Redemption for evil, greedy banks?

I came across this post on Twitter the other day:

@agencyspy: "Mint.com tells me stuff about my bank accounts before my bank. #chasefail"

Agencyspy is a advertising gossip blog that I follow on twitter and RSS. Obviously he/she fully acknowledges that they are a person with a twitter account and can use Twitter for their own personal ends, including expressing his/her frustration with banks. Agencyspy’s 9323 followers are now aware of those frustrations – and the #chasefail hashtag.

Searching that hashtag only brings up four results, one of which is a retweet of agencyspy. Hardly damaging to Chase's reputation, but the seed has been planted, and the fire has been lit, to mix absurd metaphors.

If you're not a Twitter user that might sound like Klingon.

What this all means is that a 'key influencer' is upset with his/her bank and letting all his/her 'influencees' know about it. Some 9000 people now know that they can get better banking info from Mint.com than from Chase – and they believe it because this opinion comes from a trusted source.

When people create a hashtag like #yourbrandFAIL, they can quickly gain widespread adoption, (like the #pepsifail hashtag that gained popularity in response to Amp energy drink’s ‘Amp up before you score’ iPhone app).

So, what’s a bank to do?

First, they should be listening. If they’re not, they’ve completely blown an opportunity to engage upset customers, solve their problems and improve their services based on real feedback from real people who use their stuff.

Which leads to the second thing, which is to capitalize on these opportunities. They know they have one influential but pissed off customer. If an empowered Chase CSR sent @agencyspy a direct message, asking about his/her complaint, addressed his/her concerns and thanked him/her for their help in improving their services, @agencyspy might be sufficiently impressed to tweet about the experience, which in turn might make his/her 9000 followers feel a little bit better about the big, evil bank as well.

9000 followers is pretty pathetic in terms of traditional media impressions, but these tweets are powerful impressions. There are mystical forces at work here – Schadenfreude for instance. Everyone knows banks are totally evil and your normally quiet average Joe will gleefully rip a bank a new one if given the opportunity. This is compounded by the nature of the medium. Gladwell’s Tipping Point is another mystical force that will spread latent discontent across the twittershpere with incredible speed.

So, if I worked for a bank, I’d be listening very carefully to things like this. I'd address these concerns, both internally and the public perception of them. And I’d take every opportunity I could to steal the disgruntled customers of my competition who might not be listening as closely as I am.