Aug 26
Why Twitter Should Matter To You 102: UHaul Edition
by Kaitlyn Wilkins
Category: Digital Reputation, Word of Mouth Marketing
I find it immensely difficult to explain Twitter to individuals and clients who are not currently involved in the platform. In my effort to demystify it, I posted Why Twitter Should Matter To You 101: Olympic Edition last week. In this post I discussed three ways that a newbie could begin to see the value in Twitter using a nice, friendly worldwide event as a reference point.
I didn’t anticipate the Why Twitter Should Matter to You becoming a series - but low and behold here we are. Today I saw something go down on Twitter that I couldn’t NOT write about - simply because it applies to so many companies today. Companies that likely look at Twitter as one of those “geeky kid” things that don’t have real impact on their bottom line. So Lesson #2 for those of you who are trying to get your arms around Twitter: While Twitter is incredibly helpeful for a brand or an individual who wants to get proactively involved in a conversation - it’s also an essential customer service tool in today’s fast paced social media environment. Speed kills. And nowhere are brands built up, and torn down, faster than Twitter. For example, today David Alston (@DavidAlston) of Radian6 and tweetpr tweeted this:
“My wife just went through a totally rude customer service experience with our local UHaul rep. Downright rude. Do they want the business?”
David has over 1,500 “followers” on Twitter, who see his updates on Twitter or directly on their mobile devices. Within an hour, nearly two dozen others (including myself) had used Twitter to responded with their own UHaul woe.
- “Uhaul does NOT care. Period.” @FreshFocus (415 followers)
- ” I’ve learned never to use UHaul! They screwed up my move and offered me a $5 gift certificate?!?!” @karimkanji (75 followers)
- ” UHaul has quite the reputation. Poor customer service is almost an art form. [link to Consumerist posts on UHaul" @jmoriarty (405 followers)
- "In my experience, Uhaul has some of the worst customer service I have ever experienced. They don't care." @adamlevenson (213 followers)
- "UHaul hands down has the worst customer service I have ever dealt with in my life. Phone and face-to-face." @paul177 (48 followers)
- "Some of the absolute worst customer service experiences I have ever had came from dealing with UHaul agents [in Halifax].” @quietrevolution (153 followers)
- “after my move on Saturday…I hate UHaul…awful service” @prkeener (52 followers)
- “thousands of horror stories about them, I’m lucky my local Uhaul is great.” @unmarketing (656 followers)
- “Just back from maddening trip to Uhaul to get our money back for failed hitch install. Contemplating my options.” @rynosoft (128 followers)
- “I will NEVER use Uhaul again. I have had way too many problems with them - bad equipment, oversold equipment, etc.” @KeenerGuy (119 followers)
- “I’ve rented some from them. I’ve just walked in, and turned off all my needs. Their CS people are just about useless.” @novartis (43 followers)
- “Uhaul! Argh…broken axel, 115 degrees, I-5 in San Joaquin Valley, and they cannot find me. Took 6hrs to get back on the road.” @josephwilburn (93 followers)
- “I hate Uhaul. Reserved a trailer to move from Boston to DC 6 weeks out, only to find out (when *I* called) they didn’t have one.” @CatchUpLady - ME! (247 followers)
- “got lots of UHaul horror stories. Worked there while in college. Where do I submit?” @ChrisJohnson (1,163 followers)
- “uHaul has pitiful customer service” @duncanfreeman (216 followers)
- “My guess is many consumers aren’t aware of other choices and suffer through UHaul anyways” @brandonzeman (45 followers)
- “I think some companies survive *in spite of* horrendous service. Uhaul fails on many levels. poorly maintained trucks too.” @brightwhite (191 followers)
- “UHaul sounds like the equivalent of the Royal Mail in the UK, poor customer service, rude, never on time, frequently lost items.” @6consulting (84 followers)
- “I’m going to need a moving truck soon, always just went with uhaul…maybe I should try another company this time around” @johnsgunn (125 followers)
So, for those of you playing along at home - in less than two hours, dozens of people responded to a single Tweet regarding UHaul, and effectively told 3,763 other people that they disliked the brand. And the conversation is still going. Someone just posted the CEO’s cell phone number.
For a company that is not “listening” to social media - this tree just fell in the forest, and nobody heard it. Whatever the corporate line is for not participating in social media (fear of losing control of the message, man hours required to staff a digital program, etc.) there is no doubt that situations like this not only hurt a brand’s corporate reputation online and off, but actually impact consumers purchase decisions. One of the most recent Tweets indicates that one individual is now contemplating using another moving company as a result of these conversations. Ouch.
So what’s the flip side of this? A company that IS listening can turn a negative situation like this into a positive. What if UHaul was already on Twitter, and used tools like Twitter Search or Tweetscan to follow brand related conversation. What if they said “thanks” to those who shared positive stories, and offered discount coupons and apologies to those who shared unfavorable experiences?
Dozens of brands are currently using Twitter in this way, and I would argue its an incredibly effective, and totally essential customer service tool. I have personally experienced this sort of Twustomer service from Pandora, as I have issues with my music player. As a result, instead of going on a rant about them on my blog, Facebook and Twitter, I felt like I was being listened to and someone on the other end cared. And now they’re one of my favorite Web 2.0 customer service stories (even though my problem can’t be resolved!)
Certain brands have a looooong row to hoe to improve their customer service, and getting on Twitter would be the online equivalent of putting a bandaid on a bullet wound - but it’s a pretty vocal bullet wound, and could be a great first step as a company makes deeper, more meaningful customer service improvements.
18 Responses to “Why Twitter Should Matter To You 102: UHaul Edition”
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August 26th, 2008 at 4:58 pm
Thank you! It sheds light on the importance (and downright necessity) of Tweetscan addiction.
August 27th, 2008 at 3:02 am
Great post on Twitter and the reasons to use it as a communications tool. I too have great difficulty explaining the benefits and reasons to use it, but you’re explanation here is clear and well stated. Mahalo!
August 27th, 2008 at 12:07 pm
Great article. Shows very well why companies should follow twitter. Great example with Uhaul. I’d have to agree completely with those comments. I’ve only dealt with them one time for a move and it was horrible.
This is a great line:
“For a company that is not “listening†to social media - this tree just fell in the forest, and nobody heard it.”
Well said.
August 27th, 2008 at 12:20 pm
Thanks for sharing a great example, and reinforcing the need to be listening.
August 27th, 2008 at 12:38 pm
Great post! I have a column on the UHaul “story” coming out in a few days. When all of this was unfolding earlier this week I contacted UHaul on their web site and let them know it was going on and made some suggestions about how to respond. Nothing.
September 18th, 2008 at 9:51 pm
I am a Uhaul customer service Rep. the majority of problems people have with uhaul are that they do not understand what it means to return the truck clean and gased to the proper level. i wish there was a “stupid” customer fee i could charge. granted most our trucks are P.O.S. but thats because uhaul is a large corporation that doesnt care. + all of the trucks are abused by… stupid customers.
BE NICE TO THE UHAUL CUSTOMER SERVICE REP AND THEYLL PROBABLY BE NICE TO YOU.
September 30th, 2008 at 9:51 am
And with that said by “Uhaul CSF” we see why UHAUL is in the situation it is in. “Stupid customers” indeed.
October 4th, 2008 at 1:34 pm
I work for U-Haul too. You are right, we need to engage in the conversations tanking place in social media like Twitter.
Moving is such a stressful time for people and when there are problems, they just escalate the stress level. U-Haul serves 11 million customers a year in the U.S. and Canada. We have 18,000 employees and 14,000 dealers. The vast majority are great people who really do want to help their customers. Most of us were U-Haul customers before we started working for the company. In my case, my experience moving my family with U-Haul when I was in the Navy was one of the reasons I applied for work here.
However, things do go wrong. There are no stupid customers or evil U-Haul people, just fallible human beings. Most of the time we succeed, sometimes we fail. Sometimes we admit our mistakes, sometimes we get defensive and blame our customers.
Uhaul CSF obviously doesn’t understand our company or why we are in businees. He or she probably should move on to another line of work. I will pass their post on to our Customer Service Dept.
January 21st, 2009 at 8:03 am
[...] Why Twitter Should Matter To You 102: Uhaul Edition “While Twitter is incredibly helpful for a brand or an individual who wants to get proactively involved in a conversation - it’s also an essential customer service tool in today’s fast paced social media environment” Example — Uhaul. [...]
January 21st, 2009 at 2:17 pm
[...] If your curious what it looks like at other end of the spectrum, I urge you to read my recent post Why Twitter Should Matter to You: UHaul Edition. Given these two extremes, where is your company? Where do you want it to [...]
February 10th, 2009 at 11:35 pm
[...] example, David Alston Twittered about his wife’s bad experience with UHaul. He said, My wife just went through a totally rude customer service experience with our local UHaul [...]
March 20th, 2009 at 12:17 pm
I also work for U-Haul, have for about 9 months now. Tom hit the issue right on the head; moving is stressful, especially in an economic time when people are often not happy that they have to move. Losing your home or your job or simply moving is more stressful than most can understand unless they have experienced it. U-Haul customer service representatives are often and mostly incredibly friendly and helpful. Also realize, people are quick to post and blogg about their negative experiences but there are millions of customers that come back to us time and again because they are satisfied and had a great experience.
If you are a pleasent person and kind to the U-Haul employee, you will most likely get that in return.
April 1st, 2009 at 8:05 pm
[...] I’ve pointed out the solid evidence. It is paramount to manage your online reputation. See Kaitlyn Wilkins article on Why twitter should matter to you. [...]
April 11th, 2009 at 11:17 am
[...] Why Twitter should matter to you [...]
May 1st, 2009 at 10:10 am
[...] convinced? Read this « Bought another Domain from [...]
June 29th, 2009 at 1:16 pm
[...] Why Twitter Should Matter To You 102: Uhaul Edition “While Twitter is incredibly helpful for a brand or an individual who wants to get proactively involved in a conversation – it’s also an essential customer service tool in today’s fast paced social media environment” Example — Uhaul. [...]
September 15th, 2009 at 1:51 pm
[...] can help build your brand As Kaitlyn Wilkins writes on Fresh Influence, brands are built — or torn down — lightning-fast on Twitter. No other medium has the capacity to get a message out as quickly to a large group of people. She [...]
February 1st, 2010 at 1:11 pm
Hi Twitter is something we as a company cannot see the point of. How does it really work?
We can’t seem to get a handle on why so many people are talking about it. Is there any advice out there?