I’m here to admit it, after this week, our office has officially seen better days. No, Irene didn’t get in the way of our team pumping out top notch projects faster than you can say “downpour”. Our beauty routines on the other hand took a major hit and we’re blaming Baltimore Gas and Electric company for the invasion of the fuglies.
Review these lessons so your company can avoid a bad rap:
1. Delegate
2. Designate
This morning, as of 9:30am, The Baltimore Sun reported that over 285,825 Maryland residents were still without power. It was what we all had expected, what we had prepared for. What I didn’t expect was for their customer service to be as lackluster as the storm itself.
In my social media conscious world, economy 2.0 means nothing without customer service. Although BGE is a large corporation, whose customer base hovers around the millions, I still argue that they are in dire need of a little Thank You Economy crash course.
Countless radio hosts, news flashes, even my friends on Facebook (yes, that’s what I did with the little cell power I had left) were encouraging everyone effected by the power outages to call in and notify BGE to give them a better idea of the work ahead. Normally, I would leave that kind of incessant time wasting to people who enjoy those things (namely grandmothers and cheap uncles). In fear that my particular area of the development would be disregarded, I decided to phone in. When that started to take longer than 2 minutes, I gave up and sent a friendly email instead.
To my dismay, this was their reply:
Why get my panties is a bunch you ask? They responded didn’t they? Isn’t that all you can hope for these days?
If that’s how you perceive today’s world of tech savvy super giants, you better listen up! If you send an email, you should demand a personally tailored response. End. Of. Story. I don’t care if I email Barack Obama. If I get a response back, I want it to prove that whomever is sitting in the White House sorting through piles of American citizens’ protesting rants, heard my voice and took what I said into consideration – instead of just shoving it in the archive section of his Gmail.
1. DELEGATE
Your company, no matter how big or small it may be, needs to delegate the proper amount of people and time for the sole purpose of doing everything in their power to create a happier, more satisfied customer.
Hearing people defend BGE’s lack of customer care because of their huge customer base, is not something I’m willing to listen to. If you’re business involves people in any way shape or form, your livelyhood relies on your ability to take care of their needs, no matter how demanding they may seem.
2. DESIGNATE
Now is the perfect time to designate distinct solutions to any potential people related problems your company may face in the future. Create mock-senarios, act out acceptable responses, whatever it takes for your company to build a breed of customers that will go the extra mile to write on your Facebook wall, Tweet about your amazing company, make it happen.
As the old saying goes – If someone has a bad experience with your business, they’re going to warn as many of their friends as humanly possible about you (which nowadays is quite alot). If they have a spectacular experience – they’ll most likely do the same – anywhere in between and you may as well not even try.
Written by Annie Yaker
Marketing Specialist
e: annie@moscreative.com
p: 410.878.7482
t: @annieyaker
