A few months ago I wrote "Tweet now, Phone Later" about how Twitter customer support is often far superior to phone support. But, old habits die hard, so when I needed to get in touch with someone about my new Verizon phone order, I found myself on endless hold listening to recordings of the latest offers, and even eventually being sent to a "this number is no longer in service."
Twitter To The Rescue
The pitfalls and problems of phone automation services are plentiful, but I'm not writing this article to point all of that out. The really neat thing that happened, was when I gave up all hope, I sent a lone tweet to @VZWsupport - and do you know what happened? I got a reply. Almost instantly.
Tweet view as sent through MarketMeSuite
Within about 10 minutes we were DM'ing. I sent my phone number, and 5 minutes later, it rang. I almost couldn't believe it after having spent the better part of an hour battling with phone automation and pressing just the right combination of numbers to get to an actual person...
I answered, and on the other side of the phone was a lovely lady (if you are reading this please comment with your name, I can't remember it unfortunately), who was ready to help me with my issue. I asked her if she was the one tweeting and she was. This was amazing. I went from disgruntled customer to chatting with someone to that very someone calling me on the phone. It was social media perfection.
It's All About Being Heard...
The funny thing is, my issue still isn't resolved, but it wasn't for lack of trying. And you know what? I'm not that upset about it. I felt like someone reached out, in a human way, and tried to help me. The fact that we couldn't resolve the issue wasn't the fault of customer service. And I think that's a big lesson. Customers aren't always looking for the perfect answer, but what drives customers crazy (at least this customer) is not being able to be heard, and not having someone TRY to help.
So Kudos, Verizon Wireless. While you may need to work on your phone support, @VZWsupport is doing a great job.
