Social Media in Action
A few weeks ago I went to Best Buy to get a new laptop and software. I asked for what I wanted and left with my new laptop fully loaded with software. It wasn’t until I got home that I noticed the Microsoft Office version and Internet protection software loaded wasn’t what I had asked for. So, the following week (when I had time), I went back and explained that they had provided and installed the wrong version of Microsoft Office (it was a non-commercial use version). They told me an upgrade would solve the problem.
Today, I finally had a chance to load the upgrade and well, you guessed it, it was still a non-commercial use version and not what I wanted at all.
I packed up the laptop and all the software boxes and trekked back over to Best Buy. This would be my third trip and last time I was there I got a bit of resistance (they didn’t want to deal with returning opened and used software). So this time around, I thought I should see if Best Buy customer service was on Twitter.
A bunch of folks on Twitter let me know that the CMO of Best Buy, Barry Judge (@BestBuyCMO) was on Twitter (thank you @LenKendall, @DMASocialMedia, @KeithBurtis, @PhilBaumann for letting me know). I tweeted the CMO of Twitter and got a response from Gina, Best Buy’s Community Manager (@gina_community). Gina sent me an e-mail address and asked me to let her know what was going on at the store. I sent her an e-mail from my BlackBerry to get her up-to-date.
In the meantime, the Product Manager (Dwayne) at Best Buy was working with me to figure out what the next steps were. Simultaneously I was interacting with Gina on-line and Dwayne offline. Gina also e-mailed the store to see what progress was being made.
Dwayne was great and I was able to return all of the software that I couldn’t use and I finally got what I needed.
I was really glad to see that Best Buy was listening on Twitter, but unfortunately, they paid the price for not listening off-line (they are now stuck with a bunch of software that they can’t re-sell).
By the way, this whole situation was resolved in about 10-15 minutes and I can finally give kudos to Best Buy. I guess it’s true what they say… “third time’s a charm.”
[Image: San Fransisco Chronicle, SFGate.com]
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Tags: 13 Responses to “Social Media in Action”
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Great to hear that they’re actively listening and quickly did something about it. It is unfortunate that offline communication has lost its swagger but I think with the influx of community managers, we have a good chance of seeing CM’s values infecting the business offline as well – at least I hope.
Sonny Gill’s last blog post..what makes a great community manager?
[...] Read Beth’s story here [...]
@SonnyGill, yes, I was surprised as well that they were on Twitter. But it seems to me that they need more help off-line than on. Hopefully they will work on their off-line customer service sooner than later.
Interesting, you would have thought a forward thinking company like Best Buy would have had better service offline. Especially considering the accessibility of C-Level employees online. Great customer service will always be best when conducted face to face or over the phone…regardless of how awesome the tech is. I learned this lesson the hard way this past year. Meeting people is important…and easy to forget.
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That’s a great story. You wonder though, how long will this type of personal service last? As Twitter goes mainstream, if it does…
For now we should all just be happy about it and use it to our advantage.
I’ve been noticing that customer service is going downhill everywhere from the grocery stores to retail stores. I’ve been finding bad attitudes this Christmas season, from the stock people to the management. No one wants to help you find what you are looking for, and they don’t care if you buy because there’s someone in line behind you that will.
Recently, I went shopping and after 20 minutes in line to pay the register died. Well, the cashier was obviously overwhelmed, and she took it out on the people in line. Rather than apologizing for the inconvenience and directing them to the next line, she was rude and insulting “Didn’t you hear me? I said this register is broken and you’ll have to get in that line to pay.” She practically yelled this at the people behind us. We were in the middle of making payment, or I would’ve left my items on the counter.
What is the point in having good customer service online if face-to-face customer service is so poor?
I’m just glad my shopping is done this year!
Charity Hisle’s last blog post..CharityHisle: @conniereece That was a great post! Cool idea on tweetchat! Thanks for sharing! http://everydotconnects.com/
Stuart, I’m not surprised at all.
The fact that the C-suits are on is a testament to them as individuals, but that’s no guarantee there’s an easy way to scale that down to district-level or stores.
There’s no real “training” for this. If you’ve got decent customer-service skills, you’ll do fine with Social Media. If you have good phone skills, you’ll do just fine interfacing with customers on Twitter.
If you don’t have those skills, you’re probably working at the Nerd Herd and will never make it up to the C-Suite at BuyMore world HQ.
Ike’s last blog post..Painfully Fast
Thank you for sharing Beth but your story is one of a bad customer experience not a good one. The store should have handled your requests immediately and accurately the first time, no questions asked. Twitter is a last resort, and although I have resorted to it, as well, I remain disappointed that it is necessary to get stuff right.
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@StuartFoster, @JimKukral, @Ike, @LewisGreen, Thanks for chiming in!
@Ike, that’s the MAJOR problem. The online people are not working in conjunction with the offline people. The people at the store had no idea that corporate was online. If corporations are going to start use social media for customer service they need to make sure it trickles down. And really, Best Buy is a technology store of sorts, is it not?!
@LewisGreen, to your point of bad customer service, you are right. But here’s the thing…the guy that helped me seem to be listening, pulled everything I asked for (in retrospect, not *specifically* what I asked for), did exactly what I asked and was very nice─all aspects of great customer service. Where it went wrong perhaps is that this particular person might be used to people who don’t know what they want so they leave it to the “pros” at Best Buy to make a determination. The people go away unknowing and happy. Who knows. I am not justifying the lack of customer service and the fact that I was there three times. Obviously, he heard what I wanted, but didn’t listen.
@CharityHisle, apologies your comment got caught up in my spam filter (not sure why.) That is a unbelievable…and sadly true. I have experienced the same thing.
I was at one store, plopped a bunch of items on the counter and the girl said “I don’t feel like ringing you up, can you take it over there.” No joke. I think I was in shock because I stupidly did it. Consequently, they are now out of business.
Your story makes me not want to start my holiday shopping…Glad you are all caught up!
Hi Beth! Glad things got resolved. A close friend is having a problem with Best Buy over another issue, and I was glad to find Best Buy people on twitter to try to resolve this for them.
Large companies and chains have a tough time these days. Low level employees are the first interaction customers have with a store, and not all of them have customer service as the most important part of their job. when dollars are scarce, customer service and doing the right thing are huge differentiation points in where to spend money. One angry cashier can sour a bunch of customers, not only for this sale, but for many more in the future; even when tempers are short during rush times, bad attitudes just breed more bad feelings.
I’ve had some great customer service experiences through Best Buy (we used their Magnolia Service to set up a home theater a while ago) and I have always liked them more than Circuit City, but I’ve never felt that their non-specialized sales people are very knowledgable or helpful- there aren’t very many computer geeks in the computer department, just sales people. I mis the few true computer geeks that used to live at CompUSA.
I know it’s tough to train employees in customer service and in products, but that up front investment might pay off in making the experience something people want to repeat, not avoid.
Good customer service has a long tail, but the long tail of bad customer service comes with a pretty serious bite. Glad they straightened it out for you.
Here I am, late to the party again as usual.
We’re dealing with an issue of congruity and misalignment of the online and offline sectors of the business to be sure. It’s like an engine where some of the pistons are firing, but others aren’t.
The brick-and-click companies that get it right will win in the marketplace no doubt.
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@Whitney, “Good customer service has a long tail, but the long tail of bad customer service comes with a pretty serious bite.” So true! Wish more companies would understand this.
@PaulChaney, better late than never
It will be interesting to see what the next 2-3 years brings.