I'll admit it: I'm a huge hot head. I speak my mind on a regular basis, and if I upset someone in the process I really don't care. I love to argue points and share my opinion on hot button topics. It's not only that, if I see an injustice I'll gladly tell anyone and everyone where I stand on the issue. It's not a bad trait, but it's not necessarily a great one either. I've made enemies, pissed off people, upset friends, etc, so I know it's something that I should maybe fine tune. Maybe. I'm working on it (slowly).
But in the case of Twitter, it pays to be a hot head. Literally. I've gotten countless credits to my accounts I have with companies. It's the best resource for us hot heads to get our point across. And companies really, really hate when you start a negative hashtag (like #deathtrapsaturn, I'll explain later).
It all started one bright and sunny morning when I got a late charge on my cell phone bill. Now, before you ask, yes I had double checked I paid the bill, and I had paid it with plenty of time to spare too. The issue was that the tax had changed a little bit from last month's bill, increasing my total a few cents. So, naturally, a computer processing my payment saw I was slightly short, and penalized me. I was kinda upset, so I tweeted my mood. I said something like "a late fee for being short a few cents?! WTF"--you know, a typical hot headed comment. The company immediately replied back, and within an hour they had removed the late fee and credited my account $25--all because of a mean comment on Twitter. Now, I didn't expect to get a credit, but I decided to roll with it.
A month or so later, a company I ordered makeup samples from lost my order in transit. So, I took to the great and powerful Twitter to complain. But this time, I was a little nicer (read: I toned down my curse words). And bam! Got another order placed same day, plus a credit to my account.
Why are companies doing this you might ask? Couldn't they just ignore their "haters" and work on positive PR? Yes, and some companies do. But what I've found is that more and more companies are hiring people to be solely in charge of their Twitter image. They can help more people at a faster rate than going through email complaints. It's genius I tell ya!
Some companies aren't great yet at this whole Twitter thing, just a heads up. Take GM for instance. When my car was recalled, I found out that parts weren't available in my town. The closest shop with replacement parts was 2 hours away. And I was told not to drive that far. Soooo how was that going to work? Naturally, I complained via Twitter, and GM replied back in a kind of a generic, "direct message us any issues you are having" sort of nonsense. They really didn't see that I was without a safe vehicle until they got those parts shipped out to my isolated beach town. So I started the hashtag #deathtrapsaturn and they kinda got upset. Like private messaged me asking me to stop using that hashtag upset. But guess what? They are sending parts out! I don't know when, but I keep getting updates from them. So I'm on their radar at least. You win some, you compromise on some.
So I say to you, if you have an issue or complaint for a company, use Twitter first. Sure, they might ignore you, but I bet most will try to help you out. Fair warning, you do need to be aggressive. None of this "sorry to bug you" or "I think my order is damaged"--say it like you mean it. Get some courage and write a tweet that has a spine (and a good hashtag too). And see what happens. You might get more than you're asking for.
No comments:
Post a Comment