Last January I was one of those people who bought a new wall-mounted flat screen television set just in time to watch the Super Bowl on 52 inches of high definition eye candy.
I only have about 500 words, so I’ll spare you most of the gory details of my experience with Best Buy. Problems began when, after missing a four-hour installation window, my salesperson ignored repeated messages requesting an update that were left on his cell phone. Even more shocking, the store itself was not answering its phone at 3pm on a Friday!
Without being able to learn the fate of the Geek Squad installation crew, I took to Twitter and eventually heard back from @Coral_BestBuy. Although she was responsive, I got the impression that unless I could reach my salesperson or a store manager, the system would not be installed that day—and may not be installed in time to watch the game on Sunday.
After several unsuccessful attempts, I finally reached a store manager who lit the necessary fires to have an installation crew to my house by 6pm in order to complete the installation by 9:45pm.
In the days following the installation, as charges began to appear on my credit card, I noticed pricing discrepancies totaling $270.
I brought this to the attention of the same store manager with whom I spoke the Friday before and she said that she’d look into it and get back to me. That was on February 9th.
On February 14th, I exchanged Valentine’s cards with my wife but was feeling no love for Best Buy. I detailed my experience in a letter (old-fashioned, I know…) to Best Buy CEO, Brian Dunn and VP, Customer Care, Lisa Smith.
That was over a month ago and I have yet to hear back—not even a form letter. Either they have a tremendous backlog of customer complaints to respond to or they are simply indifferent toward customers. I’ll give them the benefit of the doubt and assume it’s the former.
In reflecting on my Best Buy experience, I would rate my touch points and employee interactions as follows:
- In-store salesperson (pre-sale): Helpful
- In-store salesperson (post-sale): Fail
- Phone calls to store: Fail
- Twitter rep (@Coral_BestBuy): Responsive
- Store manager (regarding installation): Helpful
- Geek Squad installation crew: Outstanding
- Store manager (regarding pricing discrepancies): Fail
- Corporate headquarters: Fail
When half of your interactions with a company result in failure, that’s not good. The other insight I gleaned from this experience is that, if Twitter is your customer service strategy, you’re in trouble.
A responsive Twitter rep will not compensate for a salesperson’s refusal to return a call, a manager’s failure to resolve a pricing discrepancy, or corporate headquarters’ indifference toward a customer’s letter.
Regardless of whether your company has an engaging Facebook or Twitter presence, if you’re going to succeed with customers, you still must honor commitments, return messages, answer phones, resolve disputes, and respond to letters.
Otherwise, like Best Buy, you’ve failed.
