Customer Service and Social Media

Posted by Gabe on July 27, 2009 under Social Media | 3 Comments to Read

I have seen a rash of discussions about customer service on Twitter lately.  Last week I happened to read an article by Jennnifer Van Grove about 5 more Twitter related trends to watch out for right now.  The trend that caught my eye was #5, which was a discussion of an argument being played out online by Best Buy and a seemingly disgruntled customer. Since it got picked up by Twitter heavyweight Chris Brogan, it gained a lot of attention.  I think Twitter, along with other social media platforms, offer a great venue for companies to mend fences as well as for people to get the word out about them, whether that word be bad or good.  I do think it is crucial that people are fair and honest about things due to the viral nature of social media.

This past weekend I had two experiences that are germane to this discussion.  My wife, daughter and I took our yearly over night trip to Hershey Park, PA.  When we checked into our hotel, my wife noticed a sign that the pool was being repaired and thus closed indefinitely.  I told the clerk that was one of the reasons we selected this hotel.  After all, what 10-year-old doesn’t like to swim in a hotel pool?  If this woman had said something to the effect of “I’m sorry, there’s nothing else I can do” I would have begrudgingly accepted our fate as it was after 6PM and we had secured the room with a credit card.  Instead she came back with, “I can cancel this reservation and see what is available at a hotel nearby that has an indoor pool.”  She did just that – she called the hotel and got us a room.  As it turned out the room was $50.00 cheaper and just as nice. Now I was discussing this with my wife this morning.  The room we had originally checked into was a Holiday Inn. I won’t mention the other because it would give away the location of the original hotel, but it was not an affiliate of the Holiday Inn. My wife said, “I bet she would be fired if her boss knew what she did.”  She could be right if her boss was only considering the bottom line.   I thought the exact opposite however.  This woman put the customer’s needs in front of her company’s, and this to me is the best customer service anyone can provide. I hope she learned this behavior from the culture of the company, as that is the way a company should treat a customer.  Regardless, my opinion of Holiday Inn is even brighter that it was before.

The other experience occurred when I originally tweeted that I was going to Hershey Park. I playfully solicited orders for chocolate from all of my Twitter colleagues, and got back a few orders.  I also got back a disturbing tweet from one colleague that read: ” Hersheys sources chocolate from Ivory Coast- plantations using child slave labor- there are fair trade choices.”  I wanted to know more so I asked for more facts. I was given this link on the subject, basically explaining that Hershey imports cacao beans from Africa which uses child slave labor in the processing of the beans.  For some reason other companies have since instigated tougher practices to prevent this, but not Hershey (at least according to this web site.)  This to me seems out of character for the company as I have always held them in high regard.  I looked for Hershey’s on Twitter and found a few people loosely affiliated with them. I also found @HersheyParkPA which appears to have started an account but hasn’t gotten very far as their last tweet was in April.  Even though Hershey Park is not the Hershey company itself, there is a definite link between the two and I would think they would have a stake in this.  One thing we do not know is what is the latest on this controversy and what is the Hershey Company’s side of it.  Is it true what the web site says?  If so are they working towards a resolution?  Right now we do not know but if someone from the Hershey company monitored Twitter I bet the “fire” could be put out quickly, or at least we would see the path that they are taking.

So what do you think?  Is it important for companies to pay attention to social media or is this just a flash in the pan for computer nerds? I think the folks at Zappos.com believe it’s important – they seem to be leading the way as to how companies can interact positively with their customers.  I think we are seeing just the tip of the iceberg.  The savvy companies will see the value, join in and it will do nothing but benefit them.