iBurst blog under fire
by Smallz Mancotywa
We recently did an interview with iBurst's Head of Customer Service regarding his use of a blog for customer care.
iBurst now has their work cut out for them in South Africa, and Cape Town in particular, according this article from MyBroadband. Read the bottom of the article where it states what happened to the i-Burst blog since the article was written.
In his latest post Ed, our customer service hero, has had to move quickly to save some face, but has failed to apologise or explain what became of the 127 previous comments that appear to have vanished.
I had a feeling this was going to be tough when he declared "this blog is for customer complaints and issues". This is not generally what blogs worldwide do and there is an expectation of regular posting and reply from the blog owner. The technical structure of the iBurst blog also needs improving as there is no archive section. Alternatively, maybe he ought to think about a forum as many of the complaints are repeated by other iBurst users.
Unfortunately, Ed has justified why organisations/marketers sometimes fear blogs. However, imagine he had done nothing to address these numerous issues.
Just giving the consumers a voice probably gets you 5 out of 10 immediately. Showing them you care gets you 7 out of ten. Solving their problem in good time should get you a 9 at the very least. Starting a blog and ignoring their comments will bring you right back to zero though!
We know it's difficult Ed, but keep going. iBurst have made the bold move to engage their customers. Pioneers must expect teething problems. You will be taking some stick, but you need to uphold that commitment to engagement. Keep listening to customers and tweaking the process.
It's still much, much more than the majority of organisations like this one are doing in South Africa.
Comments
post a comment
Subscribe
RSS to Email
Get our latest blog posts delivered straight to your inbox.
eMarketing News
Subscribe to our fortnightly newsletter which is packed with interesting eMarketing news, views and other quirky titbits.
December
| S | M | T | W | T | F | S |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | |
| 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 |
| 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 |
| 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 |
| 28 | 29 | 30 | 31 | |||
Archives
Categories
- General (586)
- PPC & Affiliates (30)
- Search Engine Marketing (94)
- WebPR (38)
- Online Reputation Management (38)
- Email Marketing (12)
- Design (18)
- Viral Marketing (192)
- Conversion Optimisation (14)
- Website Development (38)
- Industry Events (60)
- Quirky Stuff (115)
- Social Media (87)
- Work at Quirk (10)
- Friday Fact Box (24)
- Interviews (13)
- Guest Posts (4)
- Nice Finds of the Week (4)
Recent Posts
- A Day in the Life of Marketing
- Designing for the iPhone
- With Nandos We Can COPE
- Bike Hero
- Heineken Shows the Signs
Recent Comments
- gavich on Designing for the iPhone
- Janine on Designing for the iPhone
- Kelly on With Nandos We Can COPE
- Guy McLaren on With Nandos We Can COPE
- Tony Roocroft on Conversion Optimisation Tools
More photos of the QuirkStars At Play
Name:
Friends of Quirk
Websites:
www.quirk.biz
Regarding previous posts vanishing, I think it's not so much a case of them deleting comments as it is a case of past posts being hidden once a new post goes up. This means that all previous discussion effectively disappears - certainly a technical issue they need to look at.
Regarding the suggestion that they need a discussion forum, I think that's an excellent idea. The blog could work very well in combination with a forum. That would keep the blog more focussed on specific issues that are being looked at, and reserve the comments section for consumer input related to that issue. The forum would then be the outlet for the wide array of miscellaneous customer complaints that really just clutter the blog. So keep the blog focussed on specific topics, and create an additional channel of engagement for everything else. That adds the benefit of a searchable archive, so any discussion on an issue that has been resolved before, becomes available to for any customer who experiences something similar in future.
I was just looking at the MyADSL article and related discussion - looking at the comments from moderators, I get the distinct feeling that they're bitter at iBurst for not using their service - does anyone know if they charge a fee to companies looking to respond to complaints? I seem to recall that Hellopeter.co.za does.
Posted by Darren on 2006/11/28