‘Name & Shame Them’ Is A Popular Page Where Disgruntled Customers Expose Companies With Poor Products And Services

Many companies in Zimbabwe are notorious for the bad way they treat customers and getting away with it. But they might be prompted to change their behaviour with a new Facebook page that exposes them.

Name&Shame Them is a Facebook page where disgruntled customers or concerned citizens share about companies that provided them with poor services, products and unconvincing service delivery. The page is just 4 months old yet it’s getting so popular with many habitual Facebook users- already it has 16,689 members.

The page should make companies tremble because this is where their precious name will be tarnished and dragged in the mud. I decided to peruse just a few posts and my word, I was glued to my screen for roughly 30 minutes reading some incredible things that some folks encounter as customers.

How to join the Name and Shame Them group

Upon, clicking the “Join” icon of the page, you will be asked the reason why you want to join the page, which you must answer. You just wait for 5 minutes to see if your request to join the group has been granted or denied.

The growing power of social media

These days social media is now giving people the kind of visibility they never had when Newspapers, TV and radio were still ruling media. Therefore, people are choosing to exact justice fro their mistreatment by companies through social media. Social media shaming is now a trend everywhere and the bad thing about this is that it’s leading to mob justice where virtually every social media users get caught up in the frenzy and starts to badmouth a company thats been found wanting.

Companies would then need to do some damage control and do some serious Public Relations (PR) to change the public’s opinion. Just a week ago, World Remit was in hot soup when virtually everyone on Twitter jumped at its throat for refusing to remit Cyclone Idai’s donations. It managed to redeem its reputation by not only allowing the remittance of the donations but on top of that, it made its own donations (which I suspect is the price of its shame).

Unlike the controlled environment of a courtroom, the court of public opinion in which social media operates is a very different animal.