Social Media and Customer Service – Long on Promise, Short on Delivery.

by vergenewmedia on February 28, 2010 · View Comments

Free Social Media Strategy Advice

Here’s some FREE social media expertise. As such, it’s likely valued similarly, but just as useful as any other “thought leadership” floating around out there. Here’s the deal: If you’re a brand using social media to field customer service complaints on Twitter or Facebook, make sure the other links in your customer service chain are as dedicated, sophisticated, responsive, and dogged as you are. What good is it if your company is out there patting the heads of us poor consumers, putting your reassuring arms around us on Twitter, just to leave us victim to your Kafkaesque customer service?  I’m not alone on this one.  Right Place Marketing asks: Are You Using Social Media as an Excuse for Poor Customer Service?

..are they merely doing good PR by handling public, highly-visible complaints with a fast, courteous response, while the rest of their customers are sitting on hold listening to the endless easy-listening loop?

- Right Place Marketing

three year old Kenmore HE2 dryer with failed heating element

dryer that doesn't dry.

Now much of this rant is the result of being betrayed by the dryer pictured here, my subsequent grumblings to a yet-to-respond publicly [REDACTED] and the resulting odyssey that has ensued.  While @scottfmurphy has been incredibly helpful and sincere,  the rubber meets the road part of our customer service experience has been unimpressive… infuriating in fact.   But that’s sometimes how this stuff works.   So I won’t bore you with our garden variety consumer woes.  My point is, for all the self congratulatory social media back slapping that goes on, much of it is undeserved.  Many of these efforts appear, by design, simply a means to squelch negative Twitter mentions.

And The Noisy Shall Be Heard – If They Have A Lot of Followers

Flickr photo courtesey of Carol Browne

Once a customer service complaint has reached the Twitters, your customer service team has likely failed.  It’s the online equivalent of  “I will not leave this store and I will stand here shouting at the cash register until I speak to the manager!”  The effectiveness of this strategy appears directly proportional to the number of followers you have on Twitter.  Enter Kevin Smith.

So when your social media complaints department responds with “gosh, so sorry to hear you’ve had this experience.  we’re going to get to the bottom of this.”  – that’s just PR.  That makes YOU look good in the near term, but it doesn’t make us feel good. More importantly it doesn’t make the customer whole.

Do It Right or Don’t Bother

So to all of you much blogged about, case study panel sittin’, social media – customer service darling brands – I say this: don’t write social media checks the rest of the customer service chain can’t cash.

Dryer Update

The heating element arrived from [REDACTED] yesterday (3/1) and the tech came out to make the repair not long after.  Minutes after he left, ANOTHER heating element arrived, so I’ll save that one (unless [REDACTED] asks for it back) in case this one fails.  [REDACTED] executive office of customer service called to make sure that we were satisfied with the work.

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{ 114 comments… read them below or add one }

1 DShan March 10, 2010 at 4:10 pm

A great anecdote, and as I tweeted I’m contemplating ways I might use some of this thought in our conversations with new partners to 20 Something Bloggers. They’re constantly asking me for numbers and demographics, while I’m constantly asking them for their goals. Often they get a lot more traction if we know what they want to say, and we go find young adults who are INTERESTED in helping them say it, regardless of their audience size.

On this I do agree with Monica O’Brien, in that Influencers have a role to play. I see it in real-time with young adults, anyway; there are people driving action and buying decisions. Sentiment. Attitude. It often has very little to do with money or audience size and more to do with attitude or confidence.

What I’ve found interesting within our blogger community is how the marriage of these two ‘ideas’ about influence actually come together; I constantly see a specific message/brand/campaign turn an otherwise un-engaged blogger/young adult into an influencer. It’s that sweet spot that Monica touched on; the current advocates and customers you have that may have ignored all the other noise coming at them but turn around a rally their community around your particular message. That always happens when the companies I work with pull together a campaign or idea that really shows their current customers that they care about them.
DShan´s last blog ..A Calendar Of Question Marks

This comment was originally posted on altitudebranding.com

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2 DJ Waldow March 10, 2010 at 6:30 pm

Amber –

Thanks for making me laugh out loud at the end of my day.

“…we might not get stuck treating jackasses on the internet like deities, or chasing after dingbats with a zillion twitter followers but little substance or integrity themselves.”

Summer –

Time to get yourself a gravatar!

DJ Waldow
Director of Community, Blue Sky Factory
@djwaldow
DJ Waldow´s last blog ..Nerds, Dorks, Geeks, and Cool Dudes

This comment was originally posted on altitudebranding.com

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3 Jeff Sefton March 10, 2010 at 7:13 pm

Got it!

This comment was originally posted on altitudebranding.com

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4 Bobby Rettew March 12, 2010 at 12:57 am

Thank you for this little story. You write so well!

BR
Bobby Rettew´s last blog ..Time to explore the universe beyond Flash!

This comment was originally posted on altitudebranding.com

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5 Recruiting Animal March 12, 2010 at 7:02 am

The little people follow the big guys @AmberCadabra – @tferriss sez a review by 1 Big Influencer made him #1 – http://is.gd/aktby

This comment was originally posted on altitudebranding.com

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6 Lance Puig March 12, 2010 at 12:50 pm

I like that. What an awesome way to encourage some respect among people.

This comment was originally posted on altitudebranding.com

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7 tramadol June 18, 2010 at 11:47 pm

If a marketer use social media in smart way , then it is must that he will surely get profit from it.

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8 Phil June 20, 2010 at 2:31 am

Social media needs time and you should have enough skills to use it in right way to get maximum out of it

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9 Phil June 20, 2010 at 8:31 am

Social media needs time and you should have enough skills to use it in right way to get maximum out of it

Reply

10 Phil June 20, 2010 at 8:31 am

Social media needs time and you should have enough skills to use it in right way to get maximum out of it

Reply

11 Phil June 20, 2010 at 8:31 am

Social media needs time and you should have enough skills to use it in right way to get maximum out of it

Reply

12 Phil June 20, 2010 at 8:31 am

Social media needs time and you should have enough skills to use it in right way to get maximum out of it

Reply

13 Phil June 20, 2010 at 8:31 am

Social media needs time and you should have enough skills to use it in right way to get maximum out of it

Reply

14 Phil June 20, 2010 at 8:31 am

Social media needs time and you should have enough skills to use it in right way to get maximum out of it

Reply

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