The Power of One Voice in Social Media
During my speaking engagements, I like to end my talk with a closing thought. I tell my audience that I believe what makes social media special is that for the first time in the history of mankind, anyone, no matter who you are or what you do, has the opportunity to have their voice be heard. It doesn't matter how much money you have or if you know important people. Anyone with a computer and an internet connection has the opportunity for their voice to be heard and have an impact. That's very exciting and challenging all at the same time.
I was lucky enough to see the power of social media in action last night. My wife is competing in a triathlon this weekend and we decided she needed to upgrade to a better bicycle more suited for riding longer distances. Last weekend we took a drive over to Performance Bike in Cary to buy her a new bike. The store was pretty busy and it seemed like they only had 2-3 employees working at that time. We tried to get help but the staff was trying to help everyone which pretty much meant everyone was kept waiting. After about an hour, we decided to leave and come back another day when it was not as busy.
Fast forward to last night. After work my wife and I again went over to Performance Bike. Even after a not so pleasant customer experience, we still wanted to do business with Performance and wanted to give them another chance. I don't care if you are talking about online or brick and mortar stores, most of the time you don't get a second chance. We got to the store a little after 6:30 pm last night. The store was not that busy, but there were only two employees working the store. One of the employees John, who was an incredibly nice and knowledgeable person was trying to help a half dozen other people while helping us. We waited for more than hour just for my wife to get a test ride on one of the bikes. By that time, I was beginning to get frustrated so I decided to share my frustrations via my Blackberry.
I first went into Foursquare and checked in at Performance Bike and wrote a note that Performance needs to hire more people in their store. I followed that up with a tweet to @performance_inc letting them know that I believe customers who are willing to spend a premium on a Performance bike deserve better customer service. Literally within minutes of my tweets, I get a response from one of my Twitter friends @sarahlamm whose husband happens to work for Performance corporate. Sarah offered to help. How cool is that?
I thanked Sarah and told her any help her and her husband could provide would be greatly appreciated. Sarah tweeted back, "Help is on the way!". Less than 5 minutes later, the phone rang at the Performance store and I happen to be standing right next to the where the employee picked up the phone. What I heard was, "WHAT???" followed by the employee writing down my name on a piece of paper.
Is that amazing? I expressed my frustration with what I believed to be less than satisfactory customer service via Twitter and Foursquare and in a matter of minutes someone from Corporate is calling the store letting them know they have an unhappy customer. If that is not a great case study for the power of social media, I don't know what is. More than two hours after arriving my wife and I walked out of Performance with a brand new road bike which she will flying down the road this weekend in her first triathlon.
One final thought, I want to make clear that my goal here is to not throw any of the employees at Performance Bike under the bus. Everyone we met there in the last couple of days were all incredibly nice and knowledgeable helping us pick the right bike for the Mrs. My issue was and is that these wonderful folks did not have enough help to serve the number of customers coming into the store. I am a firm believer that companies need to earn my business by providing me the customer service I and all customers deserve. The difference today compared to the past is that I was able to raise my concerns via social media and get immediate help and feedback. The power of one voice, I love it.
Comments
Great post, Cord. Although, I do wonder what would have happened if Sarah had not seen your tweet. Would someone from Performance, Inc. have seen it and responded?
Social media is a great tool for companies to use for customer service. Arguably, its the most important reason to get into the online networking space as it gives you a medium to talk to your customers (or potential customers) who might vent some frustration online but wouldn't take the time to complain via the more formal, traditional channels.
The timing issue really intrigues me here. Your tweet and foursquare "shout" were all after business hours, so it is a reasonable assumption that an official response from Performance, Inc. wouldn't come until the next morning. But, by then they might have lost your business.
Would they have been able to win you back as a customer at this point? Would you have been shocked if someone from Performance, Inc. responded to you after 7pm?
Hey Cat, thanks for your kind words and feedback. Your question is a good one. I don't know what I would do. I was very lucky that Sarah and I follow each other on Twitter because no-one from Performance has contacted or followed up with me. I thought that since I tweeted them directly, I might get back some sort of response or DM, but none so far.
I think where I am right now is that I don't know if I would go back to Performance and give them anymore of my business. And more importantly, I don't think i would feel comfortable recommending them to a friend or colleague.
Thanks again for your comment and thoughts!
I had a similar experience last week. I won a free Tungle.me T-shirt at the #recruitcamp party, and I accidentally left it at the bar where the party was. I tweeted that I left it there, and within minutes I had a Tungle.me representative asking me to email them so they could replace it.
All for a free t-shirt.
If that isn't dedication to your users and fans, I don't know what is. I left #recruitcamp with TWO more Tungle.Me shirts, so I didn't need to take them up on their offer. But I am still impressed and grateful.
Cord, your story is a great example of why businesses desperately need community managers. The social pool of bike riders, from dabblers to die-hards, is huge. If Performance got into that "pool" and started working it, there could be tremendous payoffs in lead generation, customer experience, and lifelong fandom, if it's done well. In the absence of any kind of SM monitoring or community manager, I can see why there was no follow-up to your experience. They figured they'd made their sale and it was all over. They are missing a HUGE opportunity.
And I think it's cool that they sell flying bikes. : )
From local companies to national ones, for the companies that actually pay attention to their social media, I have had great customer experiences.
In general, I think you reach a higher level or service person that is actually empowered to help you as opposed to the level 1 phone support/anonymous email. Because of this, they can actually help you.
I think Twitter is one of the most underused, but powerful customer service tool.
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