Last night, I was invited to be the guest on a local Twitter chat called: #YYJChat. I know the founders (Susan Jones and Mat Wright) of this weekly engagement but, to be honest, I hadn’t ever participated as a guest or a participant. My mistake. What a blast. A lot of fun in a whirlwind of 60 minutes. The chat takes its name from the local area’s Twitter hashtag (Victoria, BC = #yyj) and usually focuses on political or civic issues. I’m honoured they took a chance with me and tried something new…a discussion on customer service.
I thought I’d pull out some of my favourite tweets (yes, I’m the narcissist who included a few of his own. But they were fuelled by the great discussion)
@russlol we generally don’t know what good service is, and equate poor service with economical cost #yyjchat
— BestColorVideo (@BestColorVideo) January 23, 2013
@janniaragon when I have looked for solution = treated badly so I don’t bother anymore & take my biz elsewhere 🙁 #yyjchat
— SusanJones (@SusanJones) January 23, 2013
@russlol It’s terrible when a biz is known for having bad #custserv #yyjchat
— janniaragon (@janniaragon) January 23, 2013
@janniaragonconditioned to it. If you have bad service, don’t tip. 10% will just make server think you’re a terrible tipper #yyjchat
— Russel Lolacher (@RussLoL) January 23, 2013
Not sure why, but we often experienced better retail customer service when we visit the US. #yyjchat
— landsharkz (@landsharkz) January 23, 2013
Can’t we just get rid of tipping as a custom?Why should we have to point out customer service that way – it all should be good.#yyjchat
— Scott McDonald (@ScottinVictoria) January 23, 2013
A2:being human and not selling to me – this is the biggest #custserv impact.#yyjchat
— Scott McDonald (@ScottinVictoria) January 23, 2013
@janniaragon I wish more people would highlight great service. We’re programmed to complain first.#yyjchat
— Russel Lolacher (@RussLoL) January 23, 2013
#yyjchat I vote with my feet, mostly
— Murray Kirk (@MiniMaxMedia) January 23, 2013
As a customer, it’s important to be courteous. Make eye contact, put away phone, smile! #yyjchat Don’t text at the till!
— landsharkz (@landsharkz) January 23, 2013
“@russlol Part of constructive feedback can also be checking assumptions… it may be their one-off ‘bad’ day #custserv #yyjchat
— Ben Ziegler (@BenZiegler) January 23, 2013
I try to comment on great #custserv all the time.Owners/managers often offer me something which I refuse – that wasn’t the point. #yyjchat
— Scott McDonald (@ScottinVictoria) January 23, 2013
Consider that No University or B.School has an academic department for Customer Service! Can’t get no respect #YYJchat
— BestColorVideo (@BestColorVideo) January 23, 2013
Highlight great customer service. It’ll inspire the biz to keep it up if they know it has value and resonates.#yyjchat
— Russel Lolacher (@RussLoL) January 23, 2013
SoMe a great tool for biz/gov’t to find out the ‘bad’ that customers are saying about them, an opportunity to fix and make good. #yyjchat
— Scott McDonald (@ScottinVictoria) January 23, 2013
Customer complaints are gifts for biz. Shows you your mistakes that you can’t see ‘cuz you are too close to the product. #yyjchat
— Holistic Sailor (@HolisticSailor) January 23, 2013
Customer service is knowing what needs to be done and when; its about caring. #yyjchat
— Leslie Gardner (@LPEGardner) January 23, 2013
Customer service can only get better if we discuss what’s working and what isn’t. It’s also just as important to praise business when they do it well as much as it is important to let them know when they’ve let you down. This lively bit of back and forth certainly reinforced that feeling.
314 tweets generated 828,042 impressions, reaching an audience of 96,601 followers #YYJchat with @russlol – Well Done! via @hashtracking
— Mat Wright (@matvic) January 23, 2013
Did their points raise any concerns with you?
10 Comments
Thank you again Russ for joining our chat, what a wonderful guest you are!, and this blog post, icing on the cake, thank you thank you.
Absolutely my pleasure, Susan. Great group, fun discussion, insightful remarks…Happy to have been a part of it.
My pleasure Susan. Great people, lively discourse, insightful comments…YYJChat is a lot of fun.
I am *so* sorry to have missed this chat. I’m ALL about Customer Service – providing it to my customers;and searching it out/recognizing it in other businesses. Do you think we could brainstorm a hashtag which we could introduce/promote to #yyj to have people leave comments on places/biz’s /individuals who have wowed them? #YYJBouquets ? or #YYJBizKudos or something like?
Hi Maggie, I’m sorry you weren’t available. For a hashtag, I’d recommend #custservYYJ. A bit long but understandable. It’s a good idea. Sidenote: I’m always open to guest posts that give kudos to good service…I just don’t get a lot of takers for the good, always the bad.
Anyone else watching customer comments on Coast Capital Saving’s FB page facebook.com/coastcapitalsavings since the credit union let it be known they have to cut their own customers off from online banking, phone support, tellers and their ATMs between Feb. 8-12? Major banking upgrade going on, with apparently no other way to pull this off other than hope everyone is patient and very understanding. Some of the community mgmt by CCS seems a bit boiler-plated for my liking. Anyone else?
Hi Rod, thanks for the comment. I’m actually a Coast Capital Member and this was the first I’d heard of it. I went back to look over the comments and apparently their closed 9-11 but half days the 8th and 12th. I’m actually impressed at how engaged the bank is being in the Facebook feed. Their connecting with people that obviously aren’t happy but still providing answers and sincere apologies where they can. Could they have done more?
You should be getting a mailout, too. Got mine Monday. I sent them a tweet @coast_capital. They then asked me to DM them with my phone # so they could follow up my Q. That is good service.
Hi Rod,
We’re certainly not trying to be boiler plated – sorry about that! We know our system upgrade will be a positive change, but we are also very aware that our services being unavailable during the long weekend is a huge inconvenience to our customers. We are doing our best to empathize with their frustrations, and helping where we can.
PS – Not sure if you saw the response to your tweet yesterday, but we’d like to help with the ATM situation in Sidney.
I did see it and I DM’ed, and you replied by phone. Thanks for the info and the update. Good luck with the conversion.