This may be in the wrong place, as it's not about specific store or company, but I just wanted to suggest that whenever you have a complaint or problem, if you have a Twitter account, tweet that store's account. This is not always going to get results, but a lot of time I've found that the Twitter team is a lot more reliable than those who answer the phone when you call their customer service numbers. AT&T, for example, has a GREAT Twitter team. Their customer service is terrible most of the time, but the folks who do their tweeting can fix almost any problem. I've also had luck with McDonalds. It doesn't always work, though. The guy who runs Comcast's twitter page is a bit of a jerk. Just a tip for all of you who are having bad experiences!
I also use this method to get businesses to pay attention to my complaint. Most people write reviews on their experience, but those are not always read by customers and employees. The Twitter page is a perfect place to let the world know, just what kind of business they're running.
What an awesome tip! Thank you so much, I never thought of it myself...but if (hopefully not) I run into any problems, I will sure give it a try. I understand that it depends on who is running the twitter page etc...but I think many companies do not want complaints to go online as it can go viral.
That is such a great idea! I would imagine that you would get a response of some kind from the company. They don't want negative comments being seen by the whole world. I bet they would want to show everyone that they took care of a complaint on Twitter to re-establish that they have good customer service!
Thanks for this tip! I also have found that emailing is effective. I complained not too long ago to Ocean Spray, and they sent me two coupons for a free Ocean Spray product in the mail.
CBC in Canada had a Marketplace report on Customer Service. They also said Social Media is a great way to get support. However companies like Zellers have terrible customer service, on all levels.
The same practice can be used with facebook. If I have a bad experience with a company and I go to their facebook page and voice my complaints SOMETIMES I get a more desired response.
In the UK, I did a bit of moaning on Twitter about my broadband connection, provided by BT Infinity. Within minutes I had a response from their twitter team - who apparently scour twitter for mentions of their company and do their best to provide good pr / genuine help. It's getting to the level where for the larger companies, I get annoyed if they don't have a couple of people doing this. Obviously a job that could be performed anywhere, and when stuff goes wrong they can quickly alert the correct people. An example of a company that doesn't do this is Tescos - they recently listed the new iPad for an obviously too low price, and twitter was alight with people sending the link to each other and generally boasting about ordering several! Took hours of Tescos to put things right, and the cynic in me can't choose whether the whole thing was a publicity stunt, or they really are that slow behind the scenes. So tweeting about companies is good. But as always, be polite, unless they've really screwed you.
Of coarse you will get good response in twitter because companies will save their reputation in public. If they will response in a negative way or would not response at all, they will immediately be the talk of the town. Come on! Majority of internet users have twitter accounts and are just waiting for some issues to get involve with so companies will not make the wrong move in social sites.
Great idea! I never actually thought of that! lol It's been mentioned in this thread but of course, this mainly has to do with their PR. Apparently their twitter team/advertising guys are getting paid more than the customer service men.
I've used Twitter to bad-name companies before, and all the time I've done it, it's worked and I've received compensation for the reason that I was unhappy. I think it's for the pure reason that companies don't like seeing themselves being bad-mouthed on such a public internet place like Twitter, which has millions of users everyday.
For something like this, I use the store's Facebook page, though I've tried with Twitter though. And yeah, the one running the accounts really do respond promptly. I've never really done this for a complaint, but there was this time when I was inquiring about when they'd have this product in stock, but customer support never replied. I took it to Facebook, and customer support replied to me hours later, finally.
I will have to try this! The Twitter does seem to get more results because it is on the national format instead of a phone call between you. So it would make sense to get the reply right away.
It's not all just PR. The companies publicity team are based in the same country as the company, they are employed at corporate headquarters. Most customer service call centers are based in other countries now and the people who work for them dont' actually have any working knowledge or power within the company.
I have not thought to use this method. Though, I have a Twitter account, I just rarely use it anymore. Thank you for the suggestion! This is something I am going to start doing in order to make my complaints be heard more loudly!
Finally, a good use for Twitter instead of just posting what you're doing 24/7 I agree that if you have problems with any stores, you should try their social networks (Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, etc.) pages to try to reach them. It's worked for me in the past too.
I have never thought about this, and it's a great idea! There's alot of power in tweeting. I am training to be a social media manager, and this will be a strong selling point in my proposals and presentations.
I think this can work depending on who has access to the twitter account and if they really care. Usually calling or emailing customer support ends in failure for most of my ventures...
That makes sense, as your complaint has an audience of potentially millions, as opposed to the one or two people who may deal with your complaint at customer services. If the Twitter strategy doesn't work, then go straight to the top. By that I mean the managing director, or chief executive of the company. Several times, when I've had no satisfaction from the customer services department, I've written to the MD, and within days, my complaint has been dealt with, and I've usually received something extra, like a shopping voucher or a bouquet of flowers. If your complaint is genuine, never give up with it.
I think it's reasonable to assume people look up a product on twitter these days, and obviously unresponded to messages are going to do great harm to a company. Even if they don't fix the problem, having a couple of people monitoring twitter and responding will put them in a good light. When my internet went down recently all I did was moan about it on twitter - and I got a swift response telling me the area was having problems, much quicker than if I'd tried any other way of contacting them.
