I am now a believer in Twitter, I think

Apr
9

Last weekend my laptop crashed. When I restarted it, it said that the systems.32\hll.dll file was corrupt and that I need to reinstall it. I called Dell, they couldn’t help me. I stressed about it all night because I have some really important data there. So Sunday morning, I brought my laptop to Best Buy/Geek Squad so they could at least save my data. Someone had told me that they were awesome and can fix anything.

I got a call this morning from the Geek Squad and they told me that they couldn’t retrieve my data; and that they could send my laptop to their offices in Kentucky and use advance data retrieval techniques but it would cost me anywhere between $400 – $1600. Ugh.

So I posted my no-so-rant on Twitter.

A few hours later, I get an email from Robert Stephens, the Founder and Chief Inspector of the Geek Squad. He asked me what my issues were and that he would look into it. Let’s see if he lives up to his promise of personally resolving the complaints of those who read the The Consumerist(lol, not really a consumerist reader though).

Nonetheless, this is a great illustration of how a company can use social media to track conversations and (hopefully) take action. We will soon find out if the Geek Squad is going to create a loyal customer, with lots and lots of friends, family and acquaintances. ; )

UPDATE (6:30 PM): Got another email from Robert. He did follow up with the local technician at Best Buy and confirmed that my issue could not be resolved at that facility. While I am a little disappointed that I don’t have my data; I take my hat off to Robert and team. This is exactly what conversational marketing is all about! Good job Geek Squad.

UPDATE (4/14):I took my hard drive to the Bay Area Computer Man; and they retrieved my data in less than one day and only $250 later. These guys are awesome and I would recommend them to anyone who has computer woes. Maybe they should have a presence on Twitter, yah think?

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Tags: social media, conversational marketing, the geek squad, twitter, Robert Stephens, Bay Area Computer man

Author: Michael Brito

Michael Brito is a Vice President of Social Media at Edelman Digital. All thoughts and opinions on this blog are his own and do not necessarily reflect those of his employer or clients; neither past or present. Feel free to follow him on Twitter or subscribe to this blog.

Greg Levine

So for me the moral of the story is Best Buy is technically challenged when it comes to data recovery and the Bay Area Computer man is not. The Geek Squad CEO can console me and hold my hand, but if they can't get my data back they fail.
XS

Geek Squad is not challenged when is comes to data recovery, when it comes to your data you want it to be handled carefully by highly trained data recovery specialists, obviously you cannot walk into any of the 1010 Best Buy locations each with multiple Geek Squad agents and get this, nothing against all of the Precinct Agents, but with such an important thing you want Agents who spend every day doing one thing, recovering data, when the drive gets sent to the Geek Squad City for Data Recovery, you do get this.
Dwayne

Just started actually using twitter. Seemed like a waste of time when I first looked into it. Now, I've been seeing more and more comments like your's that shows that they actually seem to be read.

I would imagine companies are using things like Google Alerts to tell them when people are blogging (tweeting) about them, and checking out what is being said.
Melanie Phung

I hear Comcast is doing the same thing (i.e., monitoring Twitter for CS-related issues). I wonder how long a strategy like that is sustainable. Once word gets out that all you have to do is complain online to get tier 1 service, everyone will start expecting responses that way. As a consumer, of course, I think this is fantastic.

I wonder what it is about Twitter that is making corporations more eager to join the conversation in a way they never were/still aren't with blogs and consumer forums.
David Temple

Wow sorry to hear about your corrupted files, reminds me to back up more often.

Now that's reputation management. I like the part that Robert couldn't get a different answer for you but it seems you were pleased he at least tried.
Social Marketing Journal

Wow! This is the second day in a row where I've heard of companies personally contacting customers via the complaints seen on Twitter... unreal.
Michael Brito

Hi Kelly,

Nope. They can't get the data, but I was sure impressed with their level of service.
Kelly Rusk

That's great news. I love to hear when companies are paying attention and reacting!

Good luck, I hope you are able to retrieve your data.
Sharon

That's awesome...they check themselves on Twitter - good for them!

I'm more of a believer now in big companies 'getting it' about social media as a whole.