Monthly Archives: November 2013

Why I’ll keep giving Sonic.net money even though their service isn’t working yet

Customer Service, Tech, ,

phone wrapped in rubber bands

I’ve had issues with my Sonic.net internet since I moved into my new place. I’m not sure what it is yet, but we’ll get a week of great connection and then suddenly have it drop every 15 minutes. This is understandably frustrating. But what’s not frustrating is Sonic.net’s customer service.

Here’s how my latest call went:

  • I dialed the number.
  • I waited 20 seconds.
  • I was immediately connected to a real, live person.
  • I explained my situation and my previous support history.
  • They had already pulled up my account based on caller ID and didn’t ask me any stupid questions that I had already answered with someone else the last time I called in.
  • They compared my current line status to my past line status and explained what could be happening (yes, the front-line support agents can actually DO stuff instead of just read off FAQ answers).
  • When I explained that I had a slightly older modem, they agreed that it could be an issue and asked if they could explain their modem rental program.
  • They left me the option to buy a modem if I didn’t want to rent, and mentioned that if I do choose to rent I can always cancel the rental and buy a modem.
  • (Also, if the rental dies I just get a brand-new rental.)
  • They were knowledgable about the tech and were able to tell me that my specific modem was known for having issues and that’s why they rent a different modem.
  • When I said “ok, ship it” they asked if I wanted it shipped to my home address, which they already had up on their computer.
  • Once we were done they say “All right, have a great night!”, waited for me to reply, and then hung up. No annoying, mandatory call scripts.

Compare this to AT&T, which I had prior to Sonic.net. I had tons of issues with them and they were horrible to interact with. In fact, I wrote a whole blog post about it for UserVoice. They:

  • Asked for my contact information EVERY SINGLE TIME.
  • Recommended the same dumb fixes EVERY SINGLE TIME (yes, I have turned the modem on and off each time I’ve called you).
  • Didn’t actually know anything technical. I had to deal with people reading from the manual before I could get escalated to folks with real technical skills.
  • Had horrible service hours (between 9a-5p is not a window, it’s a workday).
  • Clearly didn’t care. Everyone I talked to was apathetic and unhappy.
  • Didn’t fix the problem (and then charged me for my final month of service, even though I had zero internet connection that whole time).

I almost enjoy getting support from Sonic.net. They have clearly optimized their experience around customer service, and their staff is obviously empowered to actually do shit. They can tell that I am a reasonably tech-savvy person and don’t treat me like an idiot. And their staff sounds engaged and interested instead of sounding like sweatshop workers. I went through maybe 15 AT&T phone calls and nearly cursed them out. I’ll gladly go through another 15 Sonic.net calls if necessary, because their service is superlative.

Companies like AT&T will continue to see customer service as a cost center, providing the minimal required service while pumping money into user acquisition marketing which, ironically, often shows up in my mailbox. Meanwhile, Sonic.net invests just a bit in empowered, smart support agents, great policies, and simple-but-effective support tools and they’ve got my money for life.

THIS is why service is important.

Finally, a marketer realizes social media is not marketing

Community, Marketing, Tech

“We marketers are awesome at talking about ourselves.

In fact, our penchant for this may be the single most compelling reason that marketing should not own the social channels. We are TOO good at promoting and selling and social is not for direct selling, really.”

From Social Media Explorer

I cannot tell you how much it excites me to see marketers saying this. Finally, they are realizing that the immense value of social media is very hard to tap if you abuse it…and marketers are not built to focus on engaging instead of selling.

I disagree with her assessment that community managers are marketers (no, you’re probably interacting with social media marketers who really wanted the title of community manager). But I think she’s getting at the exact right thing: the department that is focused on making customers happy (in my opinion, this is the Community Department) should be running social.

You don’t become evil overnight

Community, Tech,

"Microsoft is" Google searchHow did Microsoft get a reputation for being evil and having inferior products? Was it one thing they did? Of course not. It was the increase in blue screens of death, along with bad Windows design decisions, antitrust lawsuits, along with the increasing quality of Apple products.

Did Groupon start out evil? No, they slowly started pushing tougher tactics as they reached for IPO, focusing less on their original goal of helping small businesses and more on metrics that investors.

Neither of these companies woke up one morning with a completely different reputation. They slowly earned it. (And they’re just as slowly trying to get past it.)

Most companies never aim to become bad or shady or evil. But many start sacrificing their values in the rush to hit short-term goals. They gradually start ignoring the customer experience in favor of the investor experience. And then, maybe years later, they suffer the consequences.

Invest in your values and your customers now and you’ll have longevity. Sacrifice them for the short term and suffer later.

(“But isn’t Microsoft massively successful? Can you really say that they’re a failure?” Sure I can. They used to be exciting and loved and the thing to have. They have plenty of revenue now because they’re a massive, diversified corporation but I can’t imagine Bill Gates feels that this is the company he dreamed of having.)