Convention. #Worst #CustomerServiceExperience ever.” Literally three minutes after my post, I hear over the loud speaker, “Ladies and gentlemen, we are now offering a travel voucher of $1,000 to the first person to voluntarily give up their seat.” Barely a minute later, “Susan Janett, would Susan Janett come to the United counter?” When I got there, the attendant handed me a phone. It was a United Customer Service Manager. The nice woman on the phone said, “We are so sorry for any inconvenience this misunderstanding has caused. We have a seat for you on the plane and will have you in Nashville in time to speak at the convention. Please accept our apologies.” In the end, I made it to Nashville on time, and my colleague Ben Gutkin and I had a great time with a packed audience. This is not how I would have scripted it, but sometimes you just can’t make this stuff up. Takeaways from the experience: • While United was certainly influenced by the sheer size of my following, I have heard many stories where simply mentioning the name of a company the right way gets a very fast response, regardless of number of followers, because they don’t want things going viral. I have also seen how fuel companies fail to react properly to these kinds of situations, and seen problems mushroom. • You cannot afford to ignore the growing power and influence of social media. Like anything else, unhappy customers tend to be more motivated to publically complain than happy ones. Increasingly, potential customers check out your reviews online before they pick up the phone to call you. Nipping bad reviews in the bud, and overwhelming bad ones with positive reviews, is an essential part of your marketing strategy. • Our company, Warm Thoughts Communications, Inc., handles marketing for many of the top heating oil, propane and HVAC companies in the country. Often, they enter the social media realm slowly, with trepidation, because they don’t really understand how it works, or they can’t see the immediate ROI. In particular, if an owner isn’t connected, he has a hard time prioritizing this. However, all you need to do is look at the valuation of Facebook to realize where the game is headed. It’s not just about reviews, but ways to engage customers, get referrals, build your brand, advertise to very select groups, you name it. Simply having a Facebook page or Twitter account is not the answer. In fact, it can even backfire on you if you manage it poorly. Likewise, simply assigning the “person in the office who is on Facebook a lot” to come up with your social media strategy is like finding someone who drives an SUV and putting him behind the wheel of a delivery truck. ICM Susan Janett leads Warm Thoughts Communications’ social marketing team, managing more than 40 social campaigns for oil, propane and HVAC companies as well as FMANJ Love My Oilheat and the NCPERF Love My Propane campaigns. Connect with Susan at sjanett@ warmthoughts.com or text/call 551-556-0224. 26 ICM/September/October 2016
ICM September-October 2016
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