One of the under-reported trends of 2010 is the new conceptual understanding of service failures as markers of importance. Twitter users are greeted with the fail whale seemingly every few hours, and news outlets, instead of blaming Twitter for failing in its most basic functionality, extracted the lesson that the World Cup is a really big deal. Pre-order day for the iPhone 4 crashed the AT&T servers, and it was just another indication of the iPhone’s popularity. Some even posited that this was a marketing ploy, aiming to draw news coverage of the new phone’s pre-order success. iPhone ordering complications didn’t end with pre-orders, though. This trend continued yesterday. June 24 marked the official release of Apple’s latest hit and FedEx, handling the shipping of the gadgets, proved unable to handle the high volume of anxious customers tracking deliveries.
It’s at this point that we pick up Andy Beal’s account of his day as an anxious customer, unable to track the status of his new iPhone. Beal discovered an active FedEx Twitter account, @FedExLina, manned by someone who may have been able to help. Here’s Beal:
It’s probably just an automated account that looks for mentions of FedEx and sends out pre-formatted tweets. I decided to ask for help anyway. Low and behold, FedExLina was not only real but she was willing to help!
And so, I sent her an email. Guess what? She replied within 15 minutes with this:
Mr. Beal
Thank you for giving me the opportunity to help you today. I did researched your tracking # 43*******1840. I apologize for the confusion on the status of your shipment. The package deliveries are as proceeding as normal, however tracking updates are temporarily being delayed. Yes, your packagte is out on the van for delivery today by 4:30. May I suggest if you planned not to be home today that you go to the Apple website and follow the instructions to print and complete the “Shipment Release Authorization” form and leave it on your door for the delivery driver. Please remember the faster way to contact me is via tweeter. I am just a tweet away. I hope this information was helpful.
Warmest regards,
FedEx Lina
Wow! How about that?
A large international company that actually gets how to use Twitter! Not just pre-formatted tweets. Not just pushing marketing messages down our throats. But, actual customer support–during one of their busiest days, I might add!
Of course, if there’s an important soccer match going on, Twitter might not be any more stable than the FedEx website. But all joking aside, this is obviously a great use of Twitter. A real person, providing something of real value to customers. And, as Beal makes clear, the efforts of one employee with a Twitter account transformed the experience of that customer from one of frustration and helplessness to one of pleasant astonishment. Well done, FedEx.
Are you using Twitter as customer service? What methods do you use to allow customers to interact freely with your business?
Related posts:
- Twitter as Customer Service
- 4 Basics of Twitter Etiquette
- Use Twitter for More Than Just Networking
- Twitter’s New Ad Platform Doesn’t Distract
- What’s Twitter Good For?
