Want to Know Who Really Gets Social Networks?
Apr 22nd, 2009 by David Svet
All of the money making hype about social media has a tendency to overwhelm one of its most powerful uses — customer service. Many of us have heard the stories about Comcast and their use of Twitter to manage customer issues. But there seems to be no end of the folks who aren’t sold on its value, so I’m here to celebrate one that obviously does get it — Sprint. Yes, you read correctly, Sprint — the telco that can’t seem to catch a break in the press is actually kicking it in the social networks with customer service.
Sprint has a presence on Twitter with quite a few folks actively participating in conversations. I met one of them, @jbtaylor, while following the Twitter stream one day. I mistakenly assumed he was in Kansas City and struck up a related conversation. He politely let me know that he was in Reston and gave me the contact info for @jgoldsborough in Kansas City. I followed him and he followed back, as did several other Sprint employees. Interesting — kindness to strangers for no apparent reason.
- Victory 1. Simple social networking provides direct contact with local and national resources. Suddenly, I have people.
I followed their conversations and bantered with them occasionally. I even met @jgoldsborough when he spoke at a local conference. I made a brief introduction amid the hundreds of others he received. I even got a believable hint of recognition in spite of the fact that I was the 937th guy to say, “hey, I follow you on Twitter, my name’s…”
- Victory 2. Social networking face person makes public appearances and becomes a real person for the customers. Hey, now I know that guy! I’m feeling pretty good about Sprint.
Then it all went to hell. My wife starts shrieking incoherently about cell phones, Sprint, her sister in England, and I don’t know what else. She’s mad. She had a misunderstanding with someone at the Sprint store about international calls and found out when she got the invoice. So, I did my best calm husband impersonation and told her I know someone to contact.
Then I sent a tweet to @jgoldsborough expecting nothing. Like magic, he replies, and is very helpful. We exchange email addresses. I got my wife to write down her version of the story and we were put in contact on the phone and email with Jennifer in customer service. Poof, problem solved, apologies all around, some new training for the store clerks and everybody’s happy.
- Victory 3. The system works and I am writing about how much I love Sprint customer service.
It’s easy to get excited about how much money can be made selling when a new technology comes along. Sometimes it’s more important to take a long-term view and put the tool to another use, like increasing the lifetime value of your customers.
This is a great way to solve problems. Usually you don’t go through Marketing to get to customer service so it is great to have many different levels of people on Twitter to warrant the storm. Twitter is a new technology but good old fashioned communication is essential. The problem is convincing companies they need more then just a marketer being on Twitter and monitoring what is going on.
I guess sometimes people don’t understand this conversation stream. Why it is important and what you can do to make your brand better.
I know Justin Goldsborough pretty well and he is a wonderful person who represents Sprint very well in his job. I met Justin for the first time in person after we had talked quite a bit via Twitter at the Kansas City IABC event a few months ago. You are right in saying that Justin is very personable and friendly. Great guy all around and one who most definitely wants to see Sprint succeed in the social media space.