The CX Blog

I’m not entirely happy with Clearwire these days.  I’ve been using them for 2 years and have been happy for the most part all along, but the last month, speed has become very unreliable and the refurbished modem they just sent (they called it “new” but I can tell it’s used–and I’m cool with that, so long as it’s been improved since its last owner) is not a huge improvement over the one I’m sending back.

Please tell me you’re not going to send my old one out to some unsuspecting customer and call it new.

But I digress.  The reason for this blog is to note that Clearwire, following Comcast’s lead (Frank Eliason who is a hero in the social networking world for his pioneering efforts to reach and help customers using Twitter and his blog), has recently started using Twitter to help customers.

If anyone from Clearwire is reading this, here’s a tip: give this job to someone who really understands customer support.  Frank Eliason is a past-master at listening and helping customers–he applies his skill and his passion in his exchanges on Twitter and really helps customers.  Just glancing thru @clearwire’s tweets, I see a sort of disturbing pattern:

@clearlytired Is the trouble just slow speeds? Have we sent a technician out to help or see what was wrong? How far have you gotten with us?

@badsquare Have we sent a technician to see you yet? Please let me know and I will get someone out there to help if we have not.

@bigdaddyjohnson What kind of problems? Have they been resolved? Have you given us a call to get them fixed?

@aaronjensen Why do you say that? Can we help you fix anything to change your opinion of us?

@benquintana Can we help change your mind? What’s the reason for wanting to cancel?

@danyocummings Why do you say that? Can we help you with anything? Any way to change your opinion?

Okay, so customer support 101: do you really not have any information about your customers that you could check before asking “have you given us a call to get them fixed?”  If you don’t, you should–that should be your first action.  Start tracking information about your customers and allow your people to access that information.

If you do have that info, then why the heck aren’t you using it? Your response to these people sounds anything but confident and straightforward.  It sounds, I hate to say it, really lame.

Customer support 102: don’t beg. Don’t ask the customer if there’s anything you can do to change their mind.  Do Something.  Offer some options, alternatives, whatever.  By approaching it the way you have above, you are now asking the disappointed and probably pissed off customer to figure out how to make things better.  Please.

But here’s the real thing to gnaw on:

Instead of just jumping into Twitter–where the whole world really is watching and it’s frighteningly easy to watch–figure out your plan first, line up your internal resources, make sure that very public team you put on the Twitter Project is the best you’ve got.  Yes, the cream of the crop.

Because everything they’re saying and all the ways they try to “help” the customer are making (or breaking) your brand.