Under siege with iPhone gripes, AT&T boosts Twitter support, ignores the rest
America’s iPhone users, already unhappy with the AT&T monopoly, are seething again today about botched pre-orders for the new iPhone 4, hobbled as it was by AT&T network failures. Customers, as they are wont to do these days, took to Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and blogs to fire hate bombs at the mobile carrier. AT&T handled many of the complaints with aplomb on Twitter, but left whole other social media channels quiet. Not surprisingly, the angry bursts are being fired again.
As PC World reports today, the blame appears to “fall squarely on AT&T’s shoulders” as it didn’t properly test whether it could handle an avalanche of Day 1 orders. Judging by the number of “AT&T WTF” tweets yesterday, the public had already sniffed out the culprit. The complaints aired ranged from all-out anger to puzzlement to doubts the orders will ever be processed in a timely fashion, as this exchange indicates:
But AT&T gets some passing marks for its handling of the meltdown. Its Twitter-care team went into overdrive yesterday, tweeting well into the night. The main AT&T customer care account returned a series of comforting tweets to the angry masses too. Looking at the tweet volume graph below, it is clear that at least AT&T’s thorough Twitter customer service saved the day from being an all-out bomb. The graph below shows the negative tweet volume was still at a lower level than the eager iPhone anticipation Tweet bursts from earlier in the month.
On Facebook and YouTube, meanwhile, it’s a different story. It’s true there were no new “i HATE at&t” Facebook groups set up for the occasion, but the hundreds of existing hate groups and the AT&T official Facebook page got hit hard with complaints. The AT&T Facebook page in particular saw angry customers calling on AT&T to spend more on customer care.
Yeah, but what’s next… Them just handing over our SSN to random people? AT&T enough is enough… Stop spending so much money on your “new campaign” (which I like, as a graphic designer) and spend more money on fixing your service/reputation!
Irate iPhone fans also took to YouTube, unleashing a series of response videos. AT&T’s riposte? Not much; no rebuttal from the AT&T YouTube channel. Apparently, AT&T has a response strategy in place for Twitter, but it’s not too clear how it handles a barrage of complaints fired at it from YouTube and Facebook.
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Under siege with iPhone gripes, AT&T boosts Twitter support, ignores the rest http://ow.ly/17Li0d
This comment was originally posted on Twitter
Under siege with #iPhone gripes, #AT&T boosts #Twitter support, ignores the rest | Social Media Influe.. http://ow.ly/1qBVeH
This comment was originally posted on Twitter
[...] this week, AT&T faced an ugly mob mobilizing online. Its inability to handle a massive wave of iPhone 4 pre-orders made it the second most villainous [...]
Wow – in the USA, AT&T nightmare with pre-order of iPhone 4, and set their twitter staff on the firefighting case! http://ow.ly/20jn9
This comment was originally posted on Twitter
Wow – in the USA, AT&T nightmare with pre-order of iPhone 4, and set their twitter staff on the firefighting case! http://ow.ly/20joy
This comment was originally posted on Twitter
How do I hate thee let me count the ways….because of you (AT&T) I couldn’t pre-order from Apple. Then when I came to your store and pre-ordered was told that my phone would be in on the 24th, and that you would call and email information. Well today I called you to make sure all was the same with the news that some phones were coming early. Guess what you screwed me once again. Told me yes there will be new phones on the 24th, at 7am….but better get there real early. Oh, and your pre-order they will be here in several weeks from now. I hate you AT&T!
It sounds like you are relying on anecdotal evidence, but I believe the larger research statistics don’t back you up. In fact on Twitter the large majority of brand mentions are in passing (not positive or negative) and the % of complaints is really low.
Also research shows that positive tweets are retweeted more often, and positive tweeters are followed more.
Agree that big brands are having difficulty implementing coherent social media customer service strategies. As I have written elsewhere, the reason is simple. It doesn’t work. Social media is an additional customer service channel that draws money out of the budget, and is not more efficient, and does not replace other channels.
As the title of my book says: “hype and hope”.
This comment was originally posted on socialmediainfluence.com
Thanks for the note, Robert. I don’t dispute your point about many brand references on Twitter being neutral (if not, incomprehensible). As to the “larger” research you mention, help us out. By whom? We’d love to see it and share it with our readers.
This comment was originally posted on socialmediainfluence.com
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