Week Two: Can you hear me now? Good!

Have you ever experienced difficulty communicating with a business? Would social media have made it easier to get noticed or get your problem solved? If not, have you ever had a positive experience communicating with a business through social media? 

Once upon a time, in the land of Leave it to Beaver and The Brady Bunch, the majority of your personal business was done on a face to face basis (Sam the Butcher, anyone?) The next door neighbor was the paperboy, the neighbor one block over worked at the grocer, and everyone knew everyone. Fast forward to the faceless companies you deal with and the somewhat meaningless interactions, if any interaction at all. So, if (when...not trying to be 'glass is half empty' kinda gal, but I'm a realist) you have a problem, how do you go about finding the solution when you can't even find a real person to talk to?  

A while back, I had a problem with a certain cell phone carrier that maybe you can guess, based on the title of this post. I joined this carrier somewhat reluctantly when the husband and I joined forces. I was a tried and true loyalist to the other big time carrier since my Nokia 5160 days. 

Snake, anyone?

At first, I thought I was going to be ok. But then the smartphone revolution happened - and I jumped on that bandwagon. I watched the iPhone 3G come out, but still couldn't pull the trigger. I had retired the Nokia long ago, but made the switch to another manufacturer that rhymes with Schmotorola, thanks in part to the enticing sales pitch about how this was the BEST phone ever with no problems blah blah blah. I was sold and in an instant, my comfy, no issue with the cell phone first world existence was sent into a dysfunctional spiral. 

I'll save you the dramatics, the back and forth, the RUDE customer service people who told me things like I probably broke it and am trying to scam the system (this was after I received my 3rd replacement and had it for less than 24 hours), and on and on and on. This was in the time where we rode the MySpace ride until the train came to a full complete stop and Facebook wasn't the hashtagging magnate it is today. The point was I had zero recourse in the matter. My only option was to mail it in and hope for the best. Eventually, I was able to reach someone who finally let it go that the phone I kept being burned by was actually a HUGE problem and failure on both the carrier and manufacturer's part. She asked me if I wanted to go with a different Android phone or if I wanted switch to an iOS device. By this time, I bit into the Apple and had acquired my first i product. So I went with the iOS device and haven't looked back.  

The moral of this story is I now loathe *insert V carrier here* and anytime I have to call them, all it does is conjure up feelings about the wasted time and travel and postage and effort. Even though they are a large, faceless corporation, those big guys now have a bigger guy to contend with...social media. One post and depending on what it is and how far it travels, can cause disarray in the woven fabric of sales promotions and lackluster customer service.  Social media gives a type of transparency to an organization and gives you, the customer, the power to "reach out and touch someone."

Had this problem happened today, I could write a fun song, maybe make a catchy video...there are so many options! I don't know if it would have been easier to get my problem solved, but the point is I could feel like someone cared enough to solve my problem - maybe that's only because the squeaky keyboard gets the grease??  I'd like to think it's because companies now realize the value of social media and the impact one post could have on their image.