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Customer Service, Social Networks and Fixing What’s Broken

by Jeff Hester · Apr 25, 2013

It’s easy to pick on the cable company. Most of them are easy targets for derision. The services are overpriced and the customer service often ends up the butt of jokes.

I’ve had my own ups-and-downs with my current cable company — Time Warner Cable. Most recently, this centered around a single episode of a single show: Homeland, Season 2, Episode 11.

The Backstory

I have been catching up on the Homeland Season 2 replay on Showtime, recording episodes using a Season Pass on TiVo. For whatever reason, episode eleven eluded the long arms of my HDR while we were away in Sonoma. My challenge? How to legally get the missing episode.

The first option would normally be to use the on demand functionality provided through TWC. Unfortunately, because I use a TiVo box with a cable card, the on demand functionality is not available.

HBO has a great app for the iPad that lets you view pretty much any episode of any of their series, going back for years. You can even view it via AirPlay and your Apple TV. Too bad Homeland is on Showtime. Fortunately, Showtime also has an iPad app with similar on demand playback. Unfortunately it only works with certain cable providers — and TWC is not one of them.

Fortunately, TWC has it’s own iPad app called TWC TV which provides on demand functionality, including Showtime series (if you’re a subscriber, which I am). This was promising. I searched for Homeland, found Season 2, clicked on Episode 11, and… FAIL! It would not play. Check episode 10. That works. Episode 12? That also works. Episode 11 is the only episode that won’t play.

Calling TWC customer service led to the typical, unfulfilling canned responses. “Are you able to play other episodes?” Yes. “Have you tried the on-demand feature on your TV” No, I cannot because I use a cable card and a TiVo, not a cable box. “Have you tried reinstalling the TWC TV app?” Yes, with the same results. Finally they were able to confirm with another tech who had an iPad that they, too, could not play Homeland, Season 2, Episode 11. The answer? They would have to re-load the episode on their on-demand server, and to keep trying in a few days. I would not get any notification when (or if) it were resolved.

Two weeks later. Episode 11 will not play. In fact, it’s disappeared from the episode list entirely.

This time, a tweet was in order.

Been trying to watch Homeland S02E11 for two weeks. TWC cannot get it it working via their iPad app. @TWC_Help #fail pic.twitter.com/swbUxEJe3k

— Jeff Hester (@jeffhester) April 18, 2013

Next, TWC is calling me, to help sort out the problem Again, we repeat the dance. “Are you able to play other episodes?” Finally, I get them to realize (again) that the problem is with that particular episode on their server. And again, the solution? Wait a few days and try again.

Frustrated, I finally decide to bring the cable box out of the closet, dust it off and hook it up. Had to dig out a couple coaxial cables and a splitter, and add to the tangle of cables. Finally, it’s all hooked up. Fire up the cable box, press the “on demand” button and… FAIL. Ugh.

One more phone call to TWC support, and they send a signal to the box. Finally it’s working (though still not on the TWC TV app).

The Lesson Learned

There’s a few lessons in this experience. First, it was interesting to note that TWC is actively monitoring Twitter. It’s a smart move for them, even though they weren’t able to actually solve the problem.

…Remember, these days, when you’re talking to one person, you’re talking to a thousand. -Zoe Barnes, House of Cards

From a consumer perspective, I got more intelligent response from a tweet than from a phone call to their toll-free customer service line. Of course I made a point of mentioning the TWC twitter account, but it got action–and more intelligent action–much faster. Social networks empower consumers.

Which leads to the more important lesson. Having responsive customer service is only meaningful if you can actually fix the problem. In this case, TWC failed. Granted, it may be fixed eventually, but they weren’t equipped to resolve the issue even after several weeks. It’s a problem of bureaucracy, and a symptom of broken processes in the organization. The real problem for TWC in this case is not one of sloppy customer service, but an inability to fix what’s broken with their own internal processes.

A Broader Application

All of this begs the question: What’s broken in your company? In your organization? In your life or relationships? If the experience sucks, something must change. Fixing the problem involves change. Embrace the change.

Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. – Albert Einstein

Postscript

For what it’s worth, I was finally able to watch Homeland, Season 2, Episode 11 last night. And yes, it was worth it.

Photo credit: Nickwheeleroz on Flickr

Follow Friday: #CoWorkers

by Jeff Hester · Aug 26, 2011

Follow Friday has been a long-standing meme on Twitter where users recommend people that their followers might also like. Today, I’m going to share some folks that I’ve met through a Facebook group known as #CoWorking. Some of these people I’ve met in person. Some I know better than others. But all of them are actively engaged through social media and a range of social networks.

As much as possible, I’ll let them speak for themselves through their own tweets, and only comment where I warranted. Oh, and if you’re so inclined, you can follow me on Twitter, too.

[blackbirdpie url=”http://twitter.com/#!/staceysoleil/status/107166207060361216″]

Stacey is a social media maven. She’s founder of #CoWorking and very active in the SoCal social media scene.

[blackbirdpie url=”http://twitter.com/#!/sbeasla/status/107129066536181760″]

Suki is a SoCal foodie with social media prowess.

[blackbirdpie url=”http://twitter.com/#!/Snakkle/status/106848406919577600″]

Snakkle is not just a weird name, it’s the official Twitter channel for Snakkle.com – a site that specializes in cataloging photos of celebrities before they were famous. Silly fun.

[blackbirdpie url=”http://twitter.com/#!/Smandi8/status/106317978307534849″]

Mandisa is a publicist in South Africa.

[blackbirdpie url=”http://twitter.com/#!/sbhsbh/status/107086646045974528″]

Steve Hughes is based in New Jersey and tweets about social media, sports, and SEO (among other things). I don’t know if he visits tanning salons.

[blackbirdpie url=”http://twitter.com/#!/kimgarst/status/107166020640309248″]

Kim Garst runs SocialMediaBranding.com in Tampa, Florida.

[blackbirdpie url=”http://twitter.com/#!/SuryaRay/status/107093658993565697″]

Surya lives in New Delhi and is active on Empire Avenue.

[blackbirdpie url=”http://twitter.com/#!/DniseSonnenberg/status/107144342090678272″]

Denise is a social media consultant and also active in the SoCal social media scene. And I’ve hiked with she and her husband!

[blackbirdpie url=”http://twitter.com/#!/cindyronzoni/status/107163164705173504″]

Until I met Cindy (she’s active in the local social media and WordPress community here in So Cal), I had no idea that people in Orange County were into any form of curling that didn’t involve irons.

[blackbirdpie url=”http://twitter.com/#!/VillaCucina/status/106846280654925824″]

Villa Cucina is the official Twitter account of one of my favorite little stores in downtown San Clemente. It’s maintained by Christina Morgan.

[blackbirdpie url=”http://twitter.com/#!/MingleMediaTV/status/107173048473501696″]

MingleMediaTV hosts both live and produced web TV programming.

[blackbirdpie url=”http://twitter.com/#!/Gabriella51/status/107171496505524224″]

Gabriella needs to change her Twitter font color!

[blackbirdpie url=”http://twitter.com/#!/juliefogg/status/106779350594105344″]

Julie tweets about VoIP, call centers, Avaya and the “Immersive Internet.”

[blackbirdpie url=”http://twitter.com/#!/alisonstripling/status/106804649788579840″]

Alison consults with businesses needing help with social media.

[blackbirdpie url=”http://twitter.com/#!/campusexplorer/status/106785784979390464″]

CampusExplorer tweets news, advice and tips for preparing for college.

[blackbirdpie url=”http://twitter.com/#!/DvinMsM/status/106875061448867841″]

[blackbirdpie url=”http://twitter.com/#!/LifeAfterKidsTV/status/106877443486400512″]

Marla Schulman hosts a couple of webcam shows, proving Seth Godin right — we can all be creators!

As you can see, there’s a heavy focus on social media (not surprisingly). If you’re looking to connect with people that can help you sort out what works and what doesn’t, give them a follow.

Want to be followed by me? Leave me a comment with your Twitter handle or retweet this post!

Why Face to Face Still Matters in Social Media

by Jeff Hester · Mar 19, 2011

Last month, I shared how face-to-face meetings still matter. You might assume that the realm of social media — which by it’s very definition encourages online community and relationship building — wouldn’t really gain much through real life interaction. You’d be dead wrong.

Social Media in the Real OC

Here in Orange County we are fortunate to have a thriving social media community, supported by a number of regular, live events. Bryan Elliot’s LinkedOC leverages LinkedIn and holds monthly networking events with great speakers such as Scott Stratton and Seth Godin. These are big events, but you meet a number of interesting people who are building their tribe. LinkedOC lies somewhere between a social media group and an old school networking meeting.

My favorite event remains Bob Watson’s Social Media Masterminds of Orange County — or simply SMMOC. This group meets nearly every week on Saturday mornings from 9-11am in Costa Mesa, and draws a wide range of people with an interest in social media — from consultants to mommy bloggers and real estate professionals to enthusiasts.

SMMOC whiteboard — The whiteboard at SMMOC. Click to enlarge.

The agenda is flexible. There is no projector or monitor, but there is wifi in the room. Attendees are free to use the whiteboard to write down discussion topics or share their Twitter handle. Bob is a terrific facilitator, deftly leading the group through two hours of fantastic interaction and learning. There are just three rules: no self-promotion, no acronyms (at least, not without a definition) and there are no dumb questions.

This group is up on the latest happenings in the social media realm, so whether you’re new to social media or an old pro (what defines someone as an old pro in social media??), you will learn and grow from the discussion. But the real value is in the relationships that are made and bonded through the face-to-face interaction.

A typical SMMOC crowd — SMMOC - Everyone participates

I’ve met and developed connections with a number of local social media mavens, mavericks and masterminds through SMMOC, including Bob (The Man) Watson, Mel Aclaro, Carina Zimmer, Scott Schang, Kirsten Wright, fellow San Clemente local Doug McClure, Matthew Gallizzi, Stacey Harmon, Chris Van Dusen, Eric Stegemann, Michelle Lecours and too many to list here.

There is also a fair amount of crossover between this group and another of my favorite groups, the OC WordPress Meetup. Steve Zehngut and Jeff Turner of Zeek Interactive are sometimes in attendance, as are regulars Loren Nason, Cindy Ronzoni, Ross Teasley and Joan Ganter.

These people have helped me refine how I use social media, encouraged me to improve my blogging and helped me stay on top of the ever-changing social media landscape. My life is richer for the relationships.

Can you develop community and relationships entirely using social media alone? Certainly, but real-world face time strengthens those connections and accelerates the process.

How are face-to-face interactions helping strengthen your social and professional network?

Social Media and Knowledge Management

by Jeff Hester · Feb 22, 2011

Social media is often cast as being at odds with enterprise initiatives such as knowledge management. There is a sense that as people embrace and use social media tools like Twitter, Yammer, LinkedIn and Quora, the enterprise loses control over their knowledge. While this is certainly true, it’s also nothing new. There have always been and always will be opportunities and reasons to search the Internet vs searching the Intranet; for participating in an Internet discussion group vs. one in your enterprise community; and for leveraging external wisdom vs. known internal resources.

The subject of this week’s KMers.org tweet chat emphasized this tension: Corporate Social Media vs. Intranets. The implication is that social media and knowledge management are at odds and one is destined to be the solitary victor.

Reality Check.

Social media and knowledge management aren’t at odds at all. In fact, the most successful knowledge management systems embrace social media, but with a business mindset. The smart KM implementations leverage blogs, subscriptions, communities, discussion forums, and member profiles. They tie it together with search in a single working environment. And they look for opportunities to tie in other tools to streamline knowledge sharing — everything from instant messaging (i.e. Sametime) to micro-blogging (i.e. Yammer).

A few of the comments that really stuck out in our discussion today bear this out. We were asked for tips on optimizing the integration between social media applications and intranets. Here are a few notable responses:

[blackbirdpie url=”http://twitter.com/#!/TKBeard/status/40101729278246912″]

Tammy Bearden hits the nail on the head: it all starts with people.

[blackbirdpie url=”http://twitter.com/#!/stangarfield/status/40103103382429696″]

I like Stan Garfield’s advice to meet people where they are, which for many is still the email inbox.I’ve found the ability to subscribe and get email notifications to be an invaluable tool for engaging the workforce. I would even say it’s essential, and we’ve found it to be a tremendous attraction at Fluor.

[blackbirdpie url=”http://twitter.com/#!/BarbaraFillip/status/40102879041687552″]

Barbara Fillip reminds us to take the member eye view. Remove barriers to participation, where possible. Single sign-on is just one example.

Thanks to Stan Garfield, Liz Williams, Tom Menke, Ryan McClead, Sean Brady, Tammy Bearden, Antoon van het Erve, Matthew Loxton, Barbara Fillip, and the other participants who shared their knowledge and insight. You can read the entire tweet chat transcript online, as well as check the schedule of upcoming discussions on KMers.org. We gather via Twitter every Tuesday at noon Eastern time. If you’re a KM professional, you should be a part of the discussion.

The Origin of Follow Friday

by Jeff Hester · Feb 19, 2011

Follow Friday is a popular Twitter meme that has been around since early 2009. What is Follow Friday and how did it get started? And what makes a great Follow Friday tweet?

Follow Friday is a way for Twitter users to recommend other Twitter users to their followers. In essence, when you mention someone in a Follow Friday tweet, you’re saying to all of your followers, “You follow me and like my tweets, so you’ll probably also like the tweets from these people, too.”

How Follow Friday Began

Follow Friday can be traced back to this tweet from Micah Baldwin (@Michah) on January 16, 2009.

[blackbirdpie url=”http://twitter.com/micah/status/1124262248″]

The concept was simple enough. Suggest a person to follow using the #followfriday hash tag, and your followers should follow them. Since then, #followfriday has been abbreviated to simply #ff.

If you’ve been active on Twitter for any length of time, you’ve likely seen yourself mentioned in a Follow Friday tweet. This is generally a good thing, because it means someone thought you were worthy of recommending that all of their followers also follow you.

The problem with many Follow Friday tweets is that they include very little context. Ideally, when you see one of these tweets, you should have some idea about why this person is worth following. In some cases, the person doing the recommendation may have a great reputation for only suggesting really good people to follow, and you can simply trust their recommendation.

Other times, the context is self-evident, as in this Follow Friday tweet:

[blackbirdpie url=”https://twitter.com/hikinglady/status/38630817538383872″]

It’s pretty clear from the name of the tweeter (@hikinglady) as well as at least one of her follow recommendations (@theSoCalHiker) that these recommendations probably have something to do with hiking. If you’re into hiking (which you probably are if you’re following @hikinglady) then you may well be interested in following these other hikers, too.

What about when you don’t know the tweeter well, and the context of the recommendation is unclear? Should you simply follow their recommendations? What is the proper etiquette for responding to a Follow Friday tweet?

Follow Friday Tweet Etiquette

There are two parts to Follow Friday tweet etiquette: what you do when you receive follow recommendations, and how you make your own #FF recommendations.

First of all, never simply follow everyone who gets suggested unless you have a high level of confidence in the person making the recommendations. Barring that, if it seems like an obvious fit (i.e. the hiking example above), you can make a judgement call. Most of the time, I will take a few moments and actually click to view the user’s twitter profile and recent tweets. I want to make sure their tweets seem to fit the subject and content I would be interested in. And I also ignore any users with the telltale signs of a twitter spammer.

When making your own Follow Friday recommendations, the best way to do it is by adding a little context. At today’s Social Media Masterminds of Orange County — better known simply as SMMOC — Kirsten Wright (@kirstenwright) suggested that rather then sending a long list of names, send a tweet with just one name and a little context explaining why they are worth following.

[blackbirdpie url=”http://twitter.com/kirstenwright/status/39008698798051328″]

Fellow SMMOC-er Mel Aclaro (@melaclaro) took this concept one step further and suggested that rather than just posting a list of twitter names, write a blog post introducing you to these people and why they are worth following. You can tweet the Follow Friday announcement with a link to your blog. A great suggestion, and one that I’ll be using in the near future.

Creating a Follow Friday Tweet, Step-by-Step

Is it Friday? If not, don’t use the #ff hash tag. It’s bad form. Save your Follow Friday tweets for Fridays. If you want, you could use a tweet scheduling service like CoTweet or

Other Twitter Memes

Memes come and go, but Mashable posted a partial list of Twitter memes for every day of the week.

As you grow more comfortable with Twitter, begin using the Follow Friday techniques to share your favorite people and reap the karma you’ve sown.