Fed Ex

Fed Ex has to deal with a very unfortunate situation today – a guy threw a flat screen over a fence per his ‘delivery’. Thanks Fed Ex. Video here:

Fed Ex has a response from their Senior VP of US Operations.

His response has 306 views as of 12/21/2011 at 5:41pm PST. The video of the man throwing the TV / Flatscreen over the fence has millions!

My point? Authenticity. Being candid. The response is great in so far that they posted something immediately, on YouTube, but it still is lame, very lame. One, it should be from the CEO. Two, seeing a Fed Ex employee roughly dressed – unlike their UPS competitors – throwing valuables over a fence doesn’t ‘shock’ me. This will most likely hurt Fed Ex in the short and medium run. The only thing that would have really sanitized this situation would have been a candid, non-scripted message direct from their CEO. This video is way too scripted, way to ‘corporate’ filled with generalities and non-measurable conclusions.

Businesses can get ahead of the ‘user review’ curve being candid, frank, factual, heart felt and non-scripted with video responses to their customer raves and complaints online. This includes Yelp reviews, Citysearch, Trip Advisor, Google, Yahoo, etc. It goes a long way to show the quality of the people behind the business, and that makes a big difference.