In the past, if you wanted to contact a company with an idea or a problem, you rang then up or even wrote them a letter. For example. did you see the story about the girl who had the idea to change Sainsbury’s Tiger bread to Giraffe bread. Usually, a letter will only be seen by a handful of people and with luck will eventually get to someone that will deal with it.
Now with email and the Internet, we expect a much faster effective response. But what happens if you have a problem with a company, they’re ignoring you, not responding to support tickets or your email? Have you thought about using social networks to your advantage?
Recently I had some problems with several domain names and their renewal. I followed the online system and sent off the ticket. I got a response quickly, saying if I responded within 7 days they could arrange the refund. I spoke to my client and replied to the ticket, (the ticket had to be re-opened because it had automatically been closed by the companies system. Two days later I still hadn’t heard back from them. I wrote another update on the re-opened ticket – still playing by the book. But when I still hadn’t heard by the next day I was starting to get really concerned.
This particular company doesn’t have an online chat option to chat in person, but they did have a facebook business page. As I already “liked” them on Facebook I thought I’d do something I’ve seen others do but I hadn’t tried out myself. I knew that someone from the company regularly responded to posts on the their business page ( a very important thing for any page admin to do). So I wrote a polite comment asking could someone please chase this ticket as I needed it sorting urgently. Within a few minutes the problem relating to the ticket was resolved. Ace! job done. However the next day their system then started acting up and not only recreated the original issue but did it twice! So it was time to raise yet more support tickets. After a day or more I had yet again received no response. So I took it back to the the Facebook fanpage.
So why does this work. No company wants to wash it’s dirty washing in public, pages of comments on pages of Facebook or Twitter of problems with a company, a piece of software etc. give a bad impression. But if they can be seen to be responding to these problems it does at least improve the perception of a company. Now I’m NOT proposing that you need to do this for every little problem, I guess the support team would be a little put out if you did. But if you’re not getting a response or you keep getting blanked, you may find that approaching via Facebook or Twitter may be worth a try.
I know people who have complained about bad service by tagging the restaurant chain in a post, who then got vouchers back.
If this doesn’t work (it may vary on the company and how well they respond to social network queries) then Google the company, if you have had a problem then chances are someone else will have had. Join any groups, blogs, forums. If one voice isn’t being heard the voice of many will be harder to ignore.
If you have any questions or want some advice then why not contact me on Pippas Web.
Pippas Web
I am Pippa and I have run Pippas Web - web design for small businesses for 13 years. I help small business owners find their bit of cyberspace. I provide the technical know-how, so they can get back to running their business. If you like what I write in my blogs, you can sign up to my newsletter for more tips straight to your door. All list members get a copy of "How to get your business seen online in 2021".