Ok, admittedly it’s been more like 11 weeks, but really my
Twitter use is very much in its infancy. At this point, we’re still counting my age in weeks. Weeks.
Yes I was late to the game but it took a long time before
someone succinctly explained why I would like Twitter. While I don’t recall having anyone say
something specifically stunning, the suggestion that I would like the forum
came from so many places in my life I finally gave it a whirl.
Incidentally I signed up for Pinterest the same day and I’m
not so much loving it. And while I’m
fessing up, with LinkedIn I continue to fail to find the a-ha so far, but I’m
keeping it on the ‘not dumped yet’ list.
In many ways we are living through a very intensive and interesting
change in consumer conduct and interaction.
The mobility of the average consumer makes them that much more in tune
with their options beyond what is available to them. The internet has become the best and worst
gossip venue - ever. So while you have
to temper what you read with not only what value the opinion has for you but
also whether or not it is an anomaly, it is now almost impossible to continue
to deliver bad service without the word getting out. Combine that with changing delivery methods
for shopping as the retail space tries to figure out how keep abreast of very
diverse habits, it’s almost like the Wild West out there.
As a consumer, and acutely observant of my own behaviour,
and all while trying to not to get too far off on a tangent, I can’t help but
notice, that I tend to browse on line but want to experience the item in person
before committing to it, with rare exception.
However a liberal and easy to use return policy can be used to sway
me. And I’m slowly learning who employs
a really good in-house photographer. On
the other hand I think the drug and grocery store industry is completely
missing the boat. But again I’m trying
to stay on point and the point is; we’re changing the way we consume.
As already discussed in this space my limited interaction with
companies via Twitter has been fascinating.
And influential. While I’m
astounded at some of the responses from companies I really don’t expect much
from, I’m equally perplexed by companies that I expect to be on top of things,
being not on the ball.
Influenced so much that I am considering whether or not to
continue to shop at retailers that choose not to interact directly with their
consumers when tweeted directly. Ikea I’m
looking at you, and I like Ikea, or I did, but now I’m on the fence.
On the other side of the coin, I’ve recently been blown away
by responses from Greyhound, which is often on my top ten list of annoying but
essential companies that I must deal with because I have no car. Yes their reply was pedestrian but it was
prompt. And believe me when I say I’ve
complained to Greyhound over the years, via e-mail, phone and in person
essentially to no end. PC Financial
falls into this odd space too, as I didn’t even use their handle in my
complaint, again a canned response but still a response.
The only issue that will come of this canned ‘thank you for
your feedback’ responding is that it will quickly smell of what a good friend
calls the ‘PFO’. Back in the day
when you went to a job interview and didn’t get the job, eventually you’d get a
form letter, addressed to you via mail merge, basically saying ‘Thank you for
your time, Please Fuck Off’ and then you knew for certain the job wasn’t
yours. Of course as I write about it, this
feels so quaint. Now you’re to assume
that your resume fell into a big vat of computer rejected filters and you and
all links to you were deleted upon receipt.
So as Christmas approaches and I’m forced into the mall to
shop for others on a deadline, with people who generally avoid the mall, do I consider
taking up the challenge and confining my dollars to those who are harnessing the
Twitterverse, early, and in novel ways?
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