The Power of Social Media
By Jeff Moffitt
@moffittjc (121731)
Gainesville, Florida
September 18, 2016 10:07am CST
We all know that customer service is horrible at most businesses these days. It's like they don't even care anymore about who they serve or why they are in business in the first place. But, interestingly, businesses and corporations don't want you to publicize your bad experiences, and will go to great lengths to try and keep negative publicity out of the public's eye. This is where the power of social media comes into play! Here's an experience I had recently:
I was shopping at a Wal-Mart super center. When I went to check out, there was only one cash register open, and about 20 people in line (sound familiar to most of you?). There were 25 registers in the store. God forbid that the manager actually try to open more cash registers for the customers! Anyway, I snapped a photo, and then posted on social media, and tagged Wal-Mart. I don't remember the exact wording of my post, but it went something like this: "Dear Wal-Mart, you have 25 registers in your store, but only one is open. There are 20 people in line. Do you see a problem here?" Within about 30 seconds, I received a PM from someone from Wal-Mart, asking me the location of the store I was in. Within about another minute of that, five employees appeared out of nowhere and five additional cash registers opened up.
Do you think if I would have gone to the store manager and complained, that he/she would have opened up additional cash registers for the customers? I doubt it! But as soon as I posted something negative about the company on social media, I immediately got a response, followed by action!
Granted, this ins't guaranteed to work every time, but on that particular day my social media post was seen and acted upon, and the problem was solved.
Have you ever posted something negative about a company on social media and received a response from that company?
By the way, since Wal-Mart responded to and solved the issue I complained about on social media, I followed up with a positive post about the company, thanking them for taking care of the issue for me!
18 people like this
21 responses
@hereandthere (45645)
• Philippines
18 Sep 16
maybe they reduce the number of cashiers during non-peak times? i'm glad the response was quick. it's good that you followed it up with a positive post to thank them.
2 people like this
@moffittjc (121731)
• Gainesville, Florida
20 Sep 16
It's true that they try to time the number of cashiers based on their busy times. But that doesn't mean they ignore customers who are shopping during the store's "down" time.
@simone10 (54187)
• Louisville, Kentucky
24 Sep 16
@moffittjc Very true...it is worth a try. I just can't believe someone responded to you so fast.
1 person likes this
@moffittjc (121731)
• Gainesville, Florida
25 Sep 16
@simone10 I guess I just know how to use my charm to my advantage...even on social media! LOL
1 person likes this
@moffittjc (121731)
• Gainesville, Florida
23 Sep 16
It may not always work in every situation, but it is certainly worth a try. Worst case scenario is that you are ignored. Best-case scenario is that they respond and solve the problem for you.
1 person likes this
@Blondie2222 (28611)
• United States
22 Sep 16
Well glad social media helped with your issue. That is unfortunately seen at alot of places i go too but when stores get busy in my local town they will page for more people to come up front and help with the registers. I think all stores should be like that depending on how big they are and how many employees though.
1 person likes this
@Blondie2222 (28611)
• United States
24 Sep 16
@moffittjc yeah i'm sure they are but if you chose to do that job then you need to do it or quit. I went to the store today and there were only 3 lanes open out of 8 and it was a little busy but not packed.
1 person likes this
@moffittjc (121731)
• Gainesville, Florida
24 Sep 16
@Blondie2222 I wouldn't be upset at all if I was at a store that had 3 out of 8 lanes open. That's not too bad at all. But I get upset when a store puts in 25 cash registers, and then never uses them. What's the point of having 25 if you only every open 2-3?
@moffittjc (121731)
• Gainesville, Florida
23 Sep 16
In my youthful days when I worked in retail, we all hated getting called up to help run the cash registers. We would try to find every excuse we could to not have to go open another register. I'm sure people are still like that nowadays.
@arthurchappell (44998)
• Preston, England
20 Sep 16
great way to draw their attention to the problem and well done to them for addressing it so promptly, even if under pressure
1 person likes this
@arthurchappell (44998)
• Preston, England
20 Sep 16
@moffittjc yes, and it worked for them too, showing publicly that they listen though they were probably angry and a few store managers will get roasted over it too
1 person likes this
@moffittjc (121731)
• Gainesville, Florida
21 Sep 16
@arthurchappell I wonder if they actually do follow up with the store managers over the issues? Or, I wonder if the corporate offices of these companies keeps track of customer complaints from each store, and keeps them in a file on each manager to bring up at the annual performance review? I know when I was a store manager we never discussed customer complaints at evaluation time, we mostly focused on sales goals, expenses, shrinkage, and employee development and turnover.
1 person likes this
@moffittjc (121731)
• Gainesville, Florida
20 Sep 16
Hey, whether it was a coerced response or a genuine response, in the end I got what I wanted!
1 person likes this
@epiffanie (11326)
• Australia
22 Sep 16
I've never complained about any company on social media ..But yes it is frustrating when there's one at the check out to attend to customers ..
There are now self-serve registers in many store here .. I don't like using them ..
1 person likes this
@epiffanie (11326)
• Australia
24 Sep 16
@moffittjc The self service check outs that I tried here have problems .. I had to call an attendant every couple of minutes because they freeze ..lol .. So that was it .. I could not be bothered ..
1 person likes this
@moffittjc (121731)
• Gainesville, Florida
25 Sep 16
@epiffanie That's true! Many companies have not perfected the technology of the self-checkout yet! The place where I do seem to have the most success at the self-checkout lines is Wal-Mart. Do you have Wal-Mart stores in Australia?
1 person likes this
@moffittjc (121731)
• Gainesville, Florida
23 Sep 16
I can never understand why customers refuse to use the self-checkouts, and would rather wait forever in the regular checkout line. Most cashiers these days are so slow that it is faster to use the self-checkout line (if you know what you're doing and know how to use the self-checkouts). Not saying it's bad if you don't like to use them, but I always find that the customers who complain the loudest about the regular checkout lines are the ones who could have used the self-checkout lines and been quickly through with their transaction!
1 person likes this
@miniam (9154)
• Bern, Switzerland
18 Sep 16
I really admire you for going back to your original post and posting a second positive outcome,not many people would have bothered.
True if you could have personally gone to the manager and asked for a 2nd till to be opened,he`d not have listened,but having this in SM,they were worried of a larger number of people seeing it and reacted fast.
1 person likes this
@moffittjc (121731)
• Gainesville, Florida
20 Sep 16
I used to be a manager for Wal-Mart, and I would have never let something like that happen in my store. My policy was always that if there were ever more than three people in a line, we would open another cash register. Sadly, the managers that work there these days don't really care. I guess I was lucky to work for Wal-Mart back in the days when they cared about their customers.
1 person likes this
@moffittjc (121731)
• Gainesville, Florida
21 Sep 16
@miniam Those businesses won't be in business very long if they can't remember that the customer is king!
1 person likes this
@miniam (9154)
• Bern, Switzerland
20 Sep 16
@moffittjc
some businesses forget that the customer is king.
1 person likes this
@LadyDuck (472087)
• Switzerland
21 Sep 16
@moffittjc This is my opinion too. People are ready to criticize them, but most of the time they do not take the time to praise those who did a great job.
1 person likes this
@moffittjc (121731)
• Gainesville, Florida
20 Sep 16
Most people never take the time to post positive interactions with businesses, but I usually take the time to give praise where praise is due. The employees who work for these companies are people too, and need reassurance and praise when they do good things! Who knows, it may encourage them to do more positive things for other customers!
1 person likes this
@moffittjc (121731)
• Gainesville, Florida
20 Sep 16
If I am going to complain about a bad situation, then I am also going to take the time to praise a good situation.
@moffittjc (121731)
• Gainesville, Florida
20 Sep 16
I'm not always successful on my social media posts, but more often than not I get a response from the companies I post about. They are getting better about responding these days. Sadly, however, their in-store employees are not getting better about taking care of the customer in the first place.
1 person likes this
@pgntwo (22408)
• Derry, Northern Ireland
21 Sep 16
@moffittjc A case of left hand and right hand, usually. Joined-up thinking not easy in big organisations where the Customer Service function is split between IT/MIS and A.N.Other departments.
1 person likes this
@moffittjc (121731)
• Gainesville, Florida
21 Sep 16
@pgntwo Well said, and very accurate description of what is going on with a lot of these companies.
1 person likes this
@PainsOnSlate (21852)
• Canada
23 Sep 16
That is amazing. I do know big business doesn't like bad reviews but that was very fast. Good for you for doing that.
1 person likes this
@moffittjc (121731)
• Gainesville, Florida
23 Sep 16
I must have caught them just at the right time! lol
1 person likes this
@ElizabethWallace (12074)
• United States
18 Sep 16
Okay, they monitor that site, so which one was it?
1 person likes this
@Poppylicious (11133)
•
18 Sep 16
I've done it a couple of times, but am also thankful that a good old fashioned email or letter still works too!
1 person likes this
@moffittjc (121731)
• Gainesville, Florida
20 Sep 16
Yes, I've written letters before and gotten responses. But I will also admit that many letters I have written to businesses have gone unanswered.
@moffittjc (121731)
• Gainesville, Florida
20 Sep 16
That is true. Many companies don't give a damn about their customers until they are forced or pressured into caring. It's crazy how the very source of these businesses' income are treated so badly. Customers should always be treated wonderfully!
1 person likes this
@RitzzView (3038)
• India
19 Sep 16
Strange! Never heard anything like that!
Definitely its important for them to be good on social media..Lol
1 person likes this
@moffittjc (121731)
• Gainesville, Florida
20 Sep 16
Especially since social media has the power to make them look very good, or very bad to millions of people.
1 person likes this
@silvermist (19702)
• India
18 Sep 16
Jeff Moffitt You did right posting about that in social media.Also that was nice that you thanked them when the problem was taken care of.
1 person likes this
@garymarsh6 (23404)
• United Kingdom
20 Sep 16
Well done and I hope the manager gets a rocketing for mismanaging his store! I had the same thing happen to me one time but there were two tills open. One was for trolleys while the other was for 5 items or less. The woman with five items or less had no customers whereas the other queue had about 20. The manager came running and screaming at me can't you read. I replied can't you count! He backed down when I told him to have fun packing all the groceries on the belt as I am not taking them off. He helped me pack my shopping and got me out of the store PDQ. LOL What a fool! This is not unusual here but I do not shop in silence! I let them know!
Good on you Jeff you did a brilliant thing!
1 person likes this
@shivamani10 (11035)
• Hyderabad, India
18 Sep 16
You can not get such positive response in India. The Social media in your case might have made necessary provision for sending such posts to the appropriate person under complaint category. They acted accordingly. But, in India, this provision is not made yet. Even then they won't care about it.
1 person likes this
@andriaperry (117146)
• Anniston, Alabama
18 Sep 16
Nope this is a first for me, I called in so many times on the a holes here that they knew my name and they HONORED any coupon I brought in and they priced matched. I can guess so many people complained they no longer price match and now they do a savings catcher thing where you get paid in walmart gift cards... smart move and bad move.
1 person likes this
@moffittjc (121731)
• Gainesville, Florida
20 Sep 16
I happen to love SavingsCatcher! I actually earn quite a bit scanning all my receipts into the app! And you want to know another secret? So many people lose or throw their receipts away on the ground in the parking lot. If I am walking through the parking lot and see a recipe laying on the ground, I will pick it up and scan it! LOL
