#ccdsucks

Anatomy of a Social Media Crisis

Based on a presentation by @amnigos

#ccdsucks

What? #ccdsucks was a hashtag propagated by a group of twitterers who had a poor experience at Café Coffee Day (CCD) at Ispahani Centre in Chennai during a tweetup.

Why? The Café Coffee Day Manager demanded that the group shell out a cover charge if they wanted to use their premises for a tweetup, failing which they should vacate the place.

Read: Blog post detailing the incident: Coffee, Tweetup & a rude shop manager

Expressing their shock in 140 chars

CCD sucks… @cafecoffeeday at Ispahani center is kicking twitter out.. #ccducks

Tweet from @PPrakash (Prakash P) at 7:50 PM Feb 4th from Snaptu

#ccdsucks cover chrg not defined but threats turng up frm mgr

Tweet from @idlee_amin (Tushar R) at 7:51 PM Feb 4th from Snaptu

Cover charge for sitting in this place RT @PPrakash: CCD sucks… @cafecoffeeday at Ispahani center is kicking twitter out.. #ccducks

Tweet from @metalsaint (gautham govind) at 7:52 PM Feb 4th from Snaptu

Cover charge for @CafeCoffeeDay? Screw you. #ccdsucks

Tweet from @surajram (Surajram Kumaravel) at 7:55 PM Feb 4th via web

Approx 30 more #ccdsucks tweets do the round that evening.

Next morning, CCD wakes up and smells the coffee

@gopal_b :O We're v sorry about this! It is not CCD's policy to charge a cover. Thanks for letting us know. We're checking on it right away!

Tweet from @CafeCoffeeDay (Café Coffee Day) at 10:44 PM Feb 5th via web

@narayananh @bombaylives @additiyom @wiredvijay @ubiquitense CCD does not charge a cover. Thanks a lot for letting us kno n we're v sorry!

Tweet from @CafeCoffeeDay (Café Coffee Day) at 10:47 PM Feb 5th via web

@PPrakash @AmolMathur @ahmedhussain @idlee_amin @CreativeWolf Tnks for leting us kno ppl! We don have a policy to chrg a cover. Chking rt nw

Tweet from @CafeCoffeeDay (Café Coffee Day) at 10:52 PM Feb 5th via web

@AmolMathur @PPrakash We really want to resolve this issue. pls help us do that. Give us a no. to call so we can personally apologize.

Tweet from @CafeCoffeeDay (Café Coffee Day) at 12:14 PM Feb 5th via web

#ccdsucks #ccd CCD does not have a policy to charge a cover anywhere in India. We apologize for the goof up. This will nt be taken lightly.

Tweet from @CafeCoffeeDay (Café Coffee Day) at 12:17 PM Feb 5th via web

#ccdsucks #ccd Like we said, give us an opportunity. Give us a no. to call. When resolved, we'll tell evryone bout it on Twitter. Publicly

Tweet from @CafeCoffeeDay (Café Coffee Day) at 12:40 PM Feb 5th via web

But, word of mouth spreads…

Watch power of Indian web users Live on Twitter: unhappy customers vs brand defense #ccdsucks #cafecoffeeday @cafecoffeeday

Tweet from @reemsaied (Reem Saied) at 7:08 PM Feb 5th from LinkedIn

Interesting how @CafeCoffeeDay had to use the #ccdsucks hashtag in all their sorry tweets! :D #selfabuse

Tweet from @neelannair (Neelakantan Nair) at 11:04 PM Feb 5th from Echofon

@SathyaBhat got thrown out of @CafeCoffeeDay for no reason. They asked for cover charge 1 hr later, after everyone had ordered. #ccdsucks

Tweet from @narayananh (Narayanan Hariharan) at 12:15 AM Feb 5th from HootSuite

@CafeCoffeeDay y do u need a number to talk? use twitter! @PPrakash @mad_nad @AmolMathur @javashri @ubiquitense @idlee_amin #ccdsucks

Tweet from @narayananh (Narayanan Hariharan) at 12:45 PM Feb 5th from HootSuite

Another 100 #ccdsucks tweets bash Café Coffee Day.

Here is the #ccdsucks FAN page on #fb. Join in. http://www.facebook.com/pages/Cafe-Coffee-Day-Sucks/291737396851 RT to ur frnds.!

Tweet from @Pricelessdream /@AmolMathur (Amol Mathur) at 5:567PM Feb 5th from Echofon

Many wonder, many watch…

They made a fan page now for #ccdsucks, http://bit.ly/cQ79HH itna kya kar diya bhai ccd ne

Tweet from @ankitagaba(Ankita Gaba) at 6:14 PM Feb 5th from TweetDeck

In fact, nearly 500 #ccdsucks tweets had a neutral flavour.

OK, what has Cafe Coffee Day done now? I see the #ccdsucks tag going around, but can’t trace the original incident

Tweet from @madmanweb (Madhu ‘MadMan’ Menon) at 6:01 PM Feb 5th from TweetDeck

#ccdsucks is loads of fun for me! RT @startonomics: when did @cafecoffeeday started sucking ?....people who go there sucks… coffee… :P

Tweet from @svsashank (Venkata Sashank) at 6:22 PM Feb 4th via web

#ccdsucks has become a pressure cooker.

Tweet from @rkavan (Kavan Ravi) at 5:49 PM Feb 4th from Tweetie

And then, there’s support for CCD

@mad_nad Ok, nw I know what you’re trying to do. U’re frm a PR agency so u’ll bash them up and den go to them wid a pitch to handle their PR

Tweet from @indrani84 (Indrani) at 12:34 PM Feb 5th via web

@mad_nad why do they ‘owe’ u an explanation on twitter – so long as they’ve acknowledged the problem & r fixing it?I don’t get it really

Tweet from @dina (Dina Mehta) at 4:32 PM Feb 5th from Seesmic

Kudos to @cafecoffeeday for handling the #ccdsucks meme well by listening quickly & responding openly. cc: @evansdave @nidhibhasin

Tweet from @Gauravonomics (Gaurav Mishra) at 10:50 AM Feb 6th from TweetDeck

#ccdsucks #ccd I think @CafeCoffeeDay seems genuine in their efforts.. Give them a chance instead of beating them dwn further

Tweet from @sanjay_sahay (sanjay sahay) at 6:44 PM Feb 5th via web

@sumants exactly. the #ccdsucks twitter mob needs to stop being unreasonable

Tweet from @twilightfairy (sanjay sahay) at 9:59 AM Feb 6th from Seesmic

Surprisingly, close to 68 #ccdsucks tweets expressed support for Café Coffee Day.

Influencers & Curators

Twitter Handle Number of #ccdsucks tweets

@amolmathur (Amol Mathur) 81

@narayananh (Narayanan Hariharan) 23

@tinucherian (CherianTinuAbraham)@dhempe (Harish Thota)

17

@ankitagaba (Ankita Gaba) 16

@alexzz99 (Alex Gautam) 15

@ideasmaverick (Preetham Venkky)@pprakash (Prakash P)

14

@shivamvij (Shivam Vij)@metalsaint (gautham govind)

12

@javashri (Shrinath)@prashanth_p

11

@ritesharora (Ritesh Arora)@svsashank (Venkata Sashank)@maheshmurthy (Mahesh Murthy)@amnigos (Vijay Rayapati)

10

@adityarao310 (Aditya Rao)@skyn3t (Neeraj Pattath)

8

#ccdsucks trends

Life of the #ccdsucks crisis

The Participator PyramidTotal Number of Participants: 754153 High Influencers (Personas)214 Influencers (Connectors)387 Digital Naives (Casual Users)

Sentiment Analysis

10% Positive72% Neutral 18% Negative

Number of #ccdsucks tweets (1-week period)

For/Against Analysis

Number of people who took a stand for or against CCD

36% For CCD64% Against CCD

@CafeCoffeeDay Followers

Jan 19 Jan 24 Jan 29 Feb 3 Feb 8 Feb 13 Feb 18

300

250

200

150

100

50

0

@CafeCoffeeDay’s followers increased exponentially in the week

of the #ccdsucks crisis

Key Takeaways for Brands

• Word of mouth spreads like wildfire when it pertains to a bad customer experience

• Café Coffee Day was quick to respond and apologize for the goof-up and was consequently supported by several influencers– It’s better to listen and engage your customers than remain mute in a crisis

situation to curb the negative publicity. It also encourages your fans to answer on your behalf

• As suggested by some Social Media veterans, Café Coffee Day could have avoided using the #ccdsucks hashtag in their own tweets and used a positive hashtag such as #ccdresponds or #ccdcares– Brands shouldn’t buckle under pressure from customers.

Indeed, a lot can happen over coffee!