It hires hundreds of customer service employees to deal with customer requests. And it dedicates four fulltime employees to read Internet newsgroups and respond immediately to any postings about Intel or its products. The first thing is to respond to emailed complaints as quickly as possible. Unless your company has people monitoring newsgroups, an incoming email message may be your first sign of a serious disturbance. When you receive an emailed complaint, ask yourself what would happen if hundreds of other people spread that complaint across the Net, as happened with Dr. Nicely's original message.
Speed is extremely important in responding to any Internet crisis.
You might not have a technical problem, but you have a PR problem. In retrospect, it seems like a no-brainer, but Intel had the facts on its side and thought that the facts mattered. When you are absolutely sure you are right, you increase your likelihood of making a mistake. Ask any prosecuting attorney. Unlike traditional news media, the Internet has no filtering process.