Twitter Complaints – Do You Respond?
August 31, 2009 by Becky Scott
Filed under Marketing
So what happens when you cross an influential blogger who has 1+ million followers, a new washing machine that doesn’t work, and Twitter? You get a social media circus that either gives a company nightmares or the opportunity to shine.
The background
You may have heard of Dooce. Heather Armstrong. Yes, she first became well-known for getting fired from writing her blog. But since then she has morphed into an internet celebrity. Books. TV appearances. And a web site that not only earns a little ad revenue, but supports her husband, two kids and pays for an assistant.
Heather and her husband recently purchased a washing machine and had a lot of trouble getting it to work properly. Several delays and visits by a repairman didn’t solve the problem. Meanwhile, laundry’s piling up and Armstrong is getting frustrated. So she sends a tweet (with no backstory yet) that says:
Other bloggers wonder why Armstrong is telling people not to buy Maytag, and they questioned her about it, on Twitter.
The tweets went back and forth, with others questioning whether Armstrong – with 1+ million followers – should be a little more judicious with her tweets about companies when there’s no back story for explanation.
Another blogger pointed out that everyone has a right to vent, but we should all think about doing it judiciously.
Tweeting about issues can be a great way to vent, to commiserate with others who have had issues. Armstrong felt that she’d exhausted every avenue she could find and after several days, she was tired and frustrated. But how many people will see her tweets, never read the explanation post, and actually not buy Maytag? Are there people out there that will listen that closely to a big blogger?
That’s still up for debate. I have seen many comments since then from other consumers who only wish they had the following that Armstrong does, so they, too, could get a response from a corporation’s headquarters.
Whirlpool did get a different repairman out, get the washer fixed, and ultimately resolve the problem. Would the same happen for someone with 300 followers? 500? 10,000?
I’d love to hear from those of you that didn’t follow this on Twitter. What do you think? Should well-known twitter users be more judicious in how they communicate their frustrations? Have you thought about how your company would handle a situation like this? Do you have a plan? Will you be writing one now?
image: Newscom
I think a few high profile freak outs like this have the potential to be good news for everyone. When you don’t know who the “celebrities” are, you start to treat everyone like one, as it should be.
Dooce ties with Perez Hilton for “most overrated blogger”. I could not care less what she has to say about anything. Seriously, who makes big purchasing decisions based on a stranger’s Twitter feed?
Heather’s celebrity and large following has helped her, but I think large corporations are making a greater effort to reach out to customers using social media.
My company has an appliance repair forum on our website and a customer had a problem with an appliance he bought at Sears. I was surprised to see that Sears left a response to his message asking him to get in touch with them so that they could help him resolve his issues. Very nice! We do not have nearly as many regularly readers as Heather has, so I was very impressed to see that they left such a message. It’s good customer service.
@bonnie – It would be quite helpful if companies took all complaints seriously, regardless of which customer makes them.
@megan – You’d be surprised. People use word of mouth all the time. I have a feeling that long time readers just might let her experience influence theirs.
@jwozniak – That’s a fabulous example. Let’s hope that more companies learn how to monitor and use social media to help their customers.