Monitoring conversations and reputation management with Twitter
In my social media blog, I wrote about a personal experience I had with Twitter and the Geek Squad. To make a long story extremely short, I twittered about the fact that the Geek Squad could not retrieve the data on my hard drive after it crashed; and that they weren’t really geeks after all. About an hour later, I get an email from the founder, Stephen Roberts asking if he can help in any way. I gave him the details and he emailed me back a few hours later confirming that they didn’t have the right software in the store to help me; and that they would have to send my laptop to their tech center in Kentucky to retrieve the data (costing anywhere between $400 - $1200). I saw the string of emails that he sent to the actual technician that I spoke with a few days earlier. I decided against it and took the laptop to a local computer geek. Three hours later and $250 out of pocket, I got my data.
Mike Arrington also experienced a similar situation with Twitter and Comcast. After several failed attempts to get his internet connection fixed, he “lost his cool” and ripped Comcast a new one on Twitter. Within 20 minutes of his first tweet, he got a call from a Comcast executive who wanted to know how he could help. The exec told Mike that he monitors Twitter and blogs to get a better understanding of what people are saying about Comcast. As a previous employee of Comcast, I am sure he is very busy reading, and reading, and reading.
The moral of the story is this. Social media is an excellent tool to monitor the chatter about your brand, products or services. But it involves more than just listening and monitoring. It’s about reaching out and immersing yourselves in these conversations; and doing the best you can to resolve the issues (if there are any). Even though the Geek Squad could not fix my problem, the fact that Stephen contacted me personally is enough for me to consider using their services again in the future.
Tags: social media, conversational marketing, twitter
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Hi Michael,
I wonder if the response you mention is industry specific. Do tech-savvy companies respond differently than other companies in different industries like retail, healthcare, or manufacturing, for example?
I ask as I was just grappling with the issue of my parents’ Kaiser healthcare coverage this morning. They are being threatened with the loss of coverage because of a payment scheduling error. They haven’t misses a payment–which they are paying out-of-pocket I might add–the frequency just got out of synch with the company’s restrictive policies.
I wonder if I Twittered or even wrote a blog post on this issue if the company would notice and respond like Geek Squad or Comcast did for others. Perhaps there are existing blogs or community forums that cover healthcare or non-tech customer service issues already. But are companies paying attention?
Would love some feedback. I’ll also Twitter to test my theory here.
Forgive my ignorance but is there a tool to monitor the “interweb” chatter, or is it basically a manual procedure?
Michael,
These anecdotes are terrific examples for anyone who needs to understand Twitter’s growing influence.
Marvel’s experiencing Twitter’s effect on its brand as we speak - check out http://davedonohue.wordpress.com/2008/04/29/iron-man-debacle-shows-twitters-true-power/ for more. Anyone following Mike Arrington on Twitter is getting the updates in real time as well.
I’m looking forward to reading more from your group - thanks Kelly Feller for reaching out!
GC if my interweb you mean Twitter, do what the comany’s do and search Twitter by keyword (e.g. http://twitter.com/tw/search/users?q=Kaiser) or search TweetScan for conversations (e.g. http://tweetscan.com/index.php?s=Kaiser&u=&d=). There are (and will be) other tools, but these are simple to use.
Kelly, it appears you are the only one Twittering about Kaiser - http://tweetscan.com/index.php?s=Kaiser+healthcare&u=&d=
Perhaps a short post or five about the details (without violating HIPAA, of course) or your folks. They may not notice right away, but in time I think they’ll get it.
You could also use simple tools, like this mini-mashup I got from Steve Rubel to check customer service posts for the company of your choice. http://www.google.com/swr?q=%22customer+service%22&hl=en&swrnum=253000000
Cool. Thanks!
Kelly –
Well, here’s how spreading the word makes a difference, or could. I will pass on this post and your twitter log to the Kaiser people I know.
Sooner or later, companies will change how they approach customer service, and how much attention they need to pay to the online world.
I attended a panel discussion on Business and the Social Web yesterday, and one of the presenters observed that we were in the transition from what you know to who you know. This appears to be an example of where you go and who else goes there!
Thanks for the demonstration of collaboration, Carolina!