I think it’s fantastic that companies are using social media to promote their brands and communicate more directly with their customers. It’s wild when I write about my favorite wine and the New Zealand winemaker actually responds to me on Twitter. Great brand monitoring St. Clair (update: fixed incorrect URL)! There are so many inspiring examples of brands that are providing real support for customers via social media or are getting out in front of disasters/problems/recalls in a genuinely transparent way. Their involvement in social media is simply a natural extension of their corporate culture, which is transparent, human and customer-focused.
On the other hand, there are companies that are only paying lip service to social media. They think that if they have an account on Twitter or Facebook it makes up for their crappy products or service. Some will delete Facebook wall posts from critics or won’t allow wall posts from customers at all. Many will only selectively respond to customer complaints on Twitter or will only respond to positive customer responses (to make it look as if people on Twitter are only saying glowing things about them). When they do respond to criticism or problems, it’s not in any way that leads to satisfaction. For these companies, Facebook and Twitter are simply window dressing, thinly disguising the closed, soulless, profit-centered corporate culture within.
I’ve been having major problems with the screencasting software Adobe Captivate. When I converted some instructional screencasts from Captivate 3 to 4, they looked fine on preview, but when I published them as an .avi file, the audio became unsynched 2/3 of the way through and got way behind the video (to the point where the audio was cut off at the end of the video). This happened with multiple videos in the exact same way. So, as Adobe suggests, I posted to their forums. That was on June 11th. To date, I have not received a response from anyone regarding my issue. I also submitted a bug report, since I couldn’t find any other way to email my issue to anyone. Never received a response to that either.
After waiting almost two weeks for a response, I tried to contact Adobe Support. First, I spent a significant amount of time trying to figure out how to contact support and actually considered creating a Captivate screencast on how horribly designed Adobe’s support site is (I ultimately decided that drinking a glass of wine would be a better use of my time). Finally, I called the only number I could find and discovered that none of the options matched with what I needed, so I tried to get an operator. I got put through to four different people, each of whom needed me to repeat my phone number, email address, Captivate serial number and what my issue is. Do you people have any sort of tracking system???? Finally, I get a Captivate support guy and I tell him what my issue is. He looks up my serial number and says that he can’t work with me unless I purchase a support plan. My response was “I have to pay you to fix a bug in your software?” His response was that it probably wasn’t a bug because he hadn’t heard many reports of anything like this and it might just be user error. My response “so there’s no way for me to get help for my issue?” His response was “not unless you get a support plan.” I was beyond livid. Basically they’re saying that 1) it’s probably my fault that it’s not working and 2) they won’t stand behind their product.
By now I’d now wasted at least 3-day’s-worth of my time, which cost way more than if I just gave in and bought their competitor product, Camtasia. I’d vented on Twitter about my experiences with Adobe and someone suggested that I contact @Adobe_Care on Twitter. My husband’s response to that was that “Adobe only cares about turning you upside down and shaking the money out of your pockets.” That person apparently let @Adobe_Care know that I was having issues and the next day I got a tweet from them asking if I still needed help. I let them know that I was told I couldn’t get support without purchasing a support plan. They told me they’d get someone to contact me the next day. Huh?
After telling them that I was available until 3:30 pm ET, someone from support called me at 4:00 pm (right as I was about to leave to pick my son up from daycare). They co-browsed with me and saw the issue I was having with Captivate. They had me send them the file and told me they’d work on it and get back to me. The support person was still rather unfriendly and impatient with me, but at least she listened.
Do I think they’re going to find a solution? Doubtful. But what really bothers me is the idea that I got special treatment because I complained about the company on Twitter. I go through the recommended support channels and am not only told I can’t get help but am insulted. Then I use Twitter and get treated like a human being (or as well as anyone can hope for when dealing with Adobe). So basically what they’re saying is that Twitter is the best way to get help with Adobe issues and if you’re not on Twitter basically you’re screwed. This creates a situation where the digerati — who are likely more savvy with software already — are given better service than the people who don’t use social media and probably need support the most.
Social media can put a human face on a company and help them build more direct relationships with their customers. Look at companies like Zappos and Newegg. But, too often, social media only gives a soulless corporation that doesn’t give a damn about the customer the opportunity to put up window dressing that makes them look like they actually care. And, sadly, some people don’t look beyond the window dressing.
Just because a company is on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, etc. doesn’t mean they’re 2.0. It doesn’t mean they care. The real test of a company is how they treat the average customer, not how they treat the loud, whiny geek with the Twitter account (and by that, I mean me).
Hey Meredith,
Thanks for sharing this–I know how much energy it takes just write up a horror story like this. Change Adobe to Verizon, multiply wasted hours by 5, and eliminate the part about anyone ever responding through twitter or treating you like a human being and I’d say you’d been reading my diary.
Good luck on getting this resolved. Perhaps your public airing of bad service will get on Adobe’s radar and help inch them in the right direction. Hope springs eternal!
Well said! I’m frustrated by other companies, like AT&T, whose services don’t work well (for some reason, I can’t pay by phone) and am charged $5 to actually pay my bill over the phone rather than go online. I have to pay to pay. It’s ridiculous.
The common thread in Meredith’s post (and the two responses that follow) are that all the companies are ‘too big to fail’, or rather ‘too big to care’.
Your problems as an individual are absolutely meaningless to them. Adobe is so big that even if, say, Norwich was having a campus-wide problem with their software, I suspect it would take them a while to do anything about it.
If Adobe’s sole revenue stream was Captivate (ie, if the fate of their company depended on it), they would be diving on top of themselves to answer your call, as that bug effectively renders their software unusable.
The only solution would be to consciously promote the use of software from smaller vendors in your organization where possible (TechSmith/Camtasia would be a good start.)
As for the cell phone companies… we’re all hosed. There is no escape.
This is something I’ve thought about with accounts like ComcastCares, that’s bothered me too. Nice to see it elaborated on here
I had an odd similar experience recently with a tiny company, an online retailer along the lines of ThinkGeek. Weird little desk toys and geek paraphernalia.
After they stopped responding to my emails about a missing refund, I did some googling and noticed that anytime someone complained about this company on a messageboard (and there are a LOT of complaints out there) that a designated rep (the same guy every time or at least the same user name) would create an account and promise to solve the issue. He never gave an email address, just invited the unhappy customer to use that messageboard’s direct messaging system. So I created a thread on the one hobby-related messageboard that I frequent and bam, there he was within 24 hours, with my refund showing up soon afterward.
What an utterly bizarre way to run a business.
Pingback: Tweets that mention The Social Divide | Information Wants To Be Free -- Topsy.com
If have got the impression that a lot of companies on twitter just want to be there for sending their commercial messages, not for customer care. You can see it in the way they present themselves on these networks: as a company with the avatar of a building. But you can not talk to a building. If organisations want to have a bond with customers online they need to talk with them as a person. Take for instance Starbucks. If you find them on twitter you will see that the person you are talking to is Brad. I think that is a great way to start connecting. But if the customer care is bad, then the presence on a social media forum is not going to help them.
Perhaps an alternative to make a screencast is http://screenr.com/ If you covert the recording then to AVI via http://www.zamzar.com/ and upload them on moniemaker, you could make a great screencast. It is just a suggestion. The best of luck!
Grz Wilma (The Netherlands)
“But what really bothers me is the idea that I got special treatment because I complained about the company on Twitter….This creates a situation where the digerati — who are likely more savvy with software already — are given better service than the people who don’t use social media and probably need support the most.”
Yes, I have heard that for some companies if you threaten you are going to blog or tweet about the bad service, suddenly, you get excellent service, refunds or whathaveyou (works only for fairly high ranking managers, most drones don’t care)….
You bring up a interesting point. Many libraries are running twitter accounts, and some like me are actively scanning for comments about the library and intervening when necessary http://musingsaboutlibrarianship.blogspot.com/2010/06/why-libraries-should-proactively-scan.html .
I don’t think people running the twitter acc have any particular authority to treat users going through the twitter acc better, or at least I don’t. If the policy says no, complaining on twitter isn’t going to change things (though it might get a explanation of why things are the way they are).
I try to provide good service through Twitter, but it’s no better than what I would provide through email, face to face, IM or what have you.
That said, there is an element where you can use twitter as a service recovery tool, but that’s only because there has being a service lapse, not because people complaining through twitter get special attention compared to those going through other channels.
I totally agree with you. I had a similar experience with Adobe trying to get a serial number for my teacher edition of Dreamweaver. First, they gave me the number for Windows after I specified I needed it for a Mac. THen it took days of phone calls and the the runaround having to repeat myself over and over to get the serial number. Customer service has definitely gone down the drain with several companies I have dealt with of late.
Pingback: Présence web et qualité des services « pintiniblog
Pingback: Tweet This: Twitter is Only One Part of a Electronic Government Marketing Initiative « The Librarian Kate
Pingback: HotStuff 2.0 » Blog Archive » Word of the Day: “11th”
This reminds of another story I heard online recently of a similar experience by Tara Hunt:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iMSctvnW154
She actually thinks consumers will clue-in and that poor customer service will eventually damage companies.
her slides here: http://www.slideshare.net/carsonified/tara-hunt-your-social-media-strategy-wont-save-you
One can only hope that since people like her are presenting to marketers, and people like you are blogging about it, that maybe it will make a little difference in how some companies will do service.
And, this all reminds me that we have to be careful not to replicate these same mistakes when our libraries use social media. Fortunately, we’re usually all about good service to begin with!
Time Magazine’s July 26 issue includes a brief article regarding this, noting that some companies “have started devoting resources to social-media monitors, who aim to respond to an angry tweet within 60 minutes.”
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,2004096,00.html