The entire state of Colorado and Wyoming Verizon customers had no cell service. This can happen, we all know that mother nature can cause havoc and perhaps the wind storm took down the giant? Or not…, by what you see from online customer chatter it was an issue with a switch in Denver? The ironic thing is, VERIZON is synonyms for COMMUNICATION, and clearly Verizon did not communicate an ounce to their customers. They send out emails on a monthly basis about new phones etc, so we know they have customer email database, but did they send out an alert to customers of the down service? NOPE….Did they send a notice via Twitter?, nope again. But they did post that they recycle 23 million pounds of material as yesterday was Earth Day afterall – go Verizon…How bout to their over 8oo thousand fans on Facebook? Nope again, but they asked what your favorite music is…and many pages of F/B fans were talking, or growling about the down time right on the Verizon F/B page.
So why did the Communication Giant not take advantage of the tools they have available? Such an easy two minute post to reach thousands of customers. Customers today expect it. They want to know that the Company knows there is a problem and they are working on it. That little message (140 characters is all it takes) can play a huge part in how customers respond. Most of us in our nature, give everyone a little slack, we understand that things come up, but we are all more forgiving if the message is communicated.
Next time, Verizon, just reach out with a Tweet, a post and email to your loyal customers. Something simple perhaps: “Colorado Customers, we feel your pain….the blah blah blah caused us to go down, we expect return in ## hrs/days.” That is all, there really is no excuse for Companies – especially of this caliper to not communicate with it’s consumers, you have to believe they have a Social Media department or at least a person to monitor and communicate…But maybe they didn’t get the message either, took the day off since they had no cell service?
