Recently, a State Farm marketing exec advised students of at the NSAC conference this year, "You can't stop the conversation - you have to let it play out and try to respond as quickly as possible." In regards to twitter communications, all it takes is one frustrated customer tweeting at the counter to get attention.
Though I myself haven't had much interaction as a consumer with brands on Twitter, today was one of my first experiences and I have to say, one of the most impressive.
I recently was involved in a car accident that has left me car-less for the past few days. My insurance company arranged for me to get a rental car from Enterprise. Through poor staffing, pickup from my home would have been long delayed. Upon arranging my own ride and arriving at the location, I had to wait for a considerable amount of time and wasn't told to bring the appropriate paperwork. While I waited, frustrated, at the counter, I tweeted: "having a bad experience at enterprise, trying to rent a car." After telling the associate of my frustration, she apologized and made sure I was more than satisfied with my rental. Everything from that point went without fault.
I returned to Twitter only an hour and a half after to find that I had been contacted by an Enterprise associate asking what went wrong, and how they could help. Only an hour and a half, and one tweet! I was really impressed with Enterprise's monitoring of their brand on Twitter. I explained that I was satisfied. That's when I realized that, as consumers, we have an obligation to report the conclusions after we complain. I tweeted my admiration of Enterprise's online support and gave credit where credit was due. It's my own fault for not tweeting that everything was resolved afterward. So before you send that angry tweet, prepare yourself for two responsibilities after the fact...
1. You're responsible to report the conclusion. Your followers and others finding brand representations online need the whole story, not just your initial dissatisfaction.
2. Give credit where credit is due. Don't ignore any attempts to make the situation right online. Even if you aren't satisfied, if someone contacts you to ask why you were not satisfied, you owe it to them to thank them for their attempts. Chances are, if you've had a problem with one associate, that's not an accurate representation of the company as a whole. Thank them for what they do well and return or don't return; you decide with your money how satisfied you are. However, don't disregard the company if it's trying to help you out.
So, well done, Enterprise! We'll see how the rest of this transaction plays out, but as for now, your associate's responsiveness and your online outreach are very impressive to me!
No comments:
Post a Comment