Rogers gets “social” with Twitter
July 22 2009 by Ellen Roseman
In just a short time, Twitter has become an essential tool for both media and business.
I have a Twitter account and so does Rogers Communications. In fact, it has a few of them. You can check out what Rogers is doing, even if you’re not on Twitter yet:
Rogers told me that it’s trying to reach out to people who post online comments about their bad experiences, Then, it works to resolve these complaints offline.
Wouldn’t you know it? Right after I talked to Rogers, I got an email from someone who was helped this way. And he was pretty happy about it.
Hi Ellen,
I just thought to pass this message to you to inform other readers of your articles and on your side blog.
I recently wrote on twitter the following: “Rogers customer service = one lost customer” after having difficulties with getting a resolution to my billing problem.
Within one day, I received a re-tweet from Rob Manne (AKA RogersRob) asking if he can help. I was skeptical at first but then found that he has a lot of followers and is the Manager of Social Media and Digital Communications for Rogers.
I direct messaged him and he then indicated he would look into the problem. Within 24 hours, I received a call from Laurie at the Office of the President for Rogers. Laurie helped address the billing issue and I will be getting a credit and an apology.
I have to say that I have been pleasantly surprised about this type of customer service for Rogers. Usually I and others have experienced negative ones.
Sincerely,
JG
Rogers also wants to help you escalate your complaints more easily. Its website lays out a three-step process, ending at the office of the president, which is easier to follow than what was there before.
Bell Canada, however, has shut down its forums, which seems a backward move. When I first read the conversations going on there, I thought I was reading my own blog. Guess the comments were too critical for the company’s liking.
Here’s how Bell justifies its decision to do away with free-wheeling discussion:
At Bell, improving customer service is our top priority. That’s why we’re replacing the Bell Support Forum with a new Instant answers knowledge base coupled with 24/7 chat support. With this new tool, we believe we will better serve our customers’ need for fast, accurate information and assistance. It can also quickly connect you to a live support staff if you want to further discuss your situation.
Can companies use social media to get closer to customers and their concerns? I’d like to hear your thoughts about this trend.
Riscario Insider
Jul 22 2009
Reaching out to customers via social media certainly helps if the companies truly listen and resolve issue. At first, @rogersrob looks like a joke but that’s probably “rob” as in “robert” rather than “robbery”
Mike
Jul 23 2009
It seems unfortunate that you need to twitter your dissatisfaction with Rogers before someone will look into your issue.
Bylo
Jul 23 2009
Seems a bit ironic (and very hypocritical!) that telecoms who won’t listen when you call them by telephone, where no one else can see their arrogance and utter ineptitude, are hypersensitive when you expose that arrogance and utter ineptitude for all to see on the Internet.
Cynthia
Jul 25 2009
Bell chat? What good is that when the person typing on the other end doesn’t understand what you are asking?
I inquired about voip service with Bell, not realizing that halted it a while back. The person i was online chatting with gave me a number to call.
Nope, online is not a good thing when the people on the other end can’t stray from a script because they don’t understand the context of the conversation.
Time for Bell to bring their support/customer service back home. I kept Joel’s # from the executive offices, so if I have another problem, he’ll be hearing from me.
Dave
Jul 26 2009
Is Bell sure this Bell chat thing is 24/7? It’s 9:15 AM on Sunday and I just selected “billing” and “home phone” as subjects I’d like to discuss but their page comes back and tells me that the chat service is currently unavailable.
Rebecca
Aug 11 2009
After waiting for Rogers Office of teh President to get back to me since July 10th ( we are now August 11) I am emailing Rogers Rob above, let’s see if he’ll respond to me before I send you my Rogers concern.
Filipe
Aug 20 2009
So I just have a couple of questions that no one ever seems to think about. How do you “tweet” if its your Rogers internet connection that is the problem? How do you call Rogers if your home phone or cell phone is the problem? I think all of these companies need to provide the consumer with multiple methods of accessing them and they should all be just as easy and return the same results! Show me a company that does that and you’ve got yourself a customer. Have you tried to actually call Rogers and talk to someone who can help you? It won’t happen!
Tina
Sep 1 2009
It’s now 2 days since i have tweeted about my billing issue with Rogers, consistently. And nothing!
I have spoken to their customer care department and was told a manager would call me.. nothing.
Sent an email to Mr. Nadir Mohamed, CEO …still nothing.
My next step is to contact Rogers Rob and if nothing happens there, I’m going to the media.
Ellen Roseman
Sep 1 2009
Tina, you already went to the media when you posted your comment here.
I’ll ask Rogers why it’s not responding to your tweets.
Tina
Sep 1 2009
Agreed, and thank you for this forum. I tweeted Rogers Rob and no response. Beyond frustrated. Thank you, again.
Tina
Sep 1 2009
I was happy to talk about my dissatisfaction with Rogers publicly, in hopes it would result in a resolution — and I’m now just as happy to talk about my complete satisfaction with how it’s been handled.
Thank you to Ellen Roseman, thank you Rob Manne, and thank you Sam (Office of the President) for your quick attention and the manner in which you took an extremely dissatisfied customer and turned me into a very happy one.
It is possible.
RogersRob
Sep 2 2009
Tina, thank you for the feedback on your experience with Rogers and the RogersHelps team. Please accept my apologies for the delay in reaching out to you, as well as the problems you faced with Rogers to date.
Our response to tweets is not instant - yet. We’re responding to most tweets within a couple of hours, but will continue to do better as we build out our team and gain experience in this space.
Thanks,
Rob Manne & the @RogersHelps team
Ellen Roseman
Oct 13 2009
I recently talked to Peter Silverman, consumer advocate on CITY-TV, who lost his job when Rogers bought the station.
He now hosts an 11 a.m. Saturday phone-in show on News Talk 1010 radio.
Peter shared with me an email from Rogers, where it talks about the four-step escalation process and the appointment of an ombudsman.
News to me, since Rogers never mentioned this major step it was planning to take.
See the email thread below.
————————————————————
From Michael Gass, v-p human resources, Rogers:
Peter,
I wanted to follow up with you in regards to customer complaints that may come your way. We have adopted a four step process to deal with customer concerns. That process is clearly set out on our website.
If a customer complaint comes your way, we would request that you find out whether the customer has in fact followed the prescribed escalation process.
If they have not, it would be best to have them avail themselves of this process and deal directly with Rogers.
If, however, the customer has followed the four step process, including having their concern dealt with by The Office of the Ombudsman, and the matter remains unresolved, your best contact on their behalf is Don Moffatt, Ombudsman. His contact information is as follows:
Office of the Ombudsman
350 Bloor Street East
Toronto, Ontario
M4W 0A1
Fax: 416-935-3604
Email: ombudsman@rci.rogers.com
Link to Rogers Complaint Process: http://your.rogers.com/contact/complaint.asp
I trust this will be helpful.
Michael
————————————————————
From Terrie Tweddle, v-p communications, Rogers:
My sincere apologies for not mentioning this to you. We created the role in the late summer time frame and it was an extension of the work we did on the three step escalation process.
Please let me know if you’d like more detail and I’d be happy to provide. It seems to be going well.
————————————————————
From Peter Silverman:
It’s interesting, but seems rather complex for the ordinary individual and still forces him/her to fight through the process. Does not look too user friendly to me.