A prolific blogger has put washing machine manufacturer Whirlpool in a PR spin by wielding the power of Twitter following a nightmare customer service experience.
Heather Armstrong, who writes the US parenting blog Dooce, one of the world's most popular blog sites, urged her Twitter followers to boycott appliance manufacturer Maytag after experiencing shocking customer service when her new $1,300 washing machine broke down.
The company, which is owned by household electricals giant Whirlpool, left Armstrong exasperated by a series of unsuccessful visits from Maytag repairmen and the unsympathetic attitude of customer call centre staff.
Armstrong then took to the microblogging site, where she has more than a million followers, and sent out a series of tweets warning people not to buy Maytag products.
And within hours big name manufacturers were queuing up with offers to repair or replace her machine, including Maytag's parent company Whirlpool, who fixed it the very next day.
In a bid to mitigate the embarrassment, Whirlpool then promptly followed up the repair with a phone call from Jeff Piraino, the manager of its executive offices in Michigan.
Some might argue that Armstrong demonstrated the PR power of Twitter, while others would argue she demonstrated the PR power of her celebrity status. But whichever way you look at it, Armstrong's Twitter brand bashing clearly demonstrated the PR power of Public Relations.
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