Who here HATES having to call or email a company about a product they offer, waiting on the Voice Address System from hell for who knows how long, before you ever get to speak to a human being?
I hate it. So I decided to think outside the box about the issue a couple of years ago…
I started my account at Twitter clear back in 2009 and for a long while, I only used it to share political messaging, which is great, it helped me connect to a large number of organized liberals and progressives around the country.
But at a certain point, I started to follow a bunch of interesting accounts that had nothing to do with politics, like accounts that simply post beautiful scenery from around the world, like these:
Then I discovered that cartoonists use Twitter…
Like Clay Bennett, who has an instantly recognizable style and is one of my favorite cartoonists
along with our own ericlewis0, the creator of Animal Nuz
Then I discovered that real news reporters from venues large and small, and scientists and doctors and a whole lot of truly interesting people populate Twitter, too…
This is the billionaire who wrote the “torches and pitchforks are coming for us plutocrats” story, Nick Hanauer, he’s got a way with words…
But the most important thing I learned about Twitter over the past five years is that companies large and small have accounts on Twitter AND unlike their prodigiously scary voice address phone systems which appear designed to confuse and dismay consumers — their Twitter accounts are manned and they RESPOND to you!
I’ve gotten help from various telecom, entertainment and household products companies and it sometimes happens in real time.
The story header is my latest foray. I already use some of the Wieman company products, like their daily spray cleaner for glass cooktop stoves. While internet shopping I ran across a product they offered that I’d never seen before, a stainless steel cleaner for kitchen appliances.
This holiday season, I bought myself a new refrigerator from Costco online, a black stainless steel french door model (which is beautiful and which I LOVE). But it does get smeary from fingerprints (I’ve got 2 grandkids living here with their mom, ages 17 and 8, and they do tend to make messes everywhere they go). So when I saw the ad for the ‘stainless steel’ cleaner I went to order it….
and then thought, why not ask them if it’s safe for my beautiful new fridge?
Zero dollars spent. Zero minutes (or hours) spent on a voice address system with a background muzak stream that makes you want to stick a pen through your ear after just 30 seconds of it. Zero effort expended (ok, not zero, but only about 2 mins of typing), and I found exactly the information I needed to save me money and not order a product which could have damaged my new appliance.
This is just one example. I’ve asked many companies questions and for help with their products, even the bank I use has a Twitter presence and has helped me (US Bank, fyi: disclaimer — my sister is a VP at the bank, but it’s the only national bank that did NOT take any of the 2008 Stock Market disaster funding, and it’s socially conscious, they pay employees for their time to volunteer in their community).
So if you’ve resisted using the Twitter platform because it appears just to be shrieking into the wind?
Think again!
It might just turn out to be the best friend a consumer can find in this messy, modern technology-driven world.
Do you have a Twitter account? I’d love to connect with you there, too.
You can find me there at my old Daily Kos name @AngieinWAState
My Direct Messages there are open, meaning I don’t have to follow you for you send me a message. Just drop me a short line with your Daily Kos “name” and let me know you’d like a follow-back. 👍