experience matters

Extraordinary experiences come in a variety of forms, from the awe-inspiring Web site to a reminder of why you love your job. As a community moderator, my latest brush with an extraordinary social media experience was the latter. I was moved from blind-rage to placid-graciousness by one man and a Twitter handle. The story is one of Twitter customer service; at the end of the day, a well-served customer will shout your name from a mountain.

Flashback to Wednesday, Jan 12:
It all started with a call from an anonymous 800 number during my evening commute. It’s always jarring for anyone to get a call from a collections agency, but for someone who was taught to guard her credit with the same force as her purity, it’s especially disheartening. I was told that I owed $33 for a $25 modem that had been returned my senior year of college. Senior year: a lifetime ago, or 2.5 years, depending on how long your life is. Something felt off about this.

Flash forward through 2 hours of cell phone minutes later:
Feeling myself turn into an unpleasant person–and that’s generous–I removed myself from helpline purgatory and turned to Social Media. I had an “oh yeah!” moment on the consumer side of the Twitter customer service equation. Just when I needed someone to cut the crap, the 140-character limit came to my rescue.

One bitter tweet later:
Thinking I could get a reaction with the following tweet

“Oh hey UW grads, remember how terrible @Charter was? Still are. 2.5 years later – they decided that I lost a modem & billed me for it.”

I waited. Along came a Charter Communications representative, who used four Twitter consumer-relations tactics to neutralize the brand hater (i.e. me).

As a community moderator myself, this was a great experiences. Twitter-based customer service is a must-do for socially savvy companies, but it’s landing on the shoulders of communications departments rather than the traditional call-centers. Why? Because when a consumer complains in a public forum, an unanswered complaint can derail a community, can reflect poorly on the company, and, let’s face it, can reflect poorly on the sentiment portion of your social metrics.

@CharterGeorge responded to me in the following ways to turn me from someone terrorizing the call center into a rational human being.

1. He responded in an ultra-timely manner. It was fairly obvious the brand’s representative has a very clear protocol for how to handle situations like mine. He has the trust of his employer to work in real-time and this brought my aggression from a 7 to a 5.

2. He went above the call of duty. I assumed that I would get a response for my cry for help, but because it was around 7:30 pm, I figured that my tweet wouldn’t see the light of day until 9 am at the very earliest.

3. He described what he was doing to help. As he went through the steps he was taking to resolve my issue, he told me which departments he was contacting and how they would be handling my case. It calmed me down and made me feel in control again. Rage moved from a 5 to a 3

4. He followed up. He ensured that I knew the status of each moving piece in my case. For a control freak, this helped keep me calm and willing to work through the situation in a peaceful way. With my credit left untainted, Charter was able to neutralize this hater.

A girl could get used to tweeting her calls for help
While customer service isn’t the flashy, cool stuff that gets buzz, it is a component that shouldn’t be neglected while building a community. Best Buy’s @Twelpforce is another example of a company that has put some serious force behind its Twitter handle. At least 11 tech gurus are quickly responding to issues tweeted at them. They’re honest and transparent – respondents include a personal twitter handle in their reply to create a face for the answer. A huge number of companies are responding to complaints via Twitter and dozens of them are doing it well. When it happens it makes your customers feel like they’re receiving VIP treatment. Otherwise, left alone and without a human to help them, haters will, unabashedly, hate. Being human and understanding towards community members with concerns will foster trust in any branded community and that’s what I call an extraordinary experience.

Jeana is a Community Moderator for the Nissan Juke out of our Chicago office.