One of the nice things about having a blog is that when I make a public complaint that directly affects me, companies usually make an effort to fix the problem to avoid negative PR. Obviously not everybody has or wants a blog, but you can still get that improved customer service by just faking it a little.
Here is what to do:
- Create a Twitter account (if you don’t have one already, make sure you follow me on Twitter while you’re at it)
- Get as many followers as you possibly can, you want these businesses to think you have a lot of influence. The easiest way to get a lot of twitter followers quickly is on Fiverr.
- Tweet your complaint and make sure you tag the company your complaining about in the Tweet.
For example: “@drofcredit sucks, his site is stupid and he is an idiot. I want a publicly apology”. The “company” (in this case me), will see the tweet and see you have a lot of influence/followers and make an effort to fix the issue. For example: “@you I’m sorry that you feel the site is stupid. What can we do to improve? Have this $5 coupon as our way of saying sorry.”
This works more often than you’ll think, a lot of the time you don’t even need any followers to get the problem fixed. I’ve been having issues with Hostgator recently (one of the many reasons the site has been slow) and tried using all of their regular support options with not real success. I tweeted and within 15-20 minutes the issue was fixed (thanks again @HGSupport).
I think Matt from Saverocity deserves credit for this one.
