So a month ago, I ordered a laptop for my second boss, and had issues with the order. They cancelled the order on me, and I was so infuriated that I couldn’t even manage to continue working on ordering it. How could a company not take my money because of a small issue with the credit card address verification. I copied the address line for line from the credit card statement and gave them what I had, but it was no good.
I ended up asking someone else in the company to do the order because I must have had the wrong information, and I couldn’t deal with the poor support I was receiving. She was able to order the laptop, but not without problems of her own. Thankfully, it arrived a few weeks later, with not further issues.
A little while back, I ordered a second laptop for a co-worker of mine, and yesterday, I received an e-mail letting me know that the order had been cancelled. Frustrated, I e-mailed them, and asked what was going on. I didn’t receive an immediate response, so I posted my frustration on Twitter. A few hours later, I received a response asking me for the order details from the social media account of the company I was ordering from.
The next day, I received a phone call, with a very sympathetic rep that explained why the problem existed and how we could fix it so it doesn’t happen again. She then proceeded to compensate me for the frustration I was experiencing and promising to follow up on the case.
I feel like contacting the brand was the most effective way to get a resolution, and while I think it is a little strange, did I just experience the future of customer service, first hand? Should customer service be better through social media than traditional contact methods? I don’t think it should. I think all customer service should be great, and social media should be a piece of that puzzle. I shouldn’t have had to make contact over social media as a last resort. Instead, it should have just been a choice like any other.
Why would I want to go through normal routes of communication if social media is the only one that creates action?
Malcolm's Ramblings 
2 responses to “Should Customer Service Be Better Through Social Media?”
I agree David…all companies should put customer service first (along with product quality). Really bad service can be spread voraciously by word of mouth and through social media. Making customers happy is the only way to ensure repeat business. Is social media causing us to lose that personal touch and forget how to relate to people? Are we forgetting the back and forth work it takes sometimes to solve a problem because we are getting used to instant responses?
Sounds like you are still really busy – this is the first post in 8 days 🙂 Any spare time to look at the email I sent you about the website page?
Hope Spring is coming to your neck of the woods…take care.
Hey David
Is this really your last post? What’s going on? How the heck have you been..very very busy maybe? This isn’t like you.
Miss your blogs. Write soon.