The Complaints Department
January 13th, 2010 by Jon Evans | 3 Comments »
Last week a computerized voice at TD Canada Trust called to inform me that my ATM card’s security had been compromised, and I had to come get a new one; meanwhile, my old card had been deactivated. This irritated me, not least because it was the second such call in three weeks. So I did what any right-thinking modern man does when faced with a petty annoyance. I groused about it on Twitter.
Minutes later my friend J. responded that the same thing had happened to him and his wife twice in two weeks. They’d been told it was a local skimming scam in Toronto’s Beaches — but I hadn’t been out thataway in over a month. I quickly drew two conclusions:
• TDCT’s recent security problems were more widespread than they admitted to their customers.
• Twitter is more interesting than I thought.
Twitter’s long-term strategy is to be “the pulse of the planet.” At first that sounded ridiculous to me — but you know what, maybe it’s half-right. Maybe its fire hose of data can be filtered, collated, and used to draw connections that would have otherwise gone unseen.
Corporations have been quick to realize this. Another online friend of mine recently went to the U.S. with her iPhone, and was charged $300 even though she had turned data roaming off. She called Rogers; they said it was her fault for not turning off 3G. So she complained on Twitter — and Rogers noticed, and contacted her, and refunded the charge in full.
Why? Because companies don’t care if individual customers are upset, but if they tell enough people about it in writing, on a public forum where complaints can easily be retweeted across the Twittersphere — well, that’s different. I still don’t know about pulse of the planet; but Twitter as the world’s complaint department? Now that I can buy.
Here in the First World, we complain about First World problems: inactive ATM cards, excessive data charges. It’s mostly no big deal. But in the developing world, there are real complaints. In particular, endemic corruption. I have long argued that the human leeches (i.e., government leaders) who steal money from their own people are the single biggest problem the Third World faces.
A few years ago, a Very Large Corporation called for ideas on how to use technology to help sub-Saharan Africa; I suggested a corruption-reporting service to name and shame those parasites. The company liked the idea, but it didn’t go forward. (See my latest Maisonneuve column for more about why.)
But now I realize that there’s no need for anybody to implement such a system. It already exists. It’s called Twitter. And in a few years, the developing world will have ubiquitous access to it via both the internet and cell-phone SMS, the medium for which Twitter was originally designed.
The cephalopod of corruption has long festered in the shadows, and held the poor world back with its bloodsucking tentacles. Call me an optimist, but I can easily imagine the monster finally dragged into light by a few Twitter hashtags, some judicious data mining, and the unquenchable human urge to complain. Paging Transparency International. Perhaps your Holy Grail is here.
Hi Jon — This is Mary and I’m with the Rogers online communications team, @RogersHelps. I was just reading your blog and wanted to take some time to say that I really enjoyed it.
You make some interesting points about Twitter as “the world’s complaint department” that I would like to add to. First of all, I’m glad we were able to help your friend. It’s one of the things we take pride in doing because we’ve committed to improving the customer experience. While our team is not meant to replace exiting Care functions – all customers must start there – we try to help were we can.
But that’s not the only job we do. In fact, it’s not even the primary function. It would become a complaint department if all we did was find/respond but what’s very important is that we’re listening as well. We’re interested in what our customers have to say and we bring that information back into the company. It’s about interaction and helping create change from the outside in. It’s about having an open conversation with customers on a level we never had before.
We also use the opportunity to provide information. While @RogersHelps and @RogersVousAide are primarily for customer assistance, we also have @RogersBuzz and @BuzzRogers to provide news and information for our customers.
It’s still a new and every changing environment so we’re learning as we go along. Most companies are. I look forward to seeing more embrace this new communications arena because we’re finding it’s been a great vehicle for staying in touch with our customers. And, if along the way we help with a complaint or two, well then that’s a bonus :)
Thanks for the post. If you need any information, just let me know!
Take care,
Mary
@RogersMary
Much as I’d like to share your optimism, it’s worth noting that there’s been no change in power in Tehran, despite the number of Twitterers apparently located there. It’s a piece of a solution, perhaps, but not a silver harpoon.
Now, I have managed to avoid Twitter so far, more out contempt for such inanities as “twittersphere”, though like the toxic Facebook, I may be forced to succumb eventually (so that I, too, can trade all hopes of intelligent discourse with my friends for ridiculous short blurbs like “Bob Jones is standing in a toilet lineup 30 deep!!!!!”).
What I don’t get is, how does Rogers come to see an individual Tweet (there, I’m succumbing already…)? Did your friend send it to them? Do they have some way of monitoring the speherisphere for Tweets that include their name? How do they separate all the tweets about crappy cellphone service from those containing “Rogers Sugar Co.”, or “Roger’s Nuts and Fruit Emporium”, or “Gosh that Ginger Rogers could dance”, or “Roger’s a big fat jerk who stood me up last Friday”, or…? Surely they don’t have staff intercepting and reading every Tweet with the word “Rogers” in it?
Call me yesterday’s man, but I just don’t get it. Will someone please educate me so that I don’t have to actually use the damn thing to find out?