Earlier today, our Sarah Perez reported on the news that AT&T had taken to Twitter to respond to the legions of customers (myself included) who regularly have to deal with various connectivity nightmares with their iPhones.
As someone who likes to complain, I’ve found that doing it on Twitter is hit and miss at best. Sure, pioneers like @comcastcares and Zappos made us think that great customer service via social media channels was more the norm and the exception, but we know better. It’s often the “influencers” who have traditionally gotten the quick responses from big brands. That dynamic is changing as brands start figuring out that social media is two-way communication, but the change is still slow.
That said, how can customer gripes stand out on Twitter? If they’re in haiku form of course!
Today we asked our million plus followers to submit their AT&T woes in haiku form, using the #atthaiku hashtag. As expected, they came through in fine fashion with some very creative, funny and inspiring submissions.
How effective was our exercise? AT&T started to respond to some our our submitters, and they even submitted their own haiku for good measure.
While haiku won’t single-handedly solve AT&T’s myriad of issues, or prevent thousands from a mass exodus to Verizon in January, it does prove that 17th century Japanese poetry does a significant role in the marriage between social media and customer service.
We once again utilized Storify to capture the best haiku from our great followers. Enjoy!
