Social Media Success Story!
December 11, 2009 by admin1
Filed under Social Media Marketing
Using Social Media to get the Attention of the Big Guys!
I always pay attention to case studies about Social Media Success stories so I can pass them onto my clients because many people have no idea about powerful this new communication tool is.
Now I have something even better than a case study! I have my own Social Media Success Story that illustrates how it can be used as a way to reach people you never stood a chance of getting through to not too long ago!
This is a true story of what happened to me this last week.
My checking account became overdrawn because of a deposit I forgot to put in the bank. I usually checked my balance online every few days but in this instance I did not check for 5 days. So thinking I had money in my account I had 7 transactions go through which the bank cleared but charged me $35.00 overdraft fees for each transactions. By the time I realized the problem they had also charged fees for too many days overdrawn. The grand total in fees was $350.00!
I was horrified and went into my local bank to talk with someone fully expecting them to refund the money because I had been a customer for over 20 years and I did not make a habit of over drafting my account. Not only did they refuse to refund the money but the bank manager gave me a lecture on balancing my bank statement. She was quite condescending and rude and I left furious and upset and was determined to close my account.
But what a hassle that would be. I would have to change my direct deposits and everything and that just made me madder. The bank fully knew how much trouble it was to change accounts so they had a licence to take advantage.
I remembered the TV special I had seen about banks taking advantage of people with these terrible fees and so instead of closing my account I decided to see what I could accomplish using Social Media channels instead.
I went home and checked on Twitter and when I searched for my banks name I came up with quite a few complaints. I Tweeted “BofA has done it to me as well! $350.00 in OD charges!
Within 15 minutes I got a Direct Message from BofA_help that said, “I am from the banks customer service dept. Can I help you? Send me your phone # NOT account # and we can talk.”
I was shocked!
I tweeted back my phone number and lovely women called me immediately. She listened respectfully to my entire experience and then asked for my permission to access my account.
IMPORTANT SAFTY TIP! I did not give her my account number then. I asked for her employee information and then called the banks 1-800-number and asked for her to confirm that I was talking to a real bank employee. Then I gave her my permission to access my account. Never send sensitive information online anywhere and NEVER put it in a TWEET!
After she confirmed what I told her about what had caused the problem in my account she refunded my $350.00 and apologized for how I had been treated.
I was even more shocked! She took the name and number of the employee that was rude to me and promised to pass the information on to the proper authorities.
I have always known Social Media was a powerful tool for building relationships with people in your target market but this episode illustrates another reason to get involved with Social Media. It is also a powerful tool for reputation management.
Businesses are beginning to discover how important Social Media is for keeping track of their brand.
I have watched several news specials on TV in the last few months concerning these overdraft fee policies and how banks have used them to generate revenue. They have had so much negative press that there is a new law in congress concerning the problem. The law does not take effect for a year but it appears the some banks have decided that they were going to be proactive and try and address the issue and do the right thing.
I am excited because it proves to me again about the incredible power that Social Media gives to the individual. Because of the Internet one person’s voice can be heard by millions and when you add those single voices together you come up with a large force to be reckoned with!
Thank you Nereida from the Bank of America help desk for listening to my problem and fixing it and thank you to the upper management of Bank of America for realizing you had a problem and making an effort to resolve it.
If you would like to learn more about how you can use Social Media to market your products and services online please join me for my FREE Teleseminar on Tuesday December 15th at 4:00pm EST please go here http://bit.ly/4N7Qoy
