Brands are subject to intense criticism from angry customers online. And sometimes, the criticism is done with such creativity, that what follows is a PR nightmare for the brand, with the little stunt by a single customer grabbing millions of eyeballs.
UrbanClap could have been the next such target, except, when a customer complained to them with some sharp poetry, not only did they resolve his issue, but also responded to him with more poetry. The ensuing poetry slam gave them a major PR win.
Recently, an unhappy customer of UrbanClap, Somak Ghosh took the poetic route to express his distaste. After an unsatisfactory repair of his AC, Somak wrote a poem on UrbanClap’s Facebook page.
‘tis midnight in Chennai, the city of heat
My mortal form, on the soiled floor, lies
Weary of this world and darkness and defeat
Sleep a necessity, but the night flies
Instead, I lie, prone at your feet,
UrbanClap, you are but lies and deceit
In the long poem addressed to Urban Clap, Somak narrated how the AC repair guy he called for from UrbanClap charged him Rs 1,500 to repair the AC, which later that night stopped working completely.
You know UrbanClap, a gentleman’s word is his bond,
(The greatest of them, of Woodland Realm, Lord Elrond)
I had come with folded hands and a bowed head,
your blatant lies, deceit and callousness have left me redBut make no mistake, I shall not cower, I shall not rest
I will wage a war, until I have had the best
For let the world know, about how much you have sucked,
While he would have expected UrbanClap to take notice of this quirky complaint, little did he know that UrbanClap would respond just as poetically.
True as you have spoken,
a gentleman's word is never to be broken.
We feel your pain as our own,
And regret this seed of contempt that has been sown.We will fight with you shoulder to shoulder in this battle
To ensure your AC does not still rattle.
It's our job to get this fixed
If the professional isn't one, we shall have him nixed.Our USP is the service guarantee we provide,
For there are times when the job doesn't always go right.
But hey we have your back!
Our team in Chennai is a fierce pack.
One of our ninjas will reach out to you in a bit
To ensure this issue is resolved to the hilt
Needless to say, UrbanClap resolved the issue and repaired his AC in response to the challenge put forth by Somak for keeping up its word. Once the issue was resolved, UrbanClap replied to his post again with more poetry.
But Somak wasn’t done yet, and he had the final word, with a tribute poem thanking UrbanClap for their ‘kindness’.
See the original Facebook post here