Social Media Hot Tub

Number 14: Spleen

OK, so this is only really the second in this occasional series. See Number 13: Forgiveness for the first. You’ll notice the irony in the sequence here in a moment.

Whoops, indeed!

I learned a lot from my dad. He built a successful business from scratch with a lot of hard work, long hours, and a boatload of invaluable assistance from my patient, T-crossing mom.  His business delivered a quality product, uncompromising after-sale service and an honest deal every time. However, he also had been blessed with an innate sense of marketing psychology. He bought a small pickup truck and had it stenciled with the company name. He then had the number 11 painted on the side.  He knew he needed his company to seem bigger, more-established, than it was.

Sprint could learn from him, too. Of course, they are a big company. A really big one. As such, they need to take extra care to look like they have their duckies in a row lest they find themselves in the midst of a colossal PR disaster. Like the one they find themselves in this week.

I’ve alluded before to the “the medium is the message” wisdom that’s ingrained into every aspiring advertising writer. If you want to look like a professional company, your advertising medium can’t be tacky, poorly executed, cluttered or insult the reader. Shouldn’t that be the case with the company’s product?

Sprint is a communications company. Their corporate communications platforms should embody a commitment to service, quality and – one would think – uptime.

Since Sunday, it seems, Sprint’s Web site has been down while their IT department busily toils away at an update  ostensibly designed to improve customer service and communication. It’s now Wednesday morning. And the site is STILL DOWN.

I had a little temper tantrum, and tweeted two messages in a row expressing my disdain. The reason I knew about the outage is I received a payment due notice by email. Evidently, collections activity at the company is functioning without a glitch. And I understand a Web outpost has been erected to facilitate new customer sales.

However, my favored method of payment is not working. Do you think Sprint will mind if I wait until their site is up and running and I can take care of the small matter of the fee? Of course, I can always call. However, actually calling Sprint, and talking to one of those associates after navigating the phone queue – well, have you read any Dante?

After years of working his business, my dad eventually didn’t need to try to look bigger, because he was – and on his own merits. Sprint could try to act a little smaller in this case.  Such huberis, Sprint, to not care for every detail of your update and effectively alienate your established customer base!

By the way, my third tweet was an invitation to other cell phone companies that could craft a comparable service plan and buy out the Sprint contract. We’ll see what comes of it. If nothing else, social media offers a therapeutic opportunity to complain about being stepped on by the big guys. I don’t know if the big guys are listening to the little guys – but they should.

Got some spleen of your own to vent? I invite you to do so in the comments. Enjoy!