The following scenario is common if you were in college sororities: You upload a cute photo on Instagram where you are holding a drink. It could be a partially blurred beer bottle or an ambiguous red solo cup. Your sorority's standards committee quickly contacts you with the following message: "Hey girly!" It's a very cute photo, but can you please take it down? It is against the values of our sorority. You don't want to look bad at the PNMs!"The situation doesn't seem to be unique to srats. You might receive a request to remove your Tesla complaint via social media.Tesla Energy's solar power division, Tesla Energy has 20 employees who act as its own standards board. According to Business Insider former employees, it searches the internet for complaints about the company. It is instructed to "politely request customers to delete their complaints on social media."This goes well beyond product complaints. Insider was also told by an ex-employee that a separate group of nine people looked specifically for complaints about Musk. It's not a good look for potential new members, I mean potential customers, to make the head honcho look bad on the internet.Fair enough, it's not uncommon to have a dedicated team looking for complaints against a company. It's usually a good thing. It can be frustrating to deal with customer service department bureaucracy. Many customers turn to social media to grab attention from companies. While it is great to interact with customers online, asking them for their help in deleting any negative comments seems like an unnecessary step.Incongruously, an ex-employe in Tesla customer support also stated to Insider that they would suggest customers complain via social media if they needed faster service. The preferred Tesla method seems to be to tweet your disdain. But please take it down immediately, thanks.This is a very obsessive way of managing a brand's image on social media. It feels a little excessive for a company that has a CEO who tweets almost as recklessly as Elon Musk.Tesla shouldn't be telling their customers to leave comments that they don't want taken down, if they are going to act like a sorority in overdrive. The srat standards boards at least have clear guidelines!
