image credit: icathing
Although I’m hesitant to proclaim that any traditional form of marketing or customer service is completely dead, the shifting social landscape has hallenged us to rethink even our most basic and deeply ingrained practices – like face to face customer service. Neal Rohrbach gives us a taste of what might be the future of customer service:
Recently I’ve found myself on the road quite a bit between conferences and trade shows. It’s really amazing how social media has blended into these trips, started relationships, continued conversations an on and on. For example, the Social Fresh marketing/social media conference I’m attending in Tampa next week, I found via Facebook, connected with the host via Twitter and got an invite. When I headed to Las Vegas for the SHOT Show, I found a number of vendors on Twitter, connected with them before we headed to the show and met there to discuss our eCatalog and Advertising opportunities. The most eye opening experience was what unfolded after I found myself taking a cold shower at the Luxor Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas, pun intended.
Jet lagged and running behind I hurried to the shower to start my full day of pounding pavement at the trade show, only to find the ice cold water pouring from the shower head. I gave it a minute, played with the knob, tried the bathtub and the sink as well, no luck. After a world record fast shower, I brushed the icicles out of my hair, got dressed and headed down to the customer service desk. I had assumed that a formal face to face complaint would yield better results than picking up the phone. Approaching the desk, I was greeted with a half-hearted “Can I help you?” and here was that dialog:
Me: Yes, I wanted to let you know that I didn’t have hot water in my room this morning.
Agent: Did you let it run for a minute?
Me: Yes, I let it run for a few minutes and had to take a cold shower.
Agent: Are you staying in the Pyramid?
Me: No, the limestone beds wreck havoc on my back.
(long pause, blank stare)
Me: I’m in the west tower.
Agent: We don’t have any reports of water outages in the West Tower, are you sure?
Me: Yes I’m sure.
Agent: Well all I can offer you is an apology, these things happen.
There were a number of things I took away from this conversation. For one, I felt slightly insulted that the customer service agent had to verify that I let the water run more than a few seconds before drawing my conclusion. Secondly, I was perturbed at their argumentative attitude when I wasn’t provided what I had paid for, hot water. Many times before I’ve accepted and moved on from my expectations not being met if I’m at least offered a sincere apology and promise that it will be taken care of for the next day. Finally, they obviously didn’t have a sense of humor and completely missed my ancient pyramid joke.
Still a bit perturbed, I pulled out my iPhone to tweet about this experience. I sent out a “thank you” to the hotel for eliminating my need for a sugar free Redbull that morning, as I was wide awake after the cold shower. Within the hour I had an @ reply from the Luxor hotel and casino and they wanted to make things right for me…wow. Later that day, their marketing and social media manager personally delivered goodie bags full of t-shirts, hats, a pile of new release DVDs and they even offered me free show tickets for that night. That was much more than I ever expected, and it was greatly appreciated!
On the way back to my room with my in kind gifts I realized what had just happened and I was saddened. It was clear that face to face customer service had one foot in the grave that day. When I went to talk to a customer service agent in person, I was all but shunned, and not until I blasted out a tweet to my meager 850 some followers did I get results. I guess social media really is as viral as everyone says.
The biggest lesson to learn from all of this, whether you run a small business, or are a part of a large corporation, is to not forget what’s most important in house. Social media is a way to reach out and offer customer service virtually. It’s not supposed to replace customer service on a face to face level, but act as an extension of your brand that reaches out when you can’t offer a smile and a handshake. Props again to @LuxorLV
for reaching out and taking care of me, but pass on some of that charm and charisma to your front desk staff!
Neal Rohrbach is Chief Creative Officer for Outdoor Channel Outfitters. He is also the Co-Founder of Idea Anglers. His portfolio boasts successful projects on both small and global markets, from “Mom & Pop” businesses to professional sports teams and Fortune 500 companies. He is a marketing zealot, graphic designer and entrepreneur. He thinks outside the box, not off the shelf.
Photo Credit: icathing See photo page for Creative Commons licence.
