Inbound Marketing, power to the people!
Wednesday, 2. September 2009
One of the reasons I love Inbound Marketing is because of its ability to reach a massive amount of users in a matter of seconds. This could be a great tool if you know your ways in Inbound Marketing ‘land’. It can also be a damaging tool to a brand if their customers know how to use a few simple tools, such as Twitter, to create some social waves.
Let me illustrate it by sharing with you a story that happened yesterday.
Last week we started having problems with our Internet connection. At first it started during the night time, around 8pm, and remained disconnected for 5-6 hours. Then, during this last weekend, we started getting disconnected in the morning time (and night time), sometimes for hours.
At this stage of the problem we decided to call Comcast, who provides the service to our house. We spent a good 20 minutes on the phone trying to explain the problem, and at the end of this phone call the operator suggested to send a technician. The technician arrived to our house, and said to us that the problem is too complicated for him to repair, and it actually a problem that requires Comcast to send an engineer to fix. As we were talking with the technician outside the house, we came to learn that a few of our neighbors have a similar problem with their Internet. At this point the technician suggested to call the company to keep reporting about the problem, and eventually they will send an engineer to examine the problem (“only if you have enough complaints”, he said).
This is the point I decided to use the social media marketing skills I have to create some ‘social wave’, or, if you will, shake Comcast’s brand a little by creating enough damaging “buzz” to push it fix my Internet problem a little faster. .
I chose the fastest and most powerful tool I have in my Inbound Marketing tool box, Twitter. This is what I tweeted:
- I can’t believe it, 7days in a row & no Internet in morning or night! @comcast sucks! That’s it, I had enough of this BS, switching 2day6:26 AM Aug 31st from TweetDeck
- danronken@ItaiBoublil Dude, that’s crazy. Seven day in a row w no internet service due to comast? Do you have other broadband options where you live?6:29 AM Aug 31st from HootSuite in reply to ItaiBoublil
- U bet I have other options @danronken Welcome to America @comcast , your competitor is begging 2 have my business, and they will!6:36 AM Aug 31st from HootSuite
- ComcastBill@ItaiBoublil whats going on can i help7:15 AM Aug 31st from web in reply to ItaiBoublil
- @ComcastBill The tech guy was here on Thur, said everything is fine. He said that entire street is down, and what we need is an engineer.9:15 AM Aug 31st from HootSuite in reply to ComcastBill
- ComcastBill@ItaiBoublil will see whats up9:21 AM Aug 31st from web in reply to ItaiBoublil
This is more or less the entire social media conversation I exchanged with @ComcastBill. It lasted about 6-7 Tweets, and resolved by Comcast sending an engineer on the same day!
Fortunately for Comcast they realized the power of Inbound Marketing. In contrast to Comcast, other companies, unfortunately, are still struggling to accept the fact that the rules of customer service have changed, and the customer now has the power to strengthen, damage , or destroy their brand.
Share your own experience by commenting.
Dan Ronken Says:
I’m so happy to have participated in helping expedite a customer service issue for you, my friend. Surely, the quick resolution had something to do with me calling you ‘dude.’ :)
Dan Waldron Says:
I’ve been reading along for a while now. I just wanted to drop you a comment to say keep up the good work.
Itai Says:
You are funny. I guess ‘dude’ was what made it work :-)
With all seriousness, they had the engineer fixing the problem for the entire street on the same day! I could not believe it.
This is why Inbound Marketing is so great.
Itai Says:
Thank you.
SteveEarly Says:
Hey Itai — glad to hear that they sent someone out. I showed my daughter your post when she got home from work. Guess where she works? She is an intern at Comcast. Has nothing to do with support but was certain that if you posted it with the approriate hashtags (which you did) that you’d be hearing froms someone.
Voila! And there you are.
They do seem to have their problems from time to time, but if you get to the right people they do care and can be very responsive. We had a connectivity issue in a business a year or so ago. I called a friend of mine in marketing and she passed it to the right people it was resolved in 48 hours.
Oh, and I did verify that it helps to use “dude” in your conversations – nice job DR!
Itai Says:
This is very interesting to read, Steve. It is amazing to see how powerful Inbound Marketing can be.
Thank for commenting!
I am sure D.R “dude”‘s comment made it get solved much faster :-)
Gary Ares Says:
Congrats on getting everything settled. Had crappy phone service from Paetec, and finally Twitted about it. Same day a Sr.VP Twitted me and gave me a top level service group to solve my issues. Yes, social media is here to change the balance of power – somewhat. The real power I see is being able to help small businesses generate leads and increase revenues with Inbound Marketing. I too am a huge fan of Hubspot.
Itai Says:
Thank you Gary for your comment. I think it did change the balance of power, and I am happy to live in an era that I can actually benefit from it ::wink::
Not just that, but we also got $80 refund on the bill, and 3 months of free premium channels. Not bad for a one free tweet.
You are absolutely right about how beneficial Inbound Marketing is for SB. All we have to do now is to see how web 3.0 is going to change everything!
Liz Gallagher Says:
Hi Itai,
Great example on the power of Inbound Marketing! I’m amazed that Comcast replied to your tweet within the hour. You’d probably be sitting on hold for longer than that if you called!
Itai Says:
Absolutely Liz. They would have dragged this issue for at least another week. Just like they did a week earlier. After creating some IM buzz, they fixed the problem, refund $80 from bill, and gave us three months of free premium channels. Not bad for a single tweet ;-)