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Bloggers like C.C. Chapman and Michael Arrington complain in Twitter about the service they get from Comcast, a big cable company. Comcast responds and fixes their problem.
This is great, right? Comcast is listening and responding to the new media conversation. But is there a flip side to this? Is there a danger of those consumers who are not in the conversation becoming more disenfranchised.
Will the best customer service be reserved for those on the soapboxes?
Mentioned in this episode:
- Comcast Wins With Twitter on C.C. Chapman’s Managing The Gray
- Comcast, Twitter and the Chicken on Techcrunch
- Comcast on Twitter
- Technorati
- Google Alerts
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5 users responded in this post
Hi Jay,
I think you make good points, but I wouldn’t worry about people becoming disenfranchised as of yet.
In my mind, the twittering companies are dealing with problem directly and efficiently. So instead of C.C. spending 60 minutes on the phone, he spends 10 minutes on twitter to get the problem solved. (Add another 5-10% of early adopters who get their problems solved this way in the coming year or so.)
If companies relieved 5-10% of the calls coming into their customer care centers, couldn’t they get problems dealt with quicker because less people are waiting in line?
Plus, companies will then compare the two methods, learn from each other, become more efficient, etc.
For these reasons, I don’t think we need to worry about non-twitterers getting service. It will likely still take them longer, but less long than they’re used to.
Doesn’t this increase the competition among companies? i.e. Who can solve the problem the quickest? Who is using new technologies the most efficiently? In my mind, this type of competition has always proved useful for ALL consumers.
DJ, I think everything you say makes sense as long as the companies are looking at blog monitoring and such as being something over and above their basic level of customer service.
Hopefully this kind of interaction with the public will raise the bar on customer service in general. I thought Jen Zingsheim put it extremely well on the last episode of Media Bullseye Radio — “companies should treat EVERY customer like a Michael Arrington.” Amen!
Hey Jay,
I don’t think that experiences like CC’s will encourage others to turn spaces like Twitter into bitch forums. As Brett Hurt from BazaarVoice revealed in his Six Pixels interview with Mitch, people are actually more inclined to share good stories than bad ones. And, hey, if folks start sharing bad ones because companies are responding with great customer service than I think everyone wins. On the point about the squeaky social media wheels getting the customer service oil, I think it’s been proven that the squeakiest wheel is still the hand written letter – and that tends to come from those on the tweetless side of the digital divide.
I suppose my biggest fear in all this is that companies will make of point of only answering the complaints that are the most visible and potentially the most damaging at the expense of those who are more private in expressing their thoughts.
Your point about the hand written letter is a great one Robin, and despite my social media leanings I honestly hope that remains true for some time to come.
Jay, first, thanks for listening to the Media Bullseye Radio program! I think you’ve raised some very good points regarding haves/have nots, and what that means for the way customers are treated.
We will actually be revisiting this topic on this week’s Roundtable tomorrow, as I think it’s something that every company monitoring (and responding to complaints via) social media needs to consider.
Jen
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