Who’s the boss???

Over the weekend some of my co-workers, myself included, posted some funny, yet could be perceived, negative posts on their social media.  Mostly Facebook.  As I read through them, liked them, sometimes commented, I started to thing..:yikes, they are friends with our boss..and so am I!  What is he thinking??  He isn’t liking any of them!

Here are some examples of what was posted…

I’ll start with a couple of mine…hilarious and accurate! 😛

  

Here are a few of my co-worker’s…

I read them and think it’s just funny ecards, memes etc and a way to vent a bit online but it does make me wonder…”is it a smart career move to add your boss to your social media outlets?  And if it is, do you need to censor yourself?

My boss has a great sense of humor and I love that I have another way to connect with him, but I am very conscious now of how he interprets all these seemingly negative posts about work!   His wall is full of adds for our company and links to local fairs and markets!  ha.

What do you guys think?  Boss on social media…yay or big NAY??

COM0011 – Blog #5 Don’t let social media do your job!!

As I prepare to leave for my vacation tomorrow morning, I wonder what kind of service, issues or delays I may encounter with the ever so reliable air travel industry!!  Two years ago when I was coming home from a family trip to Florida, we received the most atrocious customer service from an airline that I had ever experienced!  I vowed never to fly United again!!!  I have kept that promise!  This time we are travelling WestJet and so far I am impressed!  From the booking online to the customer service I received when I called to ask a few question about the hotel, they have already exceeded my expectations.  I may have paid a bit more for my ticket, but for me, great customer service is priceless!

Ten years ago I would have said nothing about the way we were treated by United, but in this day and age, I of course, Tweeted about it!  Here is a brief synopsis of what transpired….

It was a Friday morning and we went to the counter to check in to start our trek back to Ottawa.  Me, my husband, my sister, her husband and her 2 cute, but very impatient kids.  Our flight is cancelled due to weather.  Not United’s fault.  Here is where is all went downhill for us.

United Lady:  “We can fly you out Tuesday only.” (keep in mind this is Friday)

Me:  “Ummm we can’t stay an extra 4 days!  Our condo is rented to someone else!  We have nowhere to stay!  We have jobs to be at on Monday morning and kids that have school!”

United Lady: “Sorry” (not sorry)…walks away from us.

Me and my sister:  Look at each other in disbelief…”Is that it? Are we done being helped?”

That was it.  No empathy.  No attempt to help us find a flight home.  Nothing.

We head back to the condo where my parents were staying for one more day before they were leaving.  Hop on our computers (first to tweet) then to look for flights.  Here is my Tweet.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Within seconds I received a Tweet back asking how they could help.  Already more than I received in my face to face interaction with an actual human at the counter.  I called the 1-800 they gave me and spoke to an awesome agent who I complimented in my subsequent Tweet. She got us a flight out the next morning back to Ottawa.  I am happy that we got home safe and sound, but I can’t help but be frustrated with the fact that I received better service because I complained on social media than I did when I was in front of an employee!  How does this happen?? How can businesses let this happen??  This is such a risk to organizations in this day and age.  As a customer I was so frustrated that I could not receive the same service in a face to face interaction.  I’m not sure employees understand that they are the face of their organization.  Every customer, every complaint is an opportunity.  They need to be brand ambassadors now more than ever and take that moment to wow their customers before they take to social media for the world to see!

Anyone else had an experience like this?? Where social media helped you get better customer service than the human you spoke to first??

 

 

Blog #4 Becoming a Category of One

I have quoted my favorite expert in past blogs as well as in my daily life at work, so coming off the heels of the personal branding assignment I thought I would share a video of some excerpts from some conferences he was the keynote speaker at.

His name is Joe Calloway and he is a branding expert that helps organizations differentiate themselves from competition.  He wrote a book called Becoming a Category of One.  Check it out!

I love his message about differentiating yourself from competition and the example he used of the tire company in the states.  They sell tires…big deal…but they make it a big deal by running to the car the second you drive into the lot…it’s all about the experience they are willing to provide to their clients that their competition isn’t.

When I think of my workplace, I often think that we are differentiating by the service we provide everyday but our clients are asked this question through an anonymous survey; “Did you receive EXCEPTIONAL EXPERIENCE?”  Too often this is the response; “I get the same service at the other bank I deal with.”  So, I guess we aren’t differentiating!  Yikes! What can we do?  We have big ideas, great vision and an awesome mission statement…so what is going wrong?

No action.

As Joe says, “great companies have great ideas and take action on them.” We get so busy in our day to day lives and demands of the job, we forget to put these ideas into action.  As I completed the personal branding assignment, I am guilty of this in my personal life too! I asked myself, “why am I not taking action?”  Fear of failure?  Laziness?  Not challenging myself enough?  I think it is a little from each column.  So how do I get myself and my business to get over and start taking action…TODAY?

Does anyone else have this challenge in their personal life or business??  How do YOU differentiate??

Online complaint – now it’s personal!

I am someone who will take to Twitter to put a company on blast when I have received poor service.  On the flip side, I try to be fair and make sure I compliment businesses publicly when I receive outstanding service.  In fact, I recently tweeted about the amazing experience I received from WestJet on a trip to Florida…alternatively I blasted United about their horrendous service last year on a similar trip to Florida.  See?? Fair!! 😉

Recently my place of work came under a similar attack on social media. This Tweeter who will rename nameless..JONATHAN…wrote about an experience he had at my workplace (a bank)…which will actually rename nameless! ha.  Here is the original Tweet…(excuse my poor cut and paste skills in an attempt to keep my employer and Jonathan protected)…

Jonathan then sends a direct message to the bank as requested and here is that conversation…

Jonathan – ”I had a job interview with a location in “X”, Ontario yesterday afternoon and your employee was rude to me right from the start. He told me I needed to keep everything short because he had lots of other things to do. You guys called me for the interview so there is no need to make me feel like I’m inconveniencing you. And throughout my answers he told me they weren’t good enough. I am sorry if I don’t have the perfect job experience but I sold myself on what I can do and I will not lie to make myself sound better. I was honest. I am completely let down by your service so I want the email for the head of customer service for this branch so I can make a formal complaint about this employee and withdraw my application from “X”. I want nothing to do with your company after this experience.”

Bank – “Hi Jonathan, we are sorry to hear about your recent experiences with one of our Branches, and would like to direct your comments. Delivering an exceptional experience is the number one priority at “X Bank”, and we are sorry to learn that in this case, we did not meet your expectations. Your comments provide us the opportunity for us to ensure that we are responsive to customer need, and allow us to identify areas for staff training and development. We’d like to forward your message to the management of the branch for further review and response. Kindly write us back with the branch location and the employee’s name. Thanks for bringing this to our attention, Jonathan”

Jonathan – “The branch is on “X” Road in “X”, Ontario. And the employees name is Michael”

Bank – “Thanks, Jonathan. Is there a phone number we can reach you at?”

Jonathan – “No that’s okay. There’s nothing else to say about it. Just wanted you guys to know so that kind of treatment from your employees is wrong especially when it’s someone that was at one point interested in working for your company and shouldn’t happen to anybody else and make you lose more customers. Thanks”

We were forwarded this message from our social team and were very concerned as with any customer complaints we receive.  Here’s the problem…we don’t have any employees at our branch named Michael that conduct interviews.  Our branch has not conducted any interviews for any position in over 2 months.  We have no record of any person named Jonathan that applied to any position at our branch.   Did he get the wrong branch?  The wrong bank?  Was this a dream he had?  Or is he merely making this up to get back at someone or our company for something else that happened?  We’ll never know.

When we talk about how social media can be a risk to an organization, I think this is a prime example.  Now this Tweet is out there for anyone who follows Jonathan, friends of friends etc. and there is nothing we can do about it…and it isn’t even accurate!  We tried to reach out to him via Twitter and he did not respond nor does he want a response from our team as indicated above.  As I stated earlier, I am guilty of complaining on social media but at least I have my facts straight!  It is so easy for a faceless person to hop on their keyboard, smart phone, Ipad and put whatever they want out there in the universe!  I know this is not new information but when it hits close to home, it is irritating at best!

I hope Jonathan finds his dream job and gets treated better at the next fake interview he goes on!!  Do I sound bitter?? 😉

In this day and age where organizations are opening themselves up to public feedback, should they just have to lay down and take the scrutiny even when it is not accurate?  Do we as consumers have a social responsibility to ensure accuracy in our feedback before posting?

 

Bad Day??? Now everyone knows!

We’ve all had those days…slept through our alarm, fight with your spouse before leaving the house, hair won’t cooperate…it can be a game changer.  Now throw in going to a job where you deal with the public all day and as fun as that CAN BE..it doesn’t come without its frustrations…and now you are in to what seems like the depths of Hell on a Tuesday!

20 years ago the only person that knew you were having a bad day was you, your spouse, your boss and perhaps the poor customer that was on the tail end of your “I can’t take it anymore” day.  Today…EVERYONE that owns a computer or smart phone will know!  Case in point…this lovely interaction…

Watching this video of this rage induced Starbucks employee attacking the poor lady that only seemed to want a straw to drink her $6 beverage, I couldn’t help but feel empathy.  But not for the customer.  Most people look at this interaction and immediately think “wow what a (insert whatever profanity you are comfortable with here).”  And thinking “I hope she gets fired!”  I’m not disputing that she shouldn’t be fired, but I have a few questions…what could have happened to this assumingly usual happy Starbucks employee on her way to work that may have fueled this interaction?  What personal crisis is she going through that she needs to put a brave face on everyday but just couldn’t do it anymore?  How many customer complaints, questions, demands did she put up with that day before this customer?

We will never know the answer to these questions and maybe it doesn’t matter…it really isn’t excusable behavior at the end of the day.  The fact is, without social media I imagine this employee to have a strongly worded coaching session with her manager, maybe a demotion, suspension even??  With this video going viral and Starbucks brand on the line, I imagine she left her day with a little pink paper instead.