We resell the hosting services of a company called HostGator. We have used them for a couple of years and generally have found them to be quite good. We also talk about how to use Twitter for reputation management and customer satisfaction. So it was no surprise that I was following @hostgator on Twitter.
We recently finished a larger site that gets a lot of traffic and makes numerous calls to the database with each visit. For the first month, the site ran like a charm, with no errors. Then suddenly about three weeks ago, I came to work on a Monday and had an upset customer because none of the images were showing up. So I went to HostGator, they “resolved” the problem and, because of my questions and concerns, assured me it wouldn’t happen again.
And it didn’t happen again. Until the next weekend. On Monday I had a customer getting less patient with us. I turned to the HostGator online chat again and after they resolved the issue again “Oh, it was a different issue this time but we have definitely resolved it.” I was told. And it stayed resolved. Until the next weekend and on Monday, as I was going through the online chat, I also sent a tweet about my unhappiness with hostgator.
Soon I had a Twitter reply from @hostgator asking if they could be of assistance. After a couple of exchanges with @hostgator, I sent my ticket number. Within an hour I had both an email and a phone call from a level 3 technician at HostGator. He quickly helped me identify that the problem had not been resolved and that it was a coding issue that I needed to fix. I had asked, in each of my three chats with HostGator, if there was a problem on my end and had been assured that there was nothing I could or should do. Once I knew there was something I could do, I did it and had the issue fixed within a day.
This is definitely a Twitter success story. When working through normal channels I was not able to get my problem resolved. A few tweets later I was talking to someone who could actually identify the problem and point me towards a solution. Twitter is awesome and this is another example of how any company can use Twitter to monitor and maintain their reputation. But I have to say that HostGator let me down. I shouldn’t have had to start tweeting about this in the first place and I find it odd that I couldn’t get the support I needed from HostGator through their normal channels. Yet when I sent out a tweet, I was able to cut through the red tape and get right to the solution.
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Thanks for your post and your honest feedback.
First of all, I’m glad that you were able to get the resolution you were hoping for and expecting after reaching out to us on Twitter. I handle a vast, vast majority of the responding from our Twitter account and I’m glad I was able to get your issue forwarded me to someone who could take care of it for you (I regularly forward issues to the administrator you worked with).
Next, I’d like to apologize for the fact that you were unable to get the information you were expecting the first time around. We’re constantly working on improving the quality of support and customer service we offer, but we just aren’t perfect yet (or anywhere near it). We’re better than most and we’re able to get most things resolved pretty quickly, but some are more complicated.
Beyond the branding niceties that come along with having an active presence on Twitter, our Twitter account serves partly to intervene in issues exactly like these. We realize we aren’t perfect, which is why we have people readily available to get involved when it’s needed. Our CEO still (gladly) works with customers on a daily basis and does so because sometimes our first level of support fails to meet expectations.
Once again, I want to apologize for the fact that the level of service you got from us initially fell short of both your expectations and our standards, but I also want to let you know it isn’t something we take lightly and that we’re working hard on improving.
Best,
Douglas
Customer Service Manager
HostGator.com LLC
Douglas,
I am will continue to be an enthusiastic customer. I loved the immediate support I got through Twitter but it did make me pause. It also made me pause to realize how our customer service works and whether the same thing would happen here. I think it is an excellent example of how Twitter can work well and instructive of how we all need to look at internal processes.