Not every moment can be perfect. Hopefully on the off situations you take away some valuable brand lessons.
I’m a customer of both Verizon and now Frontier Communications, and the past week and half I was unfortunately part of one of those bad times.
Trusting the celestial power of positive thinking, I lit the technology candle every night last week and wished for a better situation for you, your companies and the millions of people like me.
The bad day started like any other. I fired up my computers, turned on the news, and looked to see if I had messages on my office phone. Nothing worked. No internet, no TV, no office phone.
Unaware of a deal that had just closed where Verizon Fios sold a chunk of its service market to a company called Frontier Communications, I tried to reach my provider, Verizon—the mother brand. I’ve been a loyal Verizon customer for some time; in fact it’s been over 28 years.
After waiting on hold for over two hours, I learned via a computer attendant, Sorry Verizon Fios no longer serves your area. Good bye and have a swell day.
I was shocked. I had no idea that a sale was going down. I had just purchased a bunch of new equipment and upgraded my service package, all from a company that was merely a technology provider brand from the past, GONE.
Fortunately, I have insurance for days like this. It’s called a back up, Jetpack, or portable hot spot. So while I could work, my hardline Internet was MIA, the land phone lines were still silent and I had no broadcast services.
Like many moments of high stress and life uncertainty, I resort to my trusted friend and advisor, Mr. Google, to find out what the heck is going on. In just 3 seconds he confirmed the worst; I was a victim of big brand disappointment and an outage caused by service transfer troubles with Frontier Communications, new owner of Verizon Fios.
Long story short. It took 12 days and least 20 hours of my time to get my service back.
Yes companies have bad days, but it did not need to be this ugly, painful, and brand damaging to both players. A little customer consideration and communication management before and during “when the crap happens” goes along way.
I hope that this counsel will fall under “lessons gained” and that next time a situation like this will be handled differently.
Four branding perils to avoid if you truly care about your customers.
