protection’.
Bord Gáis are contacting those affected from today.
Now don’t get me wrong - these things happen and this is not a criticism of Bord Gáis on that level. I’m not in a position to criticise the level of security used on the laptops as I am no expert.
While I accept the Gardai had put restraints on who could be told and when, I have to question the level of communication to affected customers. Bord Gáis have shown how impressive their communication skills can be when it comes to signing customers up - but where were these skills when their customers needed them? Even today, the once noisy tweeter @thebigswitchirl is very very quiet indeed…
@BigSwitchIrl Twitter activity
An example of one unhappy ‘Big Switch’er
http://www.10thmonth.net/detrius/2009/06/questions-that-id-like-bord-ga.html
The BIG Switch Off.
On their website, it states that letters will not be arriving on those affected doorsteps until early next week - that is almost one month since the laptops went missing, and one month since those personal details went with them! I agree with you totally. Regardless of the direction they claimed to be under (Garda) the delay in communication is shocking, and a blatant disregard and disrespect to their customers.
The BIG Question is, why were those records on a laptop in the first place? And why only 75,000 of the 100,000 signups? The only differentiator is the fact that the 75,000 had opted to pay DD.
Saying nothing on twitter speaks volumes, especially in a situation like this.