It is no secret I enjoy social media. I LOVE the interaction, the connections and the outlet for my rants. Last week I had a Social Media truth reinforced for me. Here’s the story: For the past year I have maintained Charter as my Internet Service Provider. I chose Charter because at the time Bellsouth wouldn’t allow me to have internet with no phone service. Charter’s service is spotty at best and frustrating beyond belief at worst.
I have kept Charter as my Internet Service Provider for one reason, the twitter support was AMAZING! The guys (haven’t encountered a woman yet) who provide tech supports via twitter are awesome! They have fixed many a problem for me and I appreciate their abilities and their follow-up and follow through.
Over the past few months it had become clear that virtual support was not enough to fix my service. I needed a tech on the ground at ground zero (AKA my office). I set the appointment via twitter for Friday afternoon between 1-3pm. I received a call at 12:45 on Friday confirming my appointment. At 3:15 I tweeted my frustration at the lack of attendance by the tech:
The response I received shocked me:
The moral of the story is Social Media can help you find customers, it can help you maintain and retain customers, BUT ultimately a company MUST be able to backup their Social Media efforts with true product and service.
Charter lost me as a customer because their service did not live up to their social media. Do your social media efforts match your product or service?
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