OK, so that’s an attention grabbing headline, but I don’t think it’s far off. We’ve launched a social network for ABC Learning Centres you see, and I think it’s pretty on the mark in terms of community engagement and potential results. It’s called Childcare Chat. All the boxes are ticked - transparency (tick), involving an existing community of interest instead of trying to concoct a fake one (Pimp My Noodle anyone?) tick, quick response times from the community managers (tick), engaging content (tick).

ABC Childcare Centres, if you weren’t already aware, have been through a rough patch of lately. (I’m being conservatively liberal with the term ‘rough patch’ there by the way. Saying ABC have been through a rough patch is a bit like saying General Motors is going through a little turbulence). After borrowing a heck of a lot of money to buy day care centres around the world (I think they have debts of $1.5 billion) the company is now in receivership and their hands are tied by the administrators who run the show. The ‘colourful’ (my liberal conservative use of adjectives continues) former CEO Eddy Groves no longer has anything to do with the organisation and the new management team is keen to move forward, but as bad press is about the only media coverage they get, life has been tough for their marketing department, even for an organisation that has a bigger presence and takes up more real estate in this country than McDonalds.

The core problem is that parents who have children at ABC are generally quite happy with the service (I’ve sat in on the research sessions myself and have seen their joy first-hand) but when they go to a barbecue and get asked about where they send their kids, the rumours and negativity have made it hard for them to justify their decision to their peers. Word of mouth has been identified as one of the biggest influencers for parents when it comes to deciding which centre they should send their kids to, but with such a huge amount of negative press around, finding positive reviews ain’t easy. The solution? A social network/video forum where parents, potential parents and staff can ask questions, share experiences and report problems. The result is www.childcarechat.com.au - take a peek, it’s open to the public.

Obviously by opening up lines of communication to anyone who wants to chat, ABC aren’t going to get all positive reviews (in fact, the balance has shifted towards the negative side), but most of the issues so far have come from former staff, or people who’ve had a misunderstanding. However, in the grand scheme of things, that doesn’t really matter. Potential parents  who wouldn’t ever consider going to an ABC Centre to check it out for themselves now have the opportunity to snoop online, and instead of seeing the usually corporate ‘we’re the best’ yaddah yaddah, spun from the desks of the PR people, they can see honest discussion about the company, its customers and its staff.

Not many corporations are willing to be that honest about themselves, but in the case of ABC, who don’t really have a lot to lose, it works out. The effect negative reviews had on online book sales was evaluated in a September 2005 study by researchers from the Yale School of Management. They, not surprisingly, found that mostly negative reviews for a product on a site like Amazon.com translates into less sales. However, if a book had a lot of positive reviews and a few negative ones thrown in the mix, customers appreciated the honest feedback, felt re-assured that the reviews weren’t rigged, and accepted the fact that you can’t please everyone. Negative reviews actually made them more likely to purchase the book.

Whilst buying a book is a completely different sort of purchasing decision to choosing a company to raise your first-born-child, the end goal of each consumer is the same - to find out what your peers think. The worst case scenario here for ABC is that people will read what they already know - that there are a few people out there with gripes about past practices, staff levels, wage rates and the like. At best, potential parents who would never have considered ABC as an option can jump online and see some honest stories from real parents who are actually quite happy with the level of care they get. Furthermore, existing customers can also take comfort knowing that they aren’t ‘bad’ parents for sending their kids to ABC and that they’re not alone. The end goal should be increased positive word of mouth and, ultimately, more enrolments.

Given that the site was only launched last week it’s too early to tell if we’ve achieved that yet, but in terms of providing a platform for community engagment that will ultimately lead to a better bottom-line for one of the largest commercial organisations in this country, Childcare Chat could well be one of the best uses of social media in Australia.

If you’re interested in reading more on the project, Nathan Bush (A.K.A. Another Advertising Wanker) played an integral part in the site’s development and he’s written up his take on it at his blog. Mumbrella also did a pre-launch article on it here. The Sydney Morning Herald ran a piece on it yesterday, which blogger Matt Crozier was quick to call out as a beat-up.

What do you think? Is a social media platform the right solution for ABC?

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