I had to take a few minutes and tell you about a customer service experience that I had through Social Media. A few weeks back I had tweeted to my cell phone carrier Telus, @Telus on Twitter. I basically wanted to know what they could do for me as a customer who has been with them for quite a few years. They immediately engaged in conversation with me and asked how they could assist me. The conversation went to DM (direct message) through Twitter and they had me confirm my identity. I had suggested that I wanted a upgrade to my current phone which was a Iphone 4s. Long story short, they asked if they could send me a package in the mail. I said sure with great anticipation!

The NEXT day I came home to a box waiting on my front step, I was super excited! Well that moment was the complete end to my excitement once I opened up the package to find a stuffed animal, some sunglasses and a lanyard. HUGE let down to the point where I wrote a note placed it beside the package, took a picture and tweeted to Telus “This is what happens when you do not listen to your customers.”

Well it seems that it was heard by “Mr Awesome ” himself Scott Stratten, Owner of Unmarketing and @unmarketing on Twitter. Scott who has 158,000 followers on Twitter has a mantra of being “awesome” and clearly he was wondering what happened when he asked.

At this point, I just accepted what I got and went on with my daily stuff. All of a sudden at 9:43pm on a Saturday night my phone rings and it is someone from Telus apologizing for the miscommunication and as a result offered me 50% off my bill for the the next 6 months. WOW! One word: AWESOME! but it gets even better, the person had asked what I wanted and I said well there is the new Iphone 5s and 5c coming out, so they said ,once the phone is available to shoot a quick email and they would see what could be done. Well, a few weeks later, that is exactly what I did. I was contacted by a loyalty agent and together we managed to work out a deal that would give me the Iphone 5C at no charge plus unlimited long distance in Canada.

TADA!!! A few short weeks later, I had my brand new Iphone 5c and unlimited long distance all because of a tweet to a company that actually DOES listen to it’s customers. I am proud to say that I am a Telus customer and will tell this story to anyone who will listen.

HUGE SHOUT OUT to Telus and their wonderful Social Media and Loyalty teams. A personal shout out to two individuals, his name starts with a “A” and hers a “R”. (You know who you are, but for privacy, I will just keep the initial.)

Over and Out.