Social Networks and DirecTV Go Together Like A....Ummmm

There's a strong tendency in the social media world to do the apples to apples, navel oranges to temple oranges to blood oranges kind of monitoring when looking at the impact of particular forms of social media. So, for example, you find that there are dozens, actually probably hundreds if not thousands of companies that are monitoring negative impact in the blogosphere. But for example, should a brick and mortar chain that has hundreds of stores be monitoring the blogs mostly - or the geographically based social networks/user communities that review the various things including the stores in their community? Think Yelp here. If they monitor the blogs, they can counterpunch with a comment on a blog. If they have their own social network, they can respond quickly to their customers. But if they are a geographically disbursed brick and mortar, aren't they going to have a great deal of problem finding the negative comments (or positive ones) and counteracting since a lot of the review sites don't allow comments on comments (though you can always just DO it) and don't take kindly to what is seen as PR by the company that is being blasted - meaning an attempt to respond directly to the problem.

But there are also other ways to interact using the blogs and the social networks - which is the other point, frankly. I am very happy about Ellen Filipiak's agreement to continue commenting on this blog on behalf of DirecTV. But that doesn't mean DirecTV is off the hook. It simply means that I have to trust that Ms. Filipiak, who is a very nice person, is fixing the problem and the powers that be at DirecTV are giving her the backup she needs to do it. I can attest to the former and not at all to the latter.

So, given that, I decided to not be passive about finding out about what customers are thinking about DirecTV good and bad. I decided to not wait for comments on the blog - a passive approach - but to be proactive and go to one of the most influential (given the nature of who populates it) social networks - Linkedin - and utilize one of their more recent (though no longer new) features - the "ask a question" feature and ask the members publicly about their DirecTV experiences - good or bad. Then I asked permission to reproduce that on the blog from all of the respondents on Day 1 (yesterday) - which was 13 so far. Here's the 6 who gave permission so far (No one has refused. Just not answered yet. I expect there will be others who give permission and who will answer the question which is in Day 2 of 7).

So read on and learn some lessons. First, the power of the blogosphere is not the thing - its the power of the totality of the social media resources available- Keanu Reeves must be right - it IS the Matrix. This is just one social network that I've queried. There are just so many out there. Two, a lesson for DirecTV here. There's a couple of positive comments - a couple of mixed reviews and a couple of very negative comments. Learn from the latter, don't bask in the former. Your worst critics are the ones who care enough about the world and even care enough about their own life to care about how you treat them. Its easy when there's no issue but that's not an answer to anything. You need to get better by a long shot. These are people who cared enough to comment - not experts in the CRM world - but they know what they know - and that's more than you do.

Jim Gallagher

"I have had a great experience with Directv, for 8 years now, and I live in the northeast. Never had a technical problem (that was not my own doing). Whenever I have called them for help, I get someone on the phone promptly and they have been very professional. Honestly I am very pleased. I got an offer the other day to switch to Dish Network that would have been cheaper, but I did not even want to entertain it. Sorry I am not supporting your agenda but I have been very happy, its one of the few services in my life where I have not ended up annoyed/disappointed."

Joseph di Paolantonio (check out Joseph's blog The Cynosural Blog)

"I've had DirecTiVo for over six years.

First, installation... As stated elsewhere, DirecTV does not have their installers, but subcontract the work. I actually purchased my four DirecTiVo units from a retailer. Their installers were booked, so they sub'd it out... To someone who was also overbooked, so they sub'd it out... To an independent who had never installed DirecTV before, and installed like cable. It took almost two years for DirecTV, sending out various subs, to provide me with a stable system with the requisite two feeds to each DirecTiVo unit.

I pay for the premium support, which includes, for a minimal monthly fee, a separate 8xx number and replacement of any hardware. Response time is measured in seconds, and they've even seem to have done away with the once required script before any action could be taken.

I live in the San Francisco Bay Area, on the Pacific Coast, and despite fog, storms, cypress trees and wind, I've had very good signal with few problems over the years. Those problems have been limited to occasional pixelation, and a rare lost show.

I do however, have a new problem with DirecTV - the loss of TiVo. One of my DirecTiVo units [by the way, that term was even used by the DirecTV customer rep when I phoned about this problem] died. All TiVo units are actually Linux boxes, and this one could no longer find its kernel; most likely a dead hard drive. DirecTV very quickly agreed to ship out an "equivalent" replacement unit. By "equivalent" I thought they meant a RCA or Phillips rather than the Sony I had. Nope, they meant their own non-TiVo DVR. When I phoned to complain about this, the customer service rep, also a DirecTiVo user promised to rectify what he thought must have been a mistake. He was very surprised to find out that this was the new policy; actually, he was devastated. He even asked me if I would wait on hold while he investigated further. At the end though, we had no joy.

As my DirecTiVo units die, and as I want to make the switch to all HDTiVo, I will have to consider other alternatives, as the DirecTV DVR just is NOT "equivalent" or even a far away second choice. And TiVo services are much more unique and valuable than DirecTV's."

Jake McGill

"Used them in LA and was totally pleased.
Used them in Northeast US and was totally displeased. Very unreliable signal. Had techs at the house every week. I think the bottom line is: the weather in NE is not as constantly good as SoCal (I know- an understatement of monumental proportions) and this is causing at least some of the problem. I think it is also a function of the higher latitude here in the NE not providing as good a "view" of the sat."

William Smith

"I use them at my vacation home in NM and have no problem technically. My problem is confusion over their policy for suspending and unsuspending the service. I would like to be able to call them to suspend it when I am not there, then call them to unsuspend it when I return. The problem is, they have all kinds of rules for how often you can do it, how long you can do it for, etc. I can understand why they might want to put some restrictions on doing this (so people don't turn their service on or off every time they go away for the weekend), but I think they could work out a policy that accommodates vacation homes a little better. One improvement they have recently made is use of a voice response system to allow me to turn on the service after it has been suspended. When I tried to suspend the service after I left the house, the IVR offered a chance to suspend, but said it could only be done once a year, which is totally unacceptable. I had to call a service rep to have them suspend the service, so I could be sure it was done right."

Timothy Rehac

"When I was first contemplating a move to New Jersey I called DirecTV to inquire about service. I was looking forward to the NFL Sunday Ticket package and was attempting to pre-book an installation date. The phone rep was very pleasant, but informed me they couldn't pre-book without an address. I told the rep. that I was moving at the end of September and was concerned about lead times for installation. I was told that installations were scheduled within 3 days of the order being placed.

Once I found a house, I called back to pre-book an installation. I was told I could not pre-book an installation until I had moved in to the residence. I was also told that I shouldn't worry, normal installation lead times were 3 days or less.

The evening of the first night in my new house, I called DirecTV to order service. Again, a very helpful / courteous rep. on the phone. I asked at the beginning of the conversation when they could install and was told they would be out within 72 hours. At the end of the conversation the rep. told me she could not schedule the install over the phone (her system was giving her problems) but she would have someone call the first thing the next day to schedule the install.

The next day someone called and attempted to schedule an install - only problem was it was for two months later. As I was anxious to get the service in time for some of the football season, I pushed back on that date. After much discussion I was able to schedule an install date that was only 30 days after the order date.

The install date arrived and the tech came out to the house. Once in the house he reviewed the order information, said that something was wrong with the order paperwork and he could not install the system. I asked him when we could reschedule and he said he would be back the next day.

The next morning, DirecTV called and said they would like to reschedule the install for 45 days later. I informed them this was unacceptable and they said they were sorry but that was the best they could do. I asked how they could possibly run their business this way and the rep said I should know better than to order DirecTV during football season, everyone knows they are booked up months in advance, but by January everything will be back in good shape.

That was enough for me, I told the rep. I would like to cancel my service. The rep. informed me that I was liable for a $ 250 cancellation fee, I just laughed at her. I called Dish Network that evening (Friday) and their very capable / courteous tech came out Sunday morning. He installed my dish on the roof in 30 mph winds in about 1 hour. I am very happy with the Dish Network - only issue - no NFL Sunday Ticket.

I later received three calls from a collection agency looking for the $ 250 cancellation fee. After I told them the whole story, they agreed that perhaps we should short DirecTV's stock, as it certainly does not seem to be a viable company long term."

Jeffrey Pabian

"We've had DTV since 1997 and have been please with them since then. Since our initial sign up, we have taken advantage of the Mover's Program, numerous free upgrades, discounted receivers, dishes, multi-switches and programming packages. The relationship hasn't been flawless but given all the benefits I've gotten from them over the years, I easily look past the couple of rough times and focus on how they've kept me and my family happy customers.

I've had some interesting experiences with the installers as some have pointed out. I've often had to explain exactly how I wanted things done and even gave a nice installer my stripping tool, (since he was new on the job and didn't have one). Overall, my experience with the installers, despite the mentioned issues has been positive.

I'll have to find a better deal on hardware and programming before I considering switching to another provider. I still give thumbs up to DTV."

Comments

[social networking site]

Social networking sites is the best place to do business online.All have to do is join the community of each site you want and social settings of your profile and invite as many people as possible. Remember that you need to make a very interesting profile of an online business and present your product well, so they can attract more of your friends or other members will appreciate the page. In this way you can build a much broader context, and to promote their business by putting links to each post that you will receive.

[Andrew]

Facebook and social media sites in general aren’t going anywhere. They are already a deeply embedded part of our culture. I applaud DirecTV for recognizing this early and taking action but it doesn’t seem to be helping their customers much. I’m a DISH Network subscriber and employee and I can tell you at DISH we are continually striving to improve our customer experience. We are all held to a very high standard and although it’s difficult at times, to be honest I wouldn’t want it any other way. It shows too, while DirecTV has seen a significant declined in overall customer satisfaction DISH has increased in leaps and bounds. We’re still not perfect, there’s always room to do better and we’re always looking for ways to do so but it shows that we are on the right track. Last years ACSI survey had us rated number one among cable and satellite providers and I am proud to be part of a company that works so hard to satisfy their customers.

[Aaron Kahlow]

Love the DirectTV research. Think what you are doing is what every responsible marketer should do in understanding how social media is affecting their brand as well as understand the pyschology behind this medium.