observations of an 8 week old twitter user

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?

consumption

In addition to the time I spend objecting to and about companies and the various levels of service I experience; and besides the endless hours I while away jumping from link to link on the internet I am currently spending a great deal of time considering with what my next job should be.  Of late, and after what seems to be the world’s longest mid(ish)-life crisis, I feel like there needs to be a distinct and planned approach to the next stage of my life.  And barring the idiosyncrasies of my own internal thought process, it does, at times, feel as if this task consumes me.

There was also a joke I was trying to work in about having spent the last several weeks being sick with cold and chest infection, thereby having ‘consumption’ but I just couldn’t get the tempo of it worked out.

So as I think on and about how and where I want to take my next venture; I also seem to be thinking about my new encounters in the Twitterverse and my unintentional discovery of how some marketers are using this, and other social platforms, to extend their customer service outreach. And I’m fascinated.

@TTCHelps – the online persona of TTC customer liaison is prompt in replying to people in a forthright manner.  In fact, I tripped over them very early in my app adoption kibitzing about the on train ‘are-they-aren’t-they’ announcements on the subway one morning.  To my flippant tweet that I couldn’t decide if the TTC announcements were informative or infuriating, they replied ‘hopefully more informative than annoying’ and with that simple exchange I started to get it.

Next was @CampbellCares – the soup company that noted my tweet complaining, while suffering my cold, that I could no longer find my preferred Turkey Chunky soup and that the Chicken flavor just didn’t cut it.  Not only did they respond; they tracked down stores nearby that I might be able to find my favoured flavor at.  Then @FURminator_Inc. favourited my tweet about my, somewhat, bizarre affinity for their pet brush.

Ricki’s, who is not on Twitter but does use Facebook, after announcing a sale and then having their website crash, did take the time to answer each person who commented on the issue on the FB feed.  In a world where using the comment feature to acknowledge the issue globally is available it was a decided personal touch to reply to each of, even if they did recycle their response.

The IKEA follow up, via a real live person, discussed in this blog, also fell into this sweep of service responses.  But I have to say I’m somewhat disappointed that after I lauded the employee who assisted me so well to @IKEACanada five days ago and they have yet to acknowledge my approval.  And in my estimation a bit of an error on their part.

The friend who strongly encouraged my adoption of Twitter and its little unique universe and I have discussed my interest in both this new (to me) medium and how it could move customer experience and service into the most interesting places - which in turn gets me thinking, again, and more, about where I should take my next career venture.  

The next steps are not entirely, yet, apparent to me but I do believe that service is the next great venture of business and somehow I’d like to be involved.

getting a little warmer

I'm a little late to the Twitterverse, and I'll talk further about my consumer adventures to date but first I wanted to update the Ikea story. 

Amazingly the very helpful woman "L" who works in the Self-Serve area not only did as she promised, measuring the shelf I was after she also called to let me know and then a couple of days later she called again to say she would hold a shelf for me until the end of business today.

I have to say I was pretty blown away.   So in spite of the rain tonight I headed over the Swedish House of Home Worship and collected my held shelf - for which I plan to use to hold my various bathroom linens.

I will let Ikea know the story, partly because I'm just plain impressed.  But also because I think employees who got that extra mile really deserve a shout out.

So now I have a 'grown-up' shelf and, my favourite part of all Ikea purchases, a project!

your blanket policy isn’t very warm and cozy

I'm a bit of an Ikea fan.  Even known by close friends to be a bit of a 'Sherpa' and I have to say tonight I'm flummoxed.

Ikea.  Basically your policy lacks rationale.  And your explanation even  a little less.

A little background.  I have a very small bathroom and I need to stash towels and, er, um, toilet 'tissue' somewhere.  I also have no car.

I currently have a dorm like contraption in use and yes , it does the job. But I'm a grown up so I'd like to have something a little more substantial.

Ergo Ikea.  Decent.  Well priced.  Quasi-disposable furniture that when you are an apartment dweller you feel is a reasonable option considering you might have this for a short time.

I also have a fixed ceramic hook in the middle of the only usable wall.  So I got my handy measuring tape out and then went to the Ikea showroom.

Except the piece I was interested in was not on display.  So I figured the most logical idea was to go look at the pieces in the box and see where the predrilled holes were.  Except there's a company policy that they can't open a box on the floor because that makes the item unsellable.  A policy which I completely question but since I was trying to get what I wanted I didn't question to very strenuously.

Needless to say several stores were called looking for a display unit and a manager got involved.  Mostly because I said hauling the item home and back was not an option I was interested in if it didn't fit.  And which silently begged the question of where does all my unsuitable MDF stuff go?  Surely not to landfill based on the sole rationale that they'd never keep their prices as low as they do.  (Although usually I get to measure the furniture at the store and now I'm into a circular argument.)

What I found the most perplexing of the entire exchange was that the exact reason I was given by the manager for why the item wasn't on display - which was 'we can't possibly have everything on display' was the exact reason I felt my request to look at parts in the box before I made a purchase was pretty amenable.

I understand that policies have to be put in place to help staff with their jobs.  But sometimes blanket policies don't make sense.  Toronto is a pretty big city. And a large section of the population do not have cars.  Ikea is always on the edge of a city to keep costs down.  But if you want the customers to traipse all the way to you, you have to be willing to help them out.  So when I, and I did do it politely, asked if they'd be willing to come retrieve the item if it didn't fit - based entirely on their suggested rationale that my only course of action was to purchase and return the item if it was unsuitable - I thought opening the blasted box was still the best option for both parties.

I didn't win my argument.  I didn't really lose either because finally after all this work the warehouse woman who was stuck with me agreed to measure the display when it went up and call me one way or the other I felt that was a reasonable option.  I suspect it's pretty far off her job description and I did think the manager had a bit of gall to end the discussion with 'there'.  But I appreciated the gesture. 

So now I'm out 2 hours of my evening and I don't have a shelf.  But maybe the promise of one.

Stay tuned for the outcome.