I love upgrade time. I thought I would use the upgrade to get myself an Android handset as I am not really into the iPhone and wanted to try making an Android application. So, it was with excitement that I popped into my service providers store to find out what I could get. That’s where my problems with them started.
I won’t go into too much detail about what they did wrong, but I was slowly shepherded to the call centre. They don’t upgrade in store on your upgrade date, the on-line upgrade feature returns a message saying the service is unavailable so please call them, and an email returned an auto responder a day later saying they would respond within five days. The inevitable call centre conversation I had been trying to avoid left me angry and disappointed with their service. I told them I would be leaving them at the earliest opportunity.
When I was a barman, many moons ago, the boss would regularly tell me “if a customer has a good experience, they’ll tell 3 people, if they have a bad one, they’ll tell 20.” Well, nowadays, with social media at everyone’s fingertips, that figure is significantly higher. I felt an irresistible urge to tell people how badly I felt my soon to be ex-provider had dealt with me. So I tweeted about it. They had turned me from a brand advocate into a brand derogate, and I was pretty sure they didn’t really care.
I even looked around for their twitter account so I could direct my anger, in the hopes that they would understand my disappointment and possibly even convince me to stick around. The only account I found had protected tweets and a bio that read “Saved for future use”. It seems it is their account though as it links to the official website, although I can’t know for certain.
After a final disappointing conversation with their customer service, I tweeted about it again. A few minutes later, my TweetDeck made a little noise and I looked over to see the Vodafone logo staring at me from my mentions panel.
“@tfletcherjones I’m sorry you felt let down by [your providers] customer services. Check our range of phones here http://bit.ly/9116cS”
This made me smile. It was Cheeky. I like cheeky, I have a 3 year old daughter, so I have to like cheeky. There was a big void left where my good will toward my network used to be, and Vodafone, having overheard my comments, sidled over and planted themselves in it.
I appreciated this; it was interesting to see the two opposite ends of the spectrum in action. my own provider unavailable for dialogue and Vodafone watching the social networks for opportunities. I didn’t really think any more of it though as I still had some time to go on my contract, so was pretty stuck. I mentioned this to Vodafone, with added smiley face, assuming this would be the last I heard. It wasn’t. They quickly tweeted me a link to a contact form, and a code to add to the subject field which put me in touch with their “Web Relations” team, and seemingly with the very person I had just been speaking to over twitter.
Ok, I can’t be sure that Ben and Helen are real people and not call centre type aliases, but the conversations I have had with the Vodafone Web Relations team via email have left me feeling very satisfied that Vodafone would be a good choice of provider once I have escaped my current network’s clutches. A discussion with the Web Relations team left me feeling listened to instead of sold to. They knew about Android handsets, giving me a quick summary of what they had and news on their talks with HTC about stocking 2 new handsets which they would keep me informed about.
I saw them as forward thinking and clever when they contacted me over twitter, but to really use social media successfully you have to have a strategy, and these guys followed up on that original point of contact so well, and with such a specific tone, that I think they have it nailed. Others could take a valuable lesson from Ben at the Vodafone Web Relations team. I just hope they can keep up that level of customer service when I move over to a contract with them.
Tags: android, customer service, Social Media, vodafone
Hi Tom,
You have no idea how much you made mine and Helens day this morning. It’s always awesome to get positive feedback in this day and age so I just wanted to say thank you. A lot of people have seen this blog since you let us know about it and we were both grinning like fools reading this over our first cuppas of the day
Have a cracking weekend and we’ll be in touch soon!
Ben – Vodafone Web Relations
I had a great experience with their Twitter account too. Was having difficulty with the staff in-store and let out some anger at the VodafoneUK Twitter account – they replied instantly, apologised sincerely and offered me their help. It made me smile at how proactive and on the case they were, even if the in-store team hadn’t lived up to my expectations it’s nice to know these guys make up for it.