It’s a brave new world for companies that deal in customer service. Guess who that is? Whether you like to admit it or not, it’s you. I don’t care if you’re a guard at a maximum security prison, you drive a mobile catering van, or you own a one person consulting firm with only one client. You’re involved in customer service. Someone pays the bills. Whether it’s a tax payer, a bunch of construction workers, or a benefactor, the cash is flowing. Chances are, you’d like to keep the flow that is pointed in your direction coming your way.
Having established that you have at least one customer, the real issue is that customers have expectations. Add social media to the mix, and there is a real chance for things to get out of control. It’s an exciting time to be in business. There’s a new type of mob mentality that is going to impact how companies and customers interact. Watching topics trend on Twitter causes me to think of the behavior of schools of fish. Add temperature variation, changes in habitat, food, or predators to the mix, and the group shifts direction and begins to behave differently.
Is your company aware of what’s going in the social media space? Especially in how it’s impacting the mob’s perception of your company? If not, you’re not just leaving money on the table, you’re taking it out of your wallet and giving it away. Worse, you’re allowing the mob to damage your brand. Some examples are in order.
At Apple’s recent WWDC (World Wide Developer’s Conference), the most excitement generated came from the iPhone 3Gs, a faster hand held device with some exciting features. One of those features is fully integrated multi-media text messaging – available on 29 carriers across the globe, but not on the AT&T network. Another highly anticipated feature is tethering, which allows you to plug your cell phone into your laptop’s USB port and connect to the Internet. Tethering, which replaces the plug-in card many cell phone carriers offer, is going to be allowed on 22 carriers offering the iPhone. Once again AT&T will not be supporting the feature.
Not only can you not buy the kind of publicity AT&T received when a large room full of developers starts spontaneously booing your corporate identity, the firestorm that erupted on-line was amazing to behold. The four character string “AT&T” jumped to the number one most tweeted about topic, and the pace was astounding. By the time you read twenty tweets that included “AT&T,” several hundred more tweets had been broadcast. AT&T managed to capture the imagination of the Twitter population in an instant. People who had no idea what tethering was prior to the WWDC were complaining about AT&T, and openly rooting for the company’s immanent demise. Thousands of tweets per hour poured out, and AT&T was silent.
AT&T’s failure to anticipate customer reaction is nothing new. I have been a customer of theirs twice in my life (including at the present). They do strange things that make no sense to me. As recently as 2008, they were telling me that I could not pay my bill on their Web site. Somehow they have my family cell phone account set up as a small business plan, and in spite of several requests to have the account changed to a personal account, they are unable to figure out the technology without forcing my wife and I to both receive new phone numbers. I have to reboot my “smart” phone two to three times a week or I lose Internet connectivity. But annoying an individual customer is nothing; AT&T is now receiving negative press from all the major news outlets because they cannot figure out how to release features that customers want when the rest of the world gets them (multi-media messaging), and are delaying others until they can figure out how to take more money from their customers (tethering will likely cost more than their already steep “unlimited” Internet plan).
What could AT&T done better?
Be more like Home Depot. Yes, the same Home Depot I dispairaged here. In that post, I complained about a their customer service failure across half a dozen stores in southern New Hampshire. After I tweeted about the post one time, Home Depot reached out and publicly apologized for what took place. Better yet, they promised to share my feedback with the stores who were impacted. I could tell from their representative’s replies that she had taken the time to read the blog article, and took it seriously enough to say the right things. She made me happy by replying effectively to a little read blog with a post complaining about her company.
This is important! You do not have to give things away to make it right when your company makes a mistake. Often a sincere apology with an articulate response saying what you will do to make it better in the future is enough. Home Depot’s representative managed to do that in two tweets. If she can do it in less than 280 characters, I think it is a great example of what to do when a customer service experience is brought into social media.
More importantly, AT&T should have been there. The conference was held in the USA, where AT&T is the exclusive distributor of the iPhone. They know the kind of fans Apple has. Spin control is so much easier when you start before your customers do. Instead, AT&T has pointed to the contract they have with their consumers. Their PR team is trying, but it’s been seven days since the firestorm erupted, and the four digits that comprise their name is still one of the top ten text strings being discussed on Twitter today.
Doing it Right
A lot of companies are getting proactive. Whether it’s Zappos and their legendary customer service (and who interacts with me when I tweet about how happy I am with my shoes), or Jet Blue’s attention to the Twittersphere, it is too simple to pay attention to what people are saying, and head the criticism off at the pass. In doing so, you take your weaknesses and create strength, turning detractors into fans. No one is more pleased with exceptional customer service than the person who expects to be disappointed – and ends up thrilled.
It’s easy, too. For Twitter, download Tweetdeck or Seesmic. Set up searches for your brand. Monitor the twit-stream for things to which you should be reacting. People love to complain about lousy service, and rarely will do it to your face. They’re disgruntled, and don’t expect you to be able to handle their complaint, anyway. They’d rather complain to your potential customers, and hurt you financially. Whether it’s fair or not, your detractors believe you harmed them.
So if it’s a taxpayer complaining that the prison you work at is unsafe for visitors, you want to know about it because someone might forward that tweet to the head of the appropriations panel. If you drive the meals on wheels truck, you could get creative and tweet when you hit the neighborhood. And if you are a consulting with only one client, you BETTER know what that person is talking about.
After all, it could be you.
