Kryptonite Argues Its Case

In at least three chapters, Naked Conversations mentions Kryptonite, the bike lock company, who failed to respond to a blogosphere frenzy in September 2004.  We cite them as an unglossed example in Chapter 10—Doing it Wrong.  We cover them yet again in our soon-to-be-posted Chapter 13 “Blogging in a Crisis,” as an example of the bad things that happen when a company doesn’t do exactly that.

We are guilty of having used online resources, particularly a Fortune Magazine article as our primary resources, never contacting the company itself. So they took the initiative and contacted us. Donna M. Tocci, Kryptonite’s PR manager, has proven do be anything but unresponsive.  She is clearly passionate and more of an authority on the subject than we are. Through a series of email conversations, she has argued her company’s case to us in compelling form revealing several insights we had not previously heard.

We want to know what you think.

Following are excerpts from our conversations taken from her email stiiched together from several emails that have vollleyed back-and-forth over the past several days. While we have extracted and stitched, we have taken care to remain true to her cont

Donna’s Comments:

In the first two-three weeks we worked 18-20 hour days, every day, to formulate a plan regarding the locks and reply to the folks that were coming to us - consumers, dealers, distributors and media.  Again, not being able to rewrite history, we just didn't have the man or woman power to go and answer every forum question or blogger comment - and there were quite a few, as you know.  As the weeks went on and I did comment on some inaccuracies, we were blasted for 'not getting it'.  Apparently, you aren't supposed to correct bloggers.Being new to the space, admittedly, we backed off a little bit at that time because, we really didn't need to rile up anyone else.

At that point, we were headed to our largest tradeshow of the year to talk to all of our dealers (a fact the blogosphere didn't know either) at the end of September where we were arguably one of the more busy booths.  We also were in the midst of the lock exchange program in the Fall, which, as I mentioned was and is our top priority.   To be honest, as we turned Fall into Winter and then into Spring we wanted to move past this issue and was stirring up the hornet's nest worth it?  We did talk to some media who are active online in the Spring just to give them an update and explain some of the inaccuracies.  Most wasn't printed because of the sensational aspect of the 'disaster' back in September, which was rehashed.  So much for that plan.”

***

“Saying that if we had a blog back in September may have helped our situation is probably a correct statement.  Saying that we wouldn't have been working 18-20 hours a day because we had a blog is not accurate. Communicating to our customers was only one piece, albeit an important piece, of the equation.  Remember, we still had to get new locks into production 4 months before schedule, find a way to ship them here from Asia, get a registration program in place,  figure out how to get locks to consumers, dealers and distributors and get all the software programs to 'play nice' together.  We did all this by working all those hours.  We did most of  that all in 8 business days.

“We also have many customers that, believe it or not, do not follow blogs or forums for whatever reason.  Those customers continued to call and email.  Distributors, dealers, consumers and media all needed individual attention, and got it from us.   They also relied on traditional media, who were still calling and emailing us at a rapid rate at that point.  You both know, from  years of experience, that the media want their own story.  There is only so much they will pick up from a blog or website- they want a scoop.  They need to talk to you in person.  Get a quote that is all their own.  And they got it from either me or from the head of Action Sports.

***

“As you mentioned in your chapter, yes, there were lots of meetings and lots of planning before we announced our full plan.  Countless.  However, please give this a thought - if we didn't have all of our ducks in a row, announced the plan and then couldn't follow through with that plan for whatever reason (manufacturing, shipping, software) what would have been good about that?  Don't you think that would have made the issue even worse?  We absolutely did.

So...would a blog have helped?  To your point, quite possibly.  Would it have solved our issues?  No.

As for showing our customers we care well, again, we might differ on this point.  We may not have communicated as well as we should have in September (you are thinking 'understatement'), but what we did do and have continued to do is stand by our customers, all of our customers, without exception.

That got lost along the way as people have been using us as an example of what not to do.  How about what we did do?  We were not the only company that used tubular cylinders.  However, we are the only company that has implemented a plan of this magnitude worldwide.  We stopped selling all tubular cylinder products immediately, including ones that were not effected.  We have replaced hundreds of thousands of locks worldwide, much to the delight of the majority of our customers.   Imagine having a 15-20
year old lock, that you have used regularly, being replaced with a brand new one at no cost to you.

A point where I'd agree with you in your chapter is that there wasn't as much detailed coverage about the lock exchange program in the media or on blogs as there was of the 'crisis'.  Why?  Again, with your collective experience, you understand that controversy 'sells'.  Turn on your local news at night.  How many good stories do you see?  Or is it all about crime, death, accidents, fires etc?  I'll bet you don't see stories on too many of the good things that are happening every single day in your community.  Same thing on blogs.  When they were railing on Kryptonite there were hundreds of comments.  When Kryptonite stepped up to the plate, not so much.  And that isn't just about Kryptonite, we are but one example. It is, sadly, something that happens all the time.  I hardly ever turn on my local news because of this; it's too depressing.  World news isn't much better now is it?

I have learned enough to know that the blogosphere is huge and one person can't respond to every single blog entry about a company in the midst of a crisis.  Especially if they don't have their own blog.  What one person, or a small company, can do it research, before a crisis hits, which is always a time challenge, isn't it? But now more important than ever!   In that research, identify a list of folks to keep informed should a crisis hit - traditional media as well as recognized, credible bloggers.  At least that is what we've done.  Might still not be 'right', but we are getting there.)

***

We asked Donna a few questions:

1. I see you are now carefully watching the blogosphere for comments on your company.  When did you start doing so and why?

Yes, we do watch the blogosphere pretty closely.  We've watched blogs and forums for awhile, even previous to September [when the Kryptonite crisis occurred], however, it is a much bigger part of my weekly activities since then.  Watching and monitoring what is being said is one thing, jumping into it is another.  Blogs are a new adventure and there is a learning curve. I visit about 20 blogs daily, just like I go to bicycleretailer.com or bikebiz.com or any other information source.  Yours is on that list, by the way.  I also go to some of the blog search engines and look for tidbits of information that we might want to monitor.

There is a lot of incorrect information out there about the issue in September and, personally, that gets frustrating to read over and over. For example, all of this didn't start with a blogger at all.  What I find interesting is that so many people in the blogosphere have told our story with such certainty, yet have never contacted me or asked for any of the correct information.  I'm more than happy to share our information - good or bad, which is why I'm so glad you emailed today.  Generally, I look at it like a game of telephone when I was a kid....you say something to the person next to you, who repeats it to the person next to them and so on and so on.  By the time the 10th person hears it and recites it, it's been changed, but taken as fact.  Then that 'fact' is repeated again and again.

2. Is Kryptonite considering starting a blog? Why or why not?

We have tossed around the idea of creating a Kryptonite blog in the last few months.  At first we decided against it  because would anyone really want to hear about locks all the time?  Truly, think about that.  A large company like Microsoft has a variety of things to talk about, but a lock company?  A month or so later, we revisited the idea and came up with a few variations of 'just locks', but then  the 'who' is an issue.  We only have 25 people here at Kryptonite.  Although this is still a learning process for us, we do know that if we ever did a blog, it couldn't come from me, the dreaded PR person.  So, in a long, round about way, the answer is 'not at this time."  We haven't given up on the idea, but for now, we are still focusing on getting all of the new locks out to our customers, which has been our top priority all along.

At the risk of being 'too PR' I do want to tell you that in nine months we have replaced over 350,000 locks to consumers, dealers and distributors worldwide.  Does that matter?  To the blogosphere, I don't know, but it matters very much to us, because, at the end of the day, and in the middle of the day and at the beginning of the day, we do care about our customers. End "PR Speak."

  3. Knowing what you now know, how would Kryptonite have responded to the
      BIC picking revelation today as opposed to how you handled it when
      the story broke?

I'm so glad you asked me this.  To answer it correctly, let me go backwards for a minute.  It's been said, over and over, that Kryptonite "ignored" the issue for days until some article or other came out and 'made' us look at the issue.  There's that game of telephone again.  The first day of the claim that 'all Kryptonite locks' were bad we quickly looked into it to see if there was any validity to it.    At that time we also answered any emails that came in about this claim that we were working on the possible issue and would get back to them within 24-48 hours.  Now, in hindsight, maybe we should have posted this statement on the website. But, at the time, we didn't know what the potential issue was, if there was any issue at all.   All the talk of us 'knowing' about this for years simply is not true.

The next two days were spent fielding calls from customers and reporters - yes, I was talking to the media right from the beginning.  I fielded over a hundred media requests in that first week.  Our customer service team talked or wrote to all consumers that called or emailed in those first few days. Most important, we needed to formulate a plan for our customers and began to do so.  We put out formal statements to the media by mid-week (you are thinking 'archaic', but I can't change history) and by the end of the week with a plan outline (day 4 and 5), which also went on our website.  I know people wanted answers more quickly because the Internet is just about real time.  However, the back end logistics of putting something like a lock exchange program together are quite detailed.     Could we have posted information by earlier on our site?  Sure.  It still would have been basically 'we're working on it'.

Yes, we could have posted to the website earlier, but other than that, there wasn't much different we could do.  We made the conscious decision to not answer questions on forums for a few reasons.  Most of our communications to consumers via email or telephone were posted to forums almost immediately.  If you'd like to talk more about all of this or get more details, just give me a ring and I'll be happy to talk to you about it.  I just envision your eyes glazing over at this point in this long email!

As for what we'd do completely different now, I can say that while we were a casual observer of blogs before, we're now starting to create relationships with some bloggers.  Not to push our information on, but just to start a dialog and have an open line of communication.  If, goodness forbid, something like this happens again, I'd hope either those folks would come to me for information or I could give them correct information and they'd decide if they wanted to talk about it or not.

We have asked our publisher to hold off on Chapter 10 pending revisions.  We are holding off on revisions until we hear from you.

Comments

[shel Israel]

Chris,

From a personal point of view, I would probably buy a Kryptonite lock and trust the company. But I wouldn't buy anything from Kensington. Kryptonite made good. Some bloggers reported on it and the exchange program (Yes Casey--the exchange is still going on. Contact the company)showed they were committed to customers. Several major bloggers did indeed announce the exchange program. I could be wrong, but I recall both Steve Rubel and Scoble among them.

[Jake]

I tend to agree with Chris. As someone who does this kind of work for a living (company to community relations), I know all too well how often the facts don't matter because the emotion has taken over.

Hell, Scoble probably knows this better than anyone - one tiny misstep and it's "Evil Microsoft". They could do 1000 things right, and one only partially wrong and they'll get lambasted because bloggers love to lambast people they don't like.

I really wonder how much of the Kryptonite story was overdone simply because of who "found" the problem - Phil Torrone (sp?), everyone's favorite gadget guru. Had it been some unknown blogger like me, would it have generated the same emotional charge? Maybe, but probably not.

As I mentioned on my blog (links above), I think that, and this is important, *when I interviewed Tocci* her mind wasn't in the right place. But after reading her more recent comments above, I have to say that I'm impressed. I feel like she's really learned something out of all of this. Perhaps it's not what geekboys like Anonymous Coward wants to hear ("We're sorry, we suck, we should have had a blog, and that would have solved our problems, including the design flaws"), but it's still good stuff and professionals in the business will recognize that.

I think that this story is more of a case study about emotion in the blogosphere than it is doing or not doing things right. Chris is right that this story should absolutely stay, but don't give into the hype and rumor mill when deciding how to write about it.

Off to download the chapter now.

[Nick Davis]

Todd V: I guess I'm making a leap here in my argument, but I have a VERY strong suspicion that the decision not to communicate was driven by a legal team rather than someone with the customers' best interest in mind.

[Jeremy Wright]

Jake: Agreed on emotion in the blogosphere. I've been the victim of this a few times, and it's never fun to have half of blogging come down on you for something that didn't even happen :)

[Todd V.]

Nick, I wouldn't be at all surprised if that's the case... As long as PR people are held in *slightly* higher regard than lawyers... :-/

[Jake]

Nick, I find it amusing that you're basically saying that blogging = communicating. Tocci said numerous times that her team was very responsive via phone and email, as well as posting things on their Web site within a few days.

Perhaps this isn't perfect (I guess they could have posted something on their site faster, but even that has problems), but it's far from not communicating at all.

And as far as your point about lawyers vs. customer-minded folks... ugh. You do realize that if a company gets sued and has business problems because of it, it doesn't do the business OR the customers any good, right?

(And this from a guy who fights nearly every day with lawyers about opening up the kimono a bit more)

Robert and Shel, I'll say it again - I think this story, as you can clearly see from the comments here, is as much a story of how badly the blogosphere can distort things as it is a story about what Kryptonite did wrong.

[Donna Tocci]

I’ve been watching all of your comments for the last 24hours. Should I have posted sooner? Ah, there is the question that I’m sure you will debate. :)

There is certainly a lot of passion in all of your comments, which is great. I’ve learned many things, one being that you all really don’t like PR people. I suggested a title change to Shel to “Old PR Dog Learning New Tricks”. Now, before you all say ‘see, she’s trying to trick us!’, there isn’t any hidden meaning there – I am a dog person, have always like the quote and think it might apply. Life is a learning process and I enjoy learning new things every day. Most of you have taught me a thing or two, but I do want to comment on a couple of things.

1. “You can make some of the people happy some of the time, but you can’t make all of the people happy all of the time”, I believe is the quote. We/I understand that. Some of you will never agree that we did anything right, even now. Some, like Bob, think we did at least something right – he’s a customer of ours and he has three brand new locks.

2. Although some of you won’t like this, I am going to correct one thing, not because I’m defensive but because it is a fact. I think you all agree that Kryptonite could have posted information to its website earlier. However, saying that we didn’t post information at all, isn’t accurate. As I stated earlier, we had information on the site from day 3 or 4 of learning of the concern, day 5 we had an outline of a plan posted on the website with information stating that the full plan would be on the site three business days from then (day 8). To help people find that information we had a big red button marked “URGENT” and verbiage about tubular cylinders, which I don’t have in front of me right now, which was located on our ‘welcome’ page so anyone entering the site would know immediately where to go. On business day 8 (or 10 total), not only did we have the full plan posted, but also an update on the situation and FAQs as well as the registration form.

If you look at any of the blog trackings from that time, you will see that the spikes in Kryptonite blog chat were on business day 7 and 8. Anyone learning about the issue on a blog then could click to our site and find the information they needed.
Interestingly, we did have a comment on there that we apologized for any inconvenience to our customers. Maybe not what you were looking for exactly, but I can’t change history.

3. It was never my intention by contacting Shel and Robert to ask them not to be in the book they are writing. Many companies need to be aware of the blogosphere and how it can impact a company and Kryptonite is a very good example of that. Carlton over at bikebiz.com wrote an article recently titled “Kryptonite wedded to the B Word”. It’s an appropriate title. Shel and Robert have both been very open minded and interested in what this old dog has to say. Whenever you have both sides to a debate, the piece is always better, whether you believe one side or the other or neither!

4. Casey – yes, the lock exchange program is still very much active. Go to www.kryptonite.com, enter the site and you will see the links for the registration form right on our welcome page.

5. Oscar – send some of that chocolate my way!

[shel Israel]

For the record--Donna has in no way argued that we should not include the Kryptonite story in our book. She has argued that we need to get our facts straight, and in that light I must agree with her. Each time she speaks, I get more information that I had wrong. I did not know that during this crisis, the Kryptonite site was getting updated regularly.

[Jake]

The article on bikebiz.com that Donna references can be found here:

http://www.bikebiz.com/daily-news/article.php?id=5558

[Jake]

Sorry to keep posting about this, but I'm finding it absolutely fascinating!

After reviewing some of the articles on that bikebiz.com site, it's interesting to see how incredibly poorly the Kryptonite competition responded to this tublar lock issue. Look at Master Lock's reaction, for instance:

http://www.bikebiz.co.uk/daily-news/article.php?id=4739

Very interesting stuff.

[Tim]

She wriggles, she writhes...it's just never your fault is it Ms. Tocci? Hmm, is it a case of 'old PR dog learning new tricks' or 'PR fish hooked fair & square'?

Presumably her stance emerges from the view that accepting responsibility for Kryptonite's shortcomings is to admit to some sort of culpability in this whole fiasco? Maybe the lawyers are pulling the strings behind Ms. Tocci's pleadings?

If markets are conversations, then corporate mouthpieces like Ms. Tocci have a long way to go until they can speak fluently in the fabled 'human voice', methinks.

Finally, instead of misquoting Abraham Lincoln, Ms. Tocci could learn a lot from what he really said, "You may fool all of the people some of the time; you can even fool some of the people all of the time; but you can't fool all of the people all of the time." Nobody is being fooled here - there's well-deserved egg stuck all over Kryptonite's corporate visage that'll take a a good while to scrub off...

Ms. Tocci, you haven't learnt a damn thing.

[Andrew]

Still, my biggest issue as a designer is that Kryptonite, as a company has cut so many corners with their site design.

If you had component designers on your staff (I meant web here, but could be applied to product as well) there would have been no problem.

Now a year later, you site does not meet web standards (http://validator.w3.org/check?verbose=1&uri=http%3A//www.kryptonitelock.com/inetisscripts/abtinetis.exe/templateform@public%3Ftn%3Dhome_home) and has a primary purpose of not selling locks or spreading information but instead still dealing with the issue of replacement.

A qualified designer is the main problem to why you failed to contact the public, not the lack of a blog as discussed before.

If you had hired a designer, not just tried to get a cut rate slackjob to to your site, it would have been a lot better on your part.

At least you can admit that.

[Andrew]

I just did a bit of searching around. When is the last time that Kryptonite had a different look for their site? It has had the same design since Dec 04, 2000. Pretty amazing huh? So when crisis happens, "Hey, get that number of the guy who knows the passwords from 4 years ago!" This site, I almost guarantee, is STILL run internally.

A company living in the stone ages when it comes to the web, trying to pretend that they are on top of it.

[Jake]

Ha ha ha ha! Andrew and Tim, you both made me laugh outloud with your points.

Tim said: "If markets are conversations, then corporate mouthpieces like Ms. Tocci have a long way to go until they can speak fluently in the fabled 'human voice', methinks."

A conversation, my friend, is a two-way dialogue. That means YOU have to listen as much as THEY have to listen. When the Cluetrain Manifesto (the book where you get markets as conversations) was written, it wasn't just about consumers screaming at companies and companies doing everything they say. It's about both parties understanding BOTH sides of the coin. Something you, in your zeal, are failing to do.

Andrew, while design can certainly improve Web conversation, saying that the reasons they had problems was based on the fact that their Web site doesn't met Web standards is just ridiculous.

People, try to open your minds even just a little to see the full picture. Kryptonite has ways to go still, whether they full grasp the problems or solutions is certainly a valid debate. Donna saying "some of your data is incorrect" DOES NOT equal her saying "I'm right, you're wrong".

You guys are smarter than this.

[Andrew]

Jake,

The standards comment was just pointing out

A) They didn't have a web guy on staff that would look at these obvious things (no alt tags for gods sake).
B) When they were in crunch mode, they very well didn't know how to update it.

And finally, a year after the mess, they still don't have a web guy (hence, the standards comment).

[Jake]

Dude, they're a company of 25! How many product manufacturers do you know with a staff of 25 that have a dedicated person for Web development??

Now, if you said something about how they needed to hire a Web firm to improve their site, fine. But saying/demanding that they hire a Web person full-time is a little ridiculous.

Besides, your point is mostly flawed anyway. You're saying that you if they'd had a Web person on staff, they could have posted information faster. But they were posting information on day 3. Now considering it would take at least ONE day to assess the situation, probably more like two, they posted information nearly immediately.

Are you just having fun bashing them for a bad site design (which I completely agree is pretty bad), or is there some point I'm missing about how their site really did tie into their problems?

(By the way, the first google search result for "kryptonite" is now their lock exchange program)

[Andrew]

Why am I still ranting? It is a combo of many things. I used to do web and print design for companies much like this. I had to justify my job as a designer every single time I presented. Every single time. I work in PR now. I worked as a freelance designer for 3 years.

It is just discouraging that a company that had such a major event doesn't see the need to hire a designer. Still.

[Donna Tocci]

Tim - I apologize for misquoting Abe Lincoln and thank you for pointing that mistake out. I always liked Abe, in theory, and wouldn't want to misquote him. Thanks for teaching me something. However, just like my 'old dog learning new tricks' isn't meant to say I'm trying to trick anyone, I also am not trying to fool anyone about anything. Sorry you still feel that way.

As for our website, Andrew... yes, it is discouraging that it still is focusing on the tubular key issue! I completely agree that it needs to be updated. It will be.

However, 'it's not what you say, but how you say it' (which is what my mother tells me all the time so I know I'm not misquoting there!). Asking why the site is like it is because you have no facts about it is one thing. Harping on it with no facts is another.

Andrew, I'm sorry you had to justify your job every 10 minutes, that must have been beyond frustrating. I have to think some of your frustration is misplaced here, though.

Unfortunately, I can't comment on why our website is like this right now. It will be changed as soon as we can change it.

Let's all enjoy the rest of our weekend!

[Geoff]

A great conversation Donna. Thanks Shel for organising it and to all the commentors. This is what makes blogging worth while to me. I'm just sorry that Donna can't make it to our Social World Conference.

[Chris Brennan]

Sorry I'm commenting so late after your post.

I just wanted to add that I'm the person who broke this story (google my name if you like). I wasn't contacted by anyone representing Kryptonite before OR after my having decided to go public with the information.

If you'd like to talk to someone from the other side of the story who has information on the subject, drop me a line.

Cheers!

[JEROGatch]

VIDEOSLONG VIDEOSLONG VIDEOSLONG VIDEOSLONG

[Wes Groleau]

Well, if we're going to misquote, let's add a little:

"...and you can please some of the people NONE of the time."

In Wired, who put egg on "C.B.'s" face, Wired? or himself? when they quoted him blasting Kryptonite for not replacing the product--immediately following the paragraph that described the replacement program.