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I was live broadcasting my kenmore repair call - they didn't show up four times in a row - my washing machine has been broken for a month and we are running out of patience. So, I greeted him at the door with my N95 - this was after a frustrating call with the customer service center to find out why the guy was an hour late.
I shouldn't take it out on the repairman but he threated to leave without fixing my machine if I continued to live broadcast .. he has not idea that I'm twittering about Sears/Kenmore's crappy customer service. And, I suspect Kenmore/Sears is not monitoring Twitter (or qik)
Must be in the water today. Seth posts here about a poor experience with customer service at Herseys (http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2008/04...) and B.L. Ochman here about a great experience with Zappos (http://www.whatsnextblog.com/archives/2008/04/w...). The whole unified comms crowd is discussing customer service and the all center. It seems to me that the real discussion is: what is your story? who is telling the story? how are they telling the story? If the marketing team says one thing, but the phone is answered by someone who didn't get the release -- your're screwed.
ahg3
As someone who is still working in Customer Service as a Rep (which is a job I want to get out of) I find that the more ways to get in contact with a human person is much better than just the phone.
I'm not sure what businesses I would prefer to reach me online, but I would say any big company that adopts the online communication that we are used to, makes me sit up and take more notice. I also might be willing to talk to Customer Service more because of that.
That's my two cents anyway.
Steve "Snowball" Saylor
Here's what I did instead. I got on Twitter and complained about Verizon (http://tinyurl.com/68yytj) like I see people doing all the time about one company or another. Do I expect Verizon to hear me? No, but I get more satisfaction out of knowing that tweet (1) will actually be read by someone who cares about me and (2) might hurt Verizon in some little way.
It would be pretty easy for Verizon to set up a tweetscan, then respond to people who complain, and thank people who compliment. Case in point (and this is by no means a comparison): I asked Twitter today if anyone was on Disqus and Blogger because I was having a problem. Within an hour, Daniel from Disqus tweeted back with his email adress and offered to help.
Sorry for the lengthy story. I guess you struck me at the right moment. Thanks Chris, relevant topic and great post, as always.
So with the volume of the customer voice skyrocketing within the social media channel it goes without saying that answering the "social media call" makes perfect sense.
Chris, this is a great topic. Looking forward to further discussion on it.
Cheers.
David Alston
Radian6
To take it a step further: monitoring what people are saying about you on blogs/forums/FB/Twitter/etc is good, but it's reactionary and can be improved upon.
Better to get involved in those communities and get customers to seek you out there. Put a face on your company via a customer service or employee blog/forum/Twitter acct/whatever (first example that comes to mind: Matt Cutts' blog). Make it known to customers (or at least make it known to customer segments who are likely to want to interact with you there).
That way, you're acting as a magnet for customers who want to interact with you that way, rather than always having to "track them down" online to get them answers (often before someone else gives an inaccurate one).
I see a lot of larger companies having difficulty with this because it requires that the individual/s tasked with providing customer service via these channels be far more empowered than in many traditional CS mediums. It's one thing to escalate an inbound phone call, but Tweeting someone to say "let me ask my supervisor about that" just doesn't work IMHO.
For companies with a culture of employee empowerment and providing outstanding customer service, it's well worth the time and effort to get involved in new communication channels with your customers.
So yes, various channels are good, IF a website is selling a product and the client is ON it.
Saying that I've come full circle to enjoying the phone more again now. As an example I've been working with a client on some SEO for them where there is around 10 people using AOL chat, all with a vested interest in the project, but not so savvy about SEO, and sometimes you can't beat the sound of a voice to make the point so I'll dial the number.
People need emotions.
I think there are TONS of ways this can be viewed. Who's blogging good customer service stuff these days? Who are YOU reading?
Perhaps I am naive to believe that any company not taking advantage of every channel available to them to ensure their customers are satisfied, (or at least, not complaining)is missing the point. In my short time of using social media in my everyday life I have signed two long-term contracts with cellular providers based on feedback from twitter.(Also, I have NOT signed 2 for the same reason) If a potential customer already believes they are going to have a positive experience when they commit to a service, the company just has to do what it does best. If a company can minimize the impact of the inevitable customer service fumble by employing people to monitor and interact with the rapidly growing social media space, they will be rewarded with the perception that they do care about customer service. I for one am happy to give my money to companies who I believe care about my satisfaction. And I will tell everyone who will listen that I am happy with them.
Jeff
You know, it's this universal problem, across the board.
Someone comes up with a fantastic tool (Telephone) and it is used in a wonderful way (Call someone for help). But then the Society Brain sees this fantastic tool, and wonderful way, and embraces them to the point where they become institution and to break ..
Wait. This is starting to sound like a movie .. or a book .. or History. Heh heh.
The reason why it is in Illinois (they said) is that the local accents are somewhat 'neutral' and wages are lower than the bigger cities. The wages weren't great but it was steady work and a decent work environment and because of that we were in the right frame of mind to help people who were fustrated with either a defective product or the complicated features of the product.
What was essential, more than anything else, was to let the caller vent, once they had talked, the problem was often far less horrible to them than they had worked it up to be in their minds.
Having a way to vent, wether it be by phone or twitter seems to me to be a cost effective way of keeping customers coming back to the product.
I just lectured on this a bit in the Small Biz 100 series - What is the best channel to communicate with your customers? http://is.gd/4Rr
They didn't realise that there are people out there (I'm one of them) who prefer dealing in text and will happily send several e-mails back and forth if that's what it takes. (We're the same people who send half a dozen text messages to set up a coffee date!) If people want to make a phone call, they'll do that in the first place.
Your readers might want to try www.Measuredup.com a leading customer service review website where people share reviews with other users and with companies. Companies that are involved with and value customer service read Measuredup to keep up on what people are saying and to be able to improve customer service.
Your disputes could be resolved using MeasuredUp if the company you reviewed reads your review or another consumer could give you advice. When you have good things to say a company could reward you.
It is free and easy to use and your info is private.
I have tried some other sites that are also good but really like this one.
And then, seeing this phenomenon start to actually happen, I drafted up a comic that I'll try to get inked this weekend. :D Need inker to move in, dammit.
regards
sears parts