Walmart is making a move to create a unique places page for each and every Walmart store. The good news is that they plan on making the shopping experience more local with targeted deals and targeted market research. Great move on their part to create a test bed for electronic A/B engagements. Bad news is that fans tend express their negative experiences at Walmart on their facebook page. Don't believe me? Check it out.
So while Walmart sees the opportunity to locally market I see local store accountability and I am not sure they are set up to scale for that or accept that level of direct criticism. When a few thousand of the 9.45 million Walmart fans complains about a customer service issue or a store experience there is no real accountability. The posts cycle through the wall since they have a short 1/2 life with the sheer volume of posts that come in with that many fans. Soon you will be 'the local store' so someone has to address all of the complaints.
Dear Walmart, why do you run sales and never have the product? Totally frustratig 3 minutes ago via mobile
WHO IS GOING TO ADDRESS THEM? Store elvel managers? When the complaints went to the corporate page there was a minimal chance that I would see one from my local store. When I join and review my local Walmart page EVERY complaint will pertain to my local store. If they are not prepared to manage their communities they are going to create 1,000 local, relevant, public relation challenges. I applaud the tactical change and think there is a lot of great stuff that can come out of this effort. I hope they have a plan to improve the participation on their local store level pages once they are up and running.