Why Southwest communicators don't fear Southworst.com

Experts say buying domain names for potential “gripe sites,” like YourCompanySucks.com, is due diligence for communicators

So someone doesn’t like your company. Twenty years ago, disgruntled consumers like this had letters to the editor and bullhorns to communicate their dissatisfaction; today they have the Internet.

Don’t like Starbucks Coffee? Head over to Ihatestarbucks.com to vent. Bank of America ever rubbed you the wrong way? Visit BankofAmericaSucks.com and join numerous other griping customers.

Maybe Southwest Airlines’ open-boarding policy placed you next to the toilet? Type in SouthWORST.com and … Wait a second, Southworst.com directs me to a page on Southwest.com, the company’s official site. OK, try the classic—southwestsucks.com—and … Southwest.com again. How about Ihatesouthwest.com? You guessed it, Southwest.com.

This is no accident. Southwest Airlines bought an undisclosed number of potentially toxic domain names, or Web addresses, in an effort to prevent disgruntled customers from creating “gripe sites” like BankofAmericaSucks.com and IHateStarbucks.com.

“[Web addresses] are really inexpensive, for the most part, so there’s no harm in buying the usual suspects” like SouthWorst.com, Southwestsucks.com and, recently, domain names of company executives, explained Paula Berg, Southwest’s head of emerging media. “What’s the harm when it can help prevent some PR crises down the line?”

A recent study by FairWinds Partners (reported on byThe Wall Street Journal) showed that among Global 500 and Fortune 500 companies there are 20,000 domain names that end in “sucks.com” and 2,000 “stinks.com.” FairWinds found that 35 percent of those companies owned these nasty domain names; 45 percent remain unregistered.

So what are you doing to protect your company’s online image?

Talk with your disgruntled customers

As Berg noted, Web addresses are cheap—about $10 or less—so the cost for companies to buy several domain names is minimal. Simply visit any number of online vendors to purchase a domain name.

NetworkSolutions, GoDaddy and Register.com are among many places to buy domain names. A WHOIS search, part of NetworkSolutions, will quickly and easily show which domain names are available.

Once you purchase the domain names, the next step is to create landing pages for Web surfers looking for “YourCompanySucks.com.”

The page where consumers land after they type SouthWorst.com, or any number of Southwest-related gripe URLs, makes it clear the page is part of Southwest’s official Web site. It also displays a short message that says:

“Southwest Airlines strives to maintain a high level of customer service and is proud of its corporate reputation and responsiveness to its customers. As part of that effort, Southwest wants to control the release of inaccurate and irresponsible information about the company via the Internet. If you would like more information on Southwest, please go to http://www.southwest.com/.”

This message lacks one important element—an easy place to vent.

Ragan.com asked Berg about that, and it seems Southwest certainly provides outlets for customers. “Between our blog, our customer relations departments and our 24-hour reservations line … we provide plenty of channels for people to contact us to vent or to share their concerns with us,” Berg said.

But the problem is the landing pages don’t directly link to those sites.

Citing “Internet consultants,” The Wall Street Journal said companies should use these landing pages as vehicles to solicit feedback from customers. “Otherwise, angry customers … will find another site on which to complain about the company.”

Shel Holtz, a social media expert and consultant, agrees. Registering these sites is a good strategy, he said. It is part of due diligence as a communicator. He suggested building a landing page that tells consumers where they can air complaints.

A landing page should say something to the effect of, “You entered a domain that clearly, if someone owned it other than us, would be used for complaints and possibly misinformation,” Holtz explained. “We have a variety of resources on our site that invite you to join a conversation and address the issues that we know are out there.” List those resources on that page, he added.
Better yet, he explained, redirect customers to a site where they can complain, read facts about the company (not rumors) and generally start a dialogue with the company.

For instance, General Motors maintains a Web site called, GM Facts and Fiction, on which the company “tells it like it is.” The site lists a variety of rumors and gives an official response. Visitors can also submit a question for the company to answer.

Keep in mind: Sites that allow venting and encourage dialogue also capture priceless information consumers about consumers’ likes and dislikes concerning your product or service.

Protect the C-suite

There are countless ways someone could construe your company name into something nasty. Don’t beat yourself up trying to find and purchase every negative URL possible.

“You could spend many days coming up with [Web addresses],” Holtz explained. “You have to think about what people are going to type in, people aren’t going to spend a lot of time thinking it out. Go for the obvious ones and get those.”

For Southwest, the obvious site names included SouthwestSucks.com, SouthWorst.com, and IHateSouthwest.com. The company also moved beyond the obvious. “Recently, in light of some of the news affecting others companies, we’ve bought the URLs of our executive names,” explained Berg.

The news she is referring to is that of the creation of GlennTilton.com, a Web site operated by United Airlines pilots locked in negotiations with the company. The site calls for Tilton’s resignation.

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