The IT Nerd

Here’s the danger with Social Media. Something you do can easily backfire on you. Case in point, Rogers created a hashtag called #Rogers1Number to promote their new service that extends a Rogers wireless phone number to allow users to video chat, text, and have a common inbox. Great idea. Except that as many people pointed out to me today, it’s being used by ticked off customers to vent about bad service. I just did a search of Twitter and found comments like this:

what happens when there’s a monopoly, craptastic ‘service’ & scamming #Rogers1Number #HATEROGERS

Forget this #Rogers1Number Rogers should focus on products people actually need, and working on developing actual ‘customer service’.

 Rogers doesn’t bill their customers properly. Tried to over bill me by $500 a month. I switched to Bell & had no problems. #Rogers1Number

My advice? Rogers should reach out to each and every person who posted a negative Tweet and see if they can resolve their issue. If they can, I’m guessing that a positive Tweet will appear. That will turn an #fail into a #win. Because this is a #fail for Rogers as it currently stands.

UPDATE: According to The Globe And Mail, Rogers is doing exactly what I suggested:

Keith McArthur, vice-president of social media at Rogers, said this was the first time Rogers had used a promoted tweet and expected that not all comments would be positive.

“We’re seeing the reaction today and we’re listening to it and responding to it,” Mr. McArthur said, adding Rogers would be responding individually to customers who have complained over Twitter.

UPDATE #2: A post has now appeared on Rogers Redboard. I’ll give Rogers points for dealing with this head on, but you have to believe that this #fail really stings as it highlights how much work Rogers has to do to deal with the negative perceptions that people have of them.

This entry was posted on March 16, 2012 at 1:31 pm and is filed under Commentary with tags #fail, Rogers, Twitter. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.