I haven't been this excited about a concept for ages! I don't even know where to start.
So, I’ve been paying a company for a while even though their service has been unreliable. Why? Because I’m lazy and busy, and because they have monopoly on this kind of service.
Busy - yeah, I’ve got a job and typically don't have any free time Mon-Fri 8am-5pm. Lazy - I could call over the weekend, but just the idea of going through series of 'press 5 (if you have blue eyes)' or 'press 7 (if you want to speak to the machine)', etc..., made me feel so enraged, I couldn't get myself to do it. Even when I did call, I'd get transferred somewhere else or end up being hung up on or get an appointment for which I had to wait at home 1pm – 4pm for someone to show up. I'm sure you can relate.
Being busy and lazy, what was I to do? I’ll tell you what - I was to express my frustrations to anyone and anything that would listen.
And who listened? Twitter did!
Not only did it listen, it actually reacted through first I’ve heard of Twitter Workforce.
I'm not gonna mention the name of the company (Comcast), but it has a very lousy reputation. I think my first tweet was just a frustrated commentary on how it's the worst company in the whole wide world (WWW). I really felt that way.
My # (hash-tag) attracted attention of their workforce. Soon after @s followed.
Not only was this communication instantaneous, but also duh, I didn't need home internet for it. It was all over my phone either via twitter client or texting.
Am I paid to advertise Twitter or the cable company? No (not yet - if you're interested, please let me know, I'm willing and cheap). I'm just amazed how technology can and is changing perception.
Perception? Yes. Because, was my Internet fixed? Nope, it wasn't. For one whole week! Yet, am I a happy customer? Honestly, I think I may be.
Twitter workforce picked up my desperation tweet, responded to it, and actually did something about it. They setup an appointment for time that was convenient for me. In the meantime, we did a bit of troubleshooting over the tweets. They setup a customer service call for me – so THEY called me.
Not only did they call me (yes, I tweeted a lot), they had their 'Executive Customer Relations' people call me (yep, I got VIP treatment). Here's what they did for me:
- gave me a refund because they finally confirmed I've been paying for a service I wasn't using (despite the fact I've argued over the phone over and over again about how my bill is incorrect)
- when I asked them to refund 5 days loss of service they actually treated me like a human being and negotiated with me. I got 3 months free premium channel(s) instead of asking to speak with a supervisor. And YES, you should compensate your customers for disservice any time you cause it especially because they may end up paying for it after 3 months - happened to me: addicted to Torchwood :)
- arranged for their top experts to visit my home and actually diagnose the problem and fix it!
Could it be that (*insert company name here*) cares?
Apparently they care about fixing their online image.
And I, what do I care about? I care about being treated like someone cares. I care about having Internet service that's fast but also reliable. I care about getting an immediate response, even if it is: “Sorry for the trouble. DM the phone # on your acct. I'll check on this for you. “
If you're interested in reading more about this Twitter Workforce this BusinessWeek article from way back in 2009 talks about how this all began.
