We believe that it is important to listen to customers and to respond in a timely fashion.  We recognize that in too many cases it’s the squeaky wheel that  gets the grease (and that social media has allowed that “wheel” to squeak a lot more loudly to a lot more people).

What we actually think corporations are teaching customers is that if they want action, and they want it in a hurry, then social media is the way to go.  They’ll get the attention of the most enthusiastic, best trained, most highly empowered reps in the company – the staff monitoring Twitter and Facebook are getting the headlines and the praise of management.  Follow the traditional channels and it’s the overworked folks in the back room who are charged with cutting call time, holding to strict corporate guidelines, and giving back as little as possible.

Instead of assigning the “best” service teams to provide the most positive customer experience to the most valuable customers, we are in fact assigning them to the customers who have learned how the system works.