Now, onto the real reason that I am writing about social media today. There have been a lot of stories lately about businesses who have embraced social media and as a result have been able to provide excellent customer service online. When people are treated wrongly by a business they tend to tell their friends about it. Word of mouth is the fast spreading form of advertising and PR. With the speed of communication on the Internet today, word of mouth is even faster. I recently had my own experience like that.
I was rear-ended and the result ended up totaling my car (a 2010 Chevy Cobalt with 7,000 miles). Now, the guy who hit me was telling a different story so his insurance company (AllState) wasn't going to accept the liability without a police report. This meant that I couldn't get a rental car to get to work (my bad, I didn't have rental insurance on my own policy). Now, to make matters worse, the lady I was dealing with through AllState gave me attitude every time I talked to her. I also experienced a very painful case of whiplash, and my back is still hurting from the accident. For whatever reason, it was a week before my agent got hands on the police report. I was able to be treated for my injury, but not having a car made things difficult. Things were not going smoothly and as you can imagine I was getting quite frustrated. After being told by AllState that I still couldn't get a rental, even though they had the police report and would be accepting full liability, I took to Twitter.
Within five to ten minutes I got a DM from AllState apologizing for my inconvenience and asking for my contact info to rectify my situation. Long story short, I ended up back on the phone with the original agent I had been working with (the one with the attitude) and suddenly she turned into a sweet person and quickly got me a rental reservation for three days. I even got a follow-up phone call from one of the executive corporate managers the next afternoon to ensure that my situation had been solved in the right way. It's amazing what social media can do when used the right way.
Now, I will probably never consider AllState for my own insurance policy, but I did gain a new respect for them with their quick response to my tweets and rectifying my situation. As I learned from #SMACSRIT and my professors, monitoring your online brand is very important in today's day and age.
Thank you AllState for following through to get me a needed rental. Thank you to my social media mentors for teaching me how to engage in the right way in situations as they arise. I will leave this post with my tweet right after I got my confirmed rental reservation number.
Hey Tracy;
ReplyDeleteThis is a great post and it really has a two-fold message. First off, it's great that AllState came through for you when you took your concerns to Twitter. Huge kudos to the company for monitoring Social Media to keep an eye on their brand.
But, it's also sad that all too often these days consumers are forced to take their plea and concerns to places such as Twitter. It seems many companies have little to no idea what customer service really means these days. Here's hoping the woman with the 'tude you dealt with first also received a call from AllState management telling her that she should have dealt with you more nicely the first time around. A customer should never have to escalate concerns to this level.
But, I wrap up this comment by saying - Well done Tracy, yee haw for Social Media and kudos to AllState for doing the right thing.
Dr. Rus
Dr. Rus,
ReplyDeleteThis is true. From working at The Home Depot I have become passionate about the customer service experience and ensuring I give each of my customers my best. I have also noticed lately that when I am a customer at retail stores that the majority of the time associates are not friendly or helpful. It is sad that society has become like this. Customer service in of itself is a topic that I could go on and on about in a whole new blog post. Might want to keep an eye for that. ;-)
Tracy