I believe AT&T is handling the situation the right way. By addressing the customer’s negative feedback, AT&T has an opportunity to demonstrate to the customer that they care and that they are doing something to fix the problem. Also, by letting these customers respond on their facebook wall, AT&T has an opportunity to evaluate some of the weaknesses of their service. This gives AT&T the opportunity to hear instantaneous direct feedback and address it within minutes. By utilizing facebook, AT&T can also address many customers with the same problem using one response, instead of contacting each customer or addressing many concerns regarding the same matter individually.

BP’s strategy is much different, and much less effective in my opinion. By merely ignoring, or even deleting, negative feedback, not only is BP failing to address their customers’ concerns, but they are also ignoring an opportunity to improve their business by addressing some of their weaknesses. Deleting these facebook wall posts is simply sweeping any concerns under the rug instead of taking the opportunity to address the concern.