Feeling the Twitter Love

OK, I admit it. I don’t tweet as much as I probably should. Don’t get me wrong, I am an avid Twitter user – following people and organizations I think are interesting, important or just fun. But actually tweeting what I am doing personally – well, sometimes I find myself at a loss. I love Twitter – getting breaking news fast, hearing people’s reactions quickly, and obviously I use it for my clients a lot -- just not for personal tweeting (at least not frequently).

But this week I did tweet a couple of gripes I had. One was with Comcast (I mean, who doesn’t have a gripe with Comcast?). I moved into my house a year ago and after completely flubbing the installation of my phone/Internet/cable for over a month, they still cannot get my call waiting working (yes, seriously). I have spent more than 8 hours on the phone with them on this issue and still nothing. The other day I missed an important call because of this issue so I tweeted it. Within minutes @comcastcares reached out to ask what they can do. Fingers crossed – maybe it will actually work!

Then earlier this week I went to order some framed artwork for Christmas from Gallery Direct. It said at the top of the site that all prints were 50% off; but between the time I ordered and the time I went to checkout (within the same session) the sale ended and my entire order was marked full priced. Was this fair? Honestly I don’t know for sure. It didn't seem like it to me. It annoyed me so I called their customer service (something I almost never do). The woman was insistent about it being appropriate and was actually rather rude. So I tweeted my gripe. Last night I received an incredibly gracious email from the manager – making me an even better offer than what I had initially and apologizing for my bad experience. I was totally impressed by this response and have suddenly transformed into a Gallery Direct (@gallerydirect) fan.

Would I have gotten these responses without Twitter? I don’t think so. In the case of Comcast, I think they are wisely using Twitter to help curtail a fairly horrid reputation for customer service. In the case of Gallery Direct, I now genuinely feel that the relatively small company cares about its customers and customer service. But if it had not been for Twitter, that manager may have never known about my bad customer experience.

So here’s to the power of Twitter! Now I am going to go tweet something positive about these companies. (That’s only fair, right?)