All powerful TweetDeck -A very interesting situation happened to me the other day, and after the events rolled out positively the way they did, I realized that it could have had a totally different outcome. Using Twitter for “Good or Evil”.
The situation – my Mother wanted to take her two sisters visiting from The Netherlands, for a night in Toronto. Of course I suggested that they go to a very well known, historical and exclusive hotel – The Royal York. My husband and I helped them to book into a nice room, we were satisfied that we were helping them to get an “experience”. WELL let me tell you, an experience it was! Needless to say, when my Mom arrived home the next day and told me what happened, I was shocked, surprised and down right appalled. Though my Mother did speak to the front desk just before she left the hotel, and they kindly gave my aunts and Mom a complimentary breakfast. I told her – NOT ENOUGH!!!! I Tweeted my anger.
Here is the dilemma I am in – did I do this for good? – to let others know what potentially they may find at Royal York Hotel in Toronto and to help my Mom feel like her bad experience was somewhat eased? OR did I do this for evil – knowing full well the damage that this could potentially do to the hotels reputation?
Why didn’t I call the customer service line to voice my complaint and anger? Why didn’t I pen a very strong and seething email? Why did I take 10 seconds and type 140 characters of anger and then say “take that RYH”? Lazy? Easy? or Powerful?
Did I expect a response? I hoped for one, but was not sure if Royal York Hotel and The Fairmont monitored tweets – and YES they do, and within 30 minutes I received and invitation to talk to them to discuss a resolution. Within a few hours, the conversation had happened and they were more than considerate and generous with their resolution, and my Mother is very satisfied that her complaint was dealt with.
Has society (online anyway) created more than three ways to file a complaint (in person, on the phone and by email – I mean who writes a letter anymore?). We have built another communication channel to deal with customer service issues - and it worked.
What if I didn’t get a response? I am a great heroine to the world for letting them know what kind of surprises you might find in a hotel room, even a hotel like The Royal York (I will now forever check behind the window curtains the second I step into a hotel room).
I realize that the outcome of this story was a happy ending and was handled with great tactfulness by The Royal York Hotel in Toronto. But that doesn’t help me sleep any better at night asking myself – Did I Tweet for Good or for Evil?
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4 comments:
Twitter allots consumers a greater voice, and in turn greater power. When you have a bad experience with a company that you share with friends, warning them to avoid that company, you are also knowingly harming that company, however, with Twitter, the company has a chance to respond to your publicly voiced complaints; thus, in my mind, this is the less "evil" option. As in your situation, the hotel was able to defend itself and given the opportunity to make it right with you. This is a perfect example of why it is so crucial for companies to monitor and participate in social media.
Sounds like you had a good response from Tweeting your frustrations. It’s a sad commentary that we feel compelled to do that to get companies to provide the service they should have in the first place. If more companies would welcome negative input and learn from it, as this article (http://www.upyourservice.com/learning-library/customer-service-contact/complaints-compliments-good-communication) points out, most would be better off. Congratulations on getting their attention!
Companies no longer have a choice, but if they hope to remain on top of their competition they have to be monitoring Twitter. Crazy how the world is shifting.
Very few organizations check their twitter or other social media. Especially governments.
If I'm motivated to make a complaint then, I truly am seeking to engage the company. I've found that a registered letter to the company's CEO describing the situation, issues that arose and how I want to be recompensed is more effective than dealing with the customer call line.
Plus if I want to escalate the matter by lodging formal complaints with the appropriate agency then I have proof that I have informed them of the problem.
Works!
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