360DigitalInfluence

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)