Empowered

by Josh Bernoff and Ted Schadler

MAYBE YOU’VE HEARD ABOUT THE musician Dave Carroll and his experience as a United Air Lines customer. He was so incensed that the company rejected his damage claim after its baggage handlers broke his guitar that he made a catchy YouTube video, “United Breaks Guitars.” Eight million people have already viewed this decidedly negative take on the United brand.

Carroll’s reaction is hardly unique. The popular mommy blogger Heather Armstrong was so upset over the failure of her Maytag washer and the company’s ensuing service missteps that, using her mobile phone, she told her million-plus followers on Twitter they should never buy a Maytag. Greenpeace supporters barraged Nestlé’s Facebook page with complaints ...

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