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Direct Fail

On two or three occasions I have bought stuff from Digital City in Sydney. Each time they did the usual “you need to give us your address for warranty purposes” bullshit. So yesterday I received three identical mail-outs from said organisation via Australia Post, who were forwarding stuff to me from my old apartment.

How did they manage to send me the same flyer three times on the same day? Well, how about by getting every single instance of my (previous) address wrong in a slightly different way?

Cluetrainwreck

A week or two ago, TechCrunch’s Michael Arrington had a problem with his Comcast Internet access, and tore into the company over Twitter, causing the usual minor blog-storm.

Comcast’s reaction to this was interesting. They opened a Twitter account to watch for and respond to as many mentions of their company as they could.

At the face of it, this isn’t a bad idea. I’ve got a couple of similar keyword watches on Twitter myself, and have been known score some cheap goodwill points for my employer by following up on the occasional alert. I just can’t help thinking that there’s something in the big company DNA that is unable to adapt to this kind of public-but-personal service.

Here are some direct quotes from the “comcastcares” Twitter account, all from the last twenty-four hours.

• “I do hope we will be able to change any negative perception” #
• “I hope we can change your perception.” #
• “I hope I can change your perception of Comcast!” #
• “How can we change your perception?” #

When a phrasing like this is (a) so unlike normal speech, and (b) repeated so often, it’s pretty clear that it’s being used as a matter of policy. Some meeting was had to whiteboard the perfect response that sounds concerned and proactive, but admits absolutely no fault on the part of the carrier.

Which is a problem. When someone complains, they want someone to ask them “What’s wrong?” and be in a position to fix it. They don’t want to hear that really everything is fine, and it’s their perception that’s at fault. It’s no wonder people sometimes get pissed off by the response.

Joining in the online conversation is a great way to connect to your customers. But only if you’re prepared to be human and honest.

Command History Meme

See here, here, etc.

152 RUN
73 LOAD "*",8,1
42 LIST
20 POKE
8 PEEK

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