It all began commonly enough. A herd of salespeople were hungry and, sales days being hectic as they are, ordered pizza. Everyone pooled their money and waited for the luncheon fare to arrive. When it arrived, the forty two dollar and change bill was paid with a handful of small bills totaling fifty bucks. When the delivery driver pointed out that the bill was only forty two, the herd grunted acknowledgement. When the driver left with what he thought was a seven dollar tip, the herd noticed that they received no change.
This is where the situation devolves rapidly. The sales manager called the pizza place demanding his money be returned at once.
Now there are a couple of fundamental precepts to which one should adhere when dealing with the public. The first is that in all your dealings your should default to courtesy in all things to the greatest degree possible given the situation. The second is that one ought to realize that when your occupation is already smeared with a negative stereotype, perhaps one ought not post videos of you putting an entry level wage worker in his place. The Internets may look unfavorably on you.
This video was brought to my attention in the morning of January 15, 2015 by Glenn Beck's Blaze news site. By the time I was sharing the story with colleagues in the afternoon, F and R was feeling the, as one You Tube commenter put it, "the golden spray of Internet justice."
Their Google Business page would not load, but showed almost 3,000 reviews with and average 2.5 star rating. A Facebook page christening them as the "F&R Auto Sales Douchebags" had quickly garnered almost 5,000 likes. Probably the most blistering schadenfreude manifested itself on their Yelp page, where two thousand reviews left them trapped in one star hell.
The video above at the time of this writing has over 10,000 views. The original Liveleak video post ended up being featured and had over a half million views! The story had been picked up the UK Daily Mail, and Telegraph as well as traversing all the way to the Land Down Under! Someone even created a satirical Google+ Page complete with paid search ads! Their website? It was taken down.
In a desperate attempt at damage control an apology has been issued, but to what avail? Viral videos have a tendency to cycle for a long time. This company is basically done. What lessons can be learned?
This staff, the incarnation of the cast of Used Cars or The Goods, showed a wretched ugliness. I hope for their sake that this was not a representation of their real selves. The temptation in sales is to view the entire world through a lens of self interest. This is their opportunity to see themselves and cringe, which is not always a bad thing.
As for organizations, the information age makes it more important than ever to take frequent, candid, even sobering looks at your organization's culture. If within your walls it is common to have scenes unfold that you would not want to have go viral, then you have a problem(s). Fix it.
Companies and organizations need to realize that reputations can be destroyed in a day. Measure every word and image that you release in your corporate name. Be mindful of the online persona of your key employees. Finally, take a cue from Pope Francis and choose often the path of humility.
The Internets do not like bullies.
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Epilogue: So apparently the owner of this exemplary establishment, himself a glittering jewel of eloquence, went on the radio to "take responsibility." What a piece of work. Everyone in automotive sales who struggles with the perception that we are all classless hoods, thank this guy:
