Bank of American just can’t seem to get it together – whether it’s social media PR flops or spewing lies to the American public. It’s been one thing after another and the banking giant needs to get a handle on it, before it’s too late.
Bank of America (BofA) clearly missed the mark with its recent social media PR flop – a New Jersey resident recently tweeted about being chased away by police after writing an anti-foreclosure message in front of a Manhattan branch. What happened next is as confusing as it is indicative of BofA’s lack of understanding of the wildfire that inept social media posts can cause. Following the original tweet and the additions of several fellow tweeters, BofA’s twitter account replied with tweets of its own – unfortunately the tweets were all eerily similar and failed to address the topic at hand:
Rather than appearing helpful (as we can assume was the intention) BofA’s responses looked as though they were generated by a “bot,” or a program that automatically responds to Twitter mentions. This mishap reinforced the public’s opinion of the institution as a “faceless, heartless conglomerate.” (2)
If that weren’t enough to dissuade the public from trusting in BofA, recently former employees of the banking giant have come out with shocking allegations:
Bank of America routinely denied qualified borrowers a chance to modify their loans to more affordable terms and paid cash bonuses to bank staffers for pushing homeowners into foreclosure.
“We were told to lie to customers,” said Simone Gordon, who worked in the bank’s loss mitigation department until February 2012. “Site leaders regularly told us that the more we delayed the HAMP [loan] modification process, the more fees Bank of America would collect.” (3)
Despite the sworn testimony of six former employees, BofA continues to deny all allegations. But unfortunately for BofA, it’s just too little, too late – the company’s credibility is all but lost.
Moral of the story: Public relations ceases to exist when bogged down by lies and robotic responses or people. Lies have no place in PR!
- Weissman, Saya. “Bank Of America’s Epic Twitter Fail.” Digiday.com. N.p., 11 July 2013. Web. 18 July 2013. digiday.com/brands/bank-of-americas-epic-twitter-fail/.
- Schoen, John. “Bank of America Former Employees: ‘We Were Told to Lie'” Nbcnews.com. NBC Universal, 17 June 2013. Web. 18 July 2013. nbcnews.com/business/bank-america-former-employees-we-were-told-lie-6C10351458.