by scheyney on July 7, 2009
Social media montoring is something that all companies should be doing. If people are talking about your company, positive or negative, you can either put your head in the sand or engage with it.
At my role at AccuQuote , I receive approximately a dozen cold calls per day. Usually I’m nice, but by the end of the day my patience is thin.
Today , I received a cold call from Michele at Ion Interactive about attending their sponsored landing page optimization seminar in downtown Chicago next week. I knew about it from their previous emails, and already knew we weren’t going to attend. When I declined the invite for myself (I’ll be out of town) and my team (who is up to their ears using Omniture’s Test and Target), she chuckled in a way that I received negatively before she hung up. Maybe I would have reacted differently earlier in the day… who knows.
I Tweeted about it, and got a response back from Michele within a few minutes! She appologized and asked what she could do for me.
It turns out that I had listened to a great Dishy Mix interview with their EVP, Anny Talerico, not too long ago. At Ion Interactive, they published a book called “Honest Seduction”, which has been highly recommended.
I asked for a copy of the book, and Michele was happy to send me a copy.
This is a perfect example of how monitoring the chatter about your company can turn a negative impression into a brand evangelist.
Ion Interactive and especially Michele,
Thank you!
by scheyney on August 7, 2009
Service Magic has generally been a good source of referrals for us. We’ve used them a couple of times in the past for other services, with generally excellent service from the contractors they have referred.
We moved last week (finally) and the first thing we did was have the carpets cleaned and have a cleaning service to scrub the place down before furniture and boxes were unloaded and unpacked. We used Service Magic to get referrals for a carpet cleaner, and after getting estimates and interviewing several companies we chose Kwik Klean (www.kwikklean.com). We chose that company because we were dealing directly with the owner and figured that he would give us good service since it was his own company. We were very, very wrong.
Immediately upon walking through our home, he wanted to charge us more than the agreed upon price for the small baseement space even though it was a room as part of the quote. After settling on the agreed upon price, Bob began to clean the carpet. My wife was surprised that none of the stains came out, and was disappointed that the carpet looked no better than before the cleaning. When I came home later in the day, it was clear to me that the carpet still appeared dirty.
The carpet in the house isn’t new, so we weren’t expected it to look like new when cleaned, but we were expecting the dirt to cleaned out. It’s been about 10 days, and we used Resolve on a couple of the stains, and the stains immediately came out. My wife called Bob to let him know, and Bob went on the defensive a little but finally agreed to check his schedule to see when he could come back out. At this point, nothing in the conversations were adversarial, but were simply discussions… then came the email.
I don’t care what kind of service business you have, laying into your customer via and email tirade is bad service at its worst.
Updated 9/18 – This issue has been resolved with Bob from Kwik Klean. Follow the comment string and you’ll see it was a complete misunderstanding that was blown out of proportion. Although well within my right to keep the email up, I’ve decided to take it down because everything is resolved.
by scheyney on July 8, 2009
Here is a great story shared in a humorous way.
http://www.davecarrollmusic.com/story/united-breaks-guitars
by scheyney on June 16, 2009
In business and in life, it’s not necessarily what things happen, but instead how you react to them. This goes for people as well as companies.
Last week I was on an American Airlines flight from Denver to Chicago. I was wiped out after a 5 day business conference in Colorado Springs, and I was hoping to get home on time so that I could kiss my kids goodnight.
The first sign that something was wrong was when I received the text message alert that the flight was 30 minutes late. By the time I checked in (2 hours before the flight), the delay had already reached 1 hour. After a quick lunch, I planted myself in a cubicle at the Admirals Club to get some work done. Every 15 minutes, my phone would buzz with another alert telling me the flight was delayed even longer.
Turns out there was a mechanical problem with the plane in Chicago. After trying to fix the plane, they ended up swapping aircraft. Instead of taking off from Denver at 3pm, we ended up leaving from Denver at 8pm. To American’s credit, they did try to accommodate me on another airline, but all of the seats were full.
I didn’t grumble too much (other than a few Tweets), and tried to look at the positive side. I’d rather have a fully functional airplane than a broken one. Also, I did manage to get a ton of work done in the Admirals Club.
Today (less than a week later), I received an unsolicited appology email from American Airlines along with a 5,000 mile frequent flier mileage credit. It’s this type of attention and focus on the customer that keeps me flying with American.
Thank you American Airlines!
by scheyney on January 14, 2009
Whenever you outsource anything in your business, you lose an apect of control. It’s an inherent risk with outsourcing, which is why chosing a partner is crucial.
I cancelled my Comcast account (triple play – phone, cable, internet) in early December, and switched to AT&T U-Verse due to better pricing along with a more robust product offering.
Part of the cancellation process involves returning the Comcast equipment. I had one cable box with remote and a cable modem to return. Comcast is supposed to send you a couple of boxes via DHL to return the equipment. It’s now been 5 weeks and 4 calls to Comcast, and I still have no boxes.
Last night, I called Comcast for the 4th time and they blamed the problem on DHL, saying that the box order was placed by Comcast and that DHL must have dropped the ball.
Am I frustrated with DHL right now? Well… a little bit, but most I’m mad at Comcast for not taking ownership of the problem and getting me the box so that I can return their equipment.
If DHL really is the problem (the rep wasn’t overly surprised the DHL dropped the ball), why does Comcast outsource to them?
Would you want your brand reputation in the hands of a company that continually damages it?
