Archive for the ‘Social Media’ Category

Whataburger loses its way

Sunday, January 22nd, 2012

[Update: On January 23. 2012 9:59am, Whataburger revised their response and did an awesome job.  Way to go!  See the end of the post for more details]

Whataburger loses its way

 

It’s 2:24am in Austin, Texas and exactly 24 hours ago someone with some late night hunger got home from a Whataburger to discover that half the order was missing…again.  Infuriated and frustrated, the consumer tapped out some frank feedback on their smartphone and sent it via Mifft to the Whataburger management for the Barton Springs location.  A Mifft Messenger phoned the location at approximately the same time early this morning in hopes of catching the same shift manager.  Unfortunately, the manager said that he “did not take complaints from third parties.”  We asked him if he would at least hear the feedback and he agreed to do that.  Kudos!  Afterwards, he said he encourages customers to contact him directly.  We get that, but we explained that this particular customer chose to have us deliver the feedback on their behalf because it’s less confrontational and definitely more convenient.  No joy.  So we got his name, rank, and store number and then asked for the corporate phone number so that we could lodge the complaint there.

 

Next, we called 1-800-6-BURGER, which is Whataburger’s consumer line.  The lady who answered the phone wasn’t exactly sure how to deal with us, so she put us on hold for 5 minutes.  When she returned to the line, she told us that she wouldn’t be able to take a complaint from us because she would need to take personal information from the guest and said she couldn’t do that with a third party.  She told me to tell the consumer to contact them directly.  We reminded her that calling businesses can be inconvenient–and that she did place me on hold for 5 minutes–which is why consumers would be attracted to a service that contacts businesses on their behalf.  She told us that call volume was high.  One wonders why a lot a people would be calling the consumer line at 2 in the morning.  We went round and round for a little bit.  We asked her if her response was going to be “Declined to respond” and she got a little annoyed saying that we were twisting her words which is why they don’t deal with third parties.  Fair enough feedback, and so her response was recorded as “We do not accept feedback from third parties.”   We probably should have added “We encourage you to contact us directly,” but frankly, we ourselves weren’t feeling very encouraged by their customer service so far.

 

This response doesn’t surprise us since Whataburger is a big company, and by implication, too big to be bothered at this time.  This is the de facto initial stance du jour that too many big companies take before they eventually get bothered into doing something different (see Bank of America and Verizon).  Whataburger Corporate is the first business we have called that declined to accept feedback at all, let alone respond.  Note that we didn’t even get to the point where they could respond.  We were even willing to read it over the phone and if  we could have gotten her off script, we would have offered  to email it, fax it, or send it with a stamp.  But she was more determined to deflect than listen to what her customer had to say.   Apparently, if a complaint doesn’t fit into their bureaucratic process, then it doesn’t count.  And we’re afraid that that’s all too common for customer service in corporate America.  If you’re gonna complain, you need to do it their way, or no way.  What ever happened to “have it your way”?  Yes, we know this is not Whataburger’s slogan for customer-centric service, but given Whataburger’s corporate-centric, complaint-handling process, we’re not surprised that the consumer is mifft.  Corporate culture rolls down hill and leaves disgruntled consumers holding a half empty bag (which by way, was the early morning problem that began this adventure — half the order was missing…again).  Whataburger showed us tonite by putting up an arbitrary barrier that they have elected to distance themselves from our customer in common.  This was disappointing because we weren’t able to help out this time.

 

But things are changing.  Consumers have choices for providing feedback and it doesn’t have to be provided in the format that a business dictates.  Whataburger seems to have forgotten that Yelp is essentially consumer feedback delivered by a 3rd party, as is every other public forum like Twitter, TripAdvisor, and CitySearch.  The difference is that Mifft actually took the time to have a human being call another human being to privately discuss the problem like civilized human beings.  Isn’t that a better way to get feedback than getting blasted in a public forum?  Whataburger’s reflexive response to this customer service incident was to deflect rather than to listen and solve.  Today, as of 2:47am, January 22, 2012, Whataburger does not recognize a Mifft as a gift.  That’s a mistake.  We could have prevented another negative review from hitting the internets.  We could have converted some negativity into a positive outcome and a happy customer.  Woulda, coulda, shoulda.  What-a-burger.  Just like you like it.  #whatashame

 

The Mifft Team
www.mifft.com

Update from Mifft’s Facebook page:
Great news!  The general manager from the Whataburger – Barton Springs location called to provide an updated response to our consumer’s feedback and we think she did an AWESOME job.  Because the details of the feedback and the response are private, we can’t show you what she said, but we can tell you it contains all the right elements–a sincere apology and an offer to correct the issue from a person with the authority to make it happen.  We just sent the updated response  the consumer and we hope that it brightens their day as much as it brightened ours!  It feels good to see good customer service in action.
http://www.facebook.com/mifftmobilefeedback/posts/287976641260706

May 2011 ChimpIt Leaderboard

Monday, May 2nd, 2011

Welcome to the May 2011 ChimpIt Leaderboard!

Action Highlights: mnaylor promoted to Supreme Solid Chimper in Waiting.  Nice!  Dustie64 gains on h.skrille. andrewkorab2000 appears out of nowhere. palonghorn87 and mnaylor leap to center of pack. owlspectre, lisajean, and coltice17 in 3-way tie for Top 10 elimination.

As an active Chimper, you have soared through the ranks of commoners and have landed a coveted spot on our whimsical leaderboard. Through a mysterious calculation, your Chimping has been scored and we have bestowed you with meaningless Rank, Level, and Title.  Some of you have even managed to attain a Level and Title above your Rank.  Well done, you clever Chimpers!  Keep on Pimpin’ da Chimpiin’ and don’t worry yourself over the “points”– they are for entertainment purposes only.  Thanks for being a good sport and a good customer.

We hope you continue to enjoy Smart WiFi and ChimpIt!

Rank

Username

Leaderboard

Level/Title

1

normo 155 L0 – Chimper

2

chefmuhs 90 L0 – Chimper

3

unless_spring 85 L0 – Chimper

4

h.skrille 75 L0 – Chimper

5

Dustie64 71 L5 – Supreme Solid Chimper in Waiting

6

andrewkorab2000 65 L0 – Chimper

7

palonghorn 55 L3 – Power Chimper

8

mnaylor 51 L5 – Supreme Solid Chimper in Waiting

9

owlspectre 50 L0 – Chimper

10

lisajean 50 L0 – Chimper

10

coltrice17 50 L0 – Chimper

–Less Networks ChimpIt Team

www.chimpit.com



Social Mobile: Do games work?

Sunday, April 10th, 2011

 

We’ve watched with interest as Loopt, FourSquare, and Gowalla experiment with games to incent interaction.  But one wonders whether the game is needed because the content is lacking?  In other words, what else do you get out of “checking-in” besides checking in?  It’s no wonder that we’re starting to see discounts, coupons, and recognition bolster the game model.  Along these lines, we’ve become interested in customer loyalty programs and their success at achieving their intended goals–customer recognition, increased customer interaction, and increased customer loyalty.

We thought this article on poorly conceived customer loyalty programs was terrific!  We agree, that there is a real risk that a loyalty program will engender loyalty to the program, not necessarily the company or the brand.  After much thought, we’ve developed a hybrid model with elements of gaming and customer recognition.  In essence, we have two programs, one where some of our most active users can publicly and informally compete for bragging rights, and another where we publicly recognize our outstanding users for their roles in helping us achieve our corporate goals.

We decided to use social media and published thank you’s on users’ Facebook walls to publicly recognize them for their loyalty and support.  We also included a gift certificate from Amazon.

Customer Recognition to Increase Brand Loyalty

Customer Recognition to Increase Brand Loyalty

Shortly after these were posted on customer’s walls, there was a bump in site traffic and downloads indicating that our customers’ friends appreciated our customer appreciation.

 

 

 

Simultaneously, we published a leaderboard  because we noticed that it encouraged competition among users who care about and enjoy a little competition.  Below is the first leaderboard.  No prizes are awarded, just bragging rights.  We’ll be watching over the next few months to see how the different programs work independently and together in helping us help our users enjoy the product and recommend it to their friends.

Welcome to the April 2011 ChimpIt Leaderboard!

As an active Chimper, you have soared through the ranks of commoners and have landed a coveted spot on our whimsical leaderboard. Through a mysterious calculation, your Chimping has been scored and we have bestowed you with meaningless Rank, Level, and Title.  Some of you have even managed to attain a Level and Title above your Rank.  Well done, you clever Chimpers!  Keep on Pimpin’ da Chimpiin’ and don’t worry yourself over the “points”– they are for entertainment purposes only.  Thanks for being a good sport and a good customer.

We hope you continue to enjoy Smart WiFi and ChimpIt!

Rank

Username

Leaderboard

Level/Rank

1

normo 155 L0 – Chimper

2

chefmuhs 90 L0 – Chimper

3

unless_spring 85 L0 – Chimper

4

h.skrille 75 L0 – Chimper

5

Dustie64 62 L5 – Supreme Solid Chimper in Waiting

6

owlspectre 50 L0 – Chimper

6

lisajean 50 L0 – Chimper

6

coltrice17 50 L0 – Chimper

9

palonghorn 48 L3 – Power Chimper

10

mnaylor 47 L4 – Mega Chimper

– Less Networks ChimpIt Team
www.chimpit.com

Social-Loco Startup Competition

Sunday, April 10th, 2011

 

Social-Loco Startup Competition

Social-Loco Startup Competition

 

Enter the Social-Loco Startup Competition for a chance to pitch your company to 100s of

social-location obsessed VCs, angel investors, executives and media at the 2011 Social-Loco conference in San Francisco. ENTER NOW!

Vote for ChimpIt as your favorite Social-Loco startup.  Click here to view our profile and cast your vote.

Social-Loco: the convergence of the social web, mobile and local-business

Sunday, April 10th, 2011
Social-Loco Conference

Social-Loco Conference

 

Social-Loco: the convergence of the social web, mobile and local-business

Social-Loco will dive into social and mobile web convergence, and what that means for SMB, big brands and consumers. Learn from real-world successes in daily deals, location based services and advertising, mobile marketing platforms and more. Executives from Groupon, Facebook, Google, ATTi, Microsoft and leading investors will address these topics in a highly interactive setting.

Social-Loco takes place on May 5, 2011 at the Mission Bay Conference Center in San Francisco.  ChimpIt will be demo’ing there and giving away our cool schwag.  Come on out to participate and meet us.  We’d love to meet you!

Read more and register

ChimpIt Walk-Through / SXSW 2011 Launch

Tuesday, March 8th, 2011
ChimpIt. You are here.  Here's what's near.

ChimpIt. You are here. Here's what's near.

Ever since Gowalla launched at SXSW 2009, notebook users worldwide have felt neglected.  While the check-in wars have waged on between Gowalla, FourSquare, and Loopt (who?), notebook users have sat on the sidelines wondering why smartphones get all the cool apps.

  
The wait is over.
  
For two years, the slowpokes at Less Networks have labored to bring the world a better WiFi experience and they call it “ChimpIt.”  ChimpIt is a small downloadable notebook check-in app with a few interesting characteristics.
First of all, you don’t need to check in.  ChimpIt is a convenient “no check-in required” app because it can automatically detect your location down to the business and street address–often without having to select from a list.  For those of you lucky enough to have stalkers, don’t worry.  ChimpIt doesn’t automatically share your location, but you can if you want.  And since you’re on a notebook, the “experience sharing” capability makes it very easy to type out a rant to your Facebook friends about why the coffee sucks or the mud pie is faboo.
  
At first glance, ChimpIt looks like a simple mash-up of the usual players, Google, Yelp, Facebook, WeatherUnderground, Fandango, etc, but on closer inspection you realize that the ChimpIt team has cleverly assembled and fine-tuned these trusted brands in a way that is surprisingly convenient.  There’s a video demo on the website, but here’s an example.  If you are a traveler and you just arrived at your hotel in a strange city, ChimpIt will somehow figure out which hotel you’re at and then build a neighborhood portal to help orient you to your new surroundings.  It provides the weather, local deals nearby (more on this later), local radio stations and movie listings, a Google map on steroids, and a curious list of strange faces.
There’s seems to be more here than meets the eye.  Let’s begin with the local deals nearby, apparently sourced by fellow Austin startup WantandFound.  WAF allows anyone to type in their favorite drink special, culinary discovery, or shopping bargain, and then syndicates it.  ChimpIt organizes WAF deals by distance from your location.  Since anyone can submit a deal, there’s no quality-control, but on the other hand, the user community can publish and share deals way more effectively than the businesses themselves.  It seems to work out and provides tourists and travelers access to some local knowlege that might not be readily available.
  
Just a big mash up, or more?

Just a big mash up, or more?

The Google map at first is a yawn.  I mean, what’s so special about putting your location on a Google map?  Well, let’s give ChimpIt some credit for figuring out your location first.  Even though you just checked into a hotel, doesn’t mean you actually know your exact street address.  That comes in handy when it comes to navigating to your next destination and ChimpIt has got that down in spades.  Simply search for something like “taco” or “ATM” or “gas” and it becomes clear that the ChimpIt dev team has optimized your Google search to your exact location.  Instead of taco recipes or the history of the petroleum industry, you see exactly where the nearest locations are and if you click you get a bunch of reviews from all the usual sources.  If you click some more, you’ll get specific driving, walking, or transit directions.  The Google map on ChimpIt is a real sleeper, but possibly the most useful of all of ChimpIt’s capabilities.  You may find yourself shifiting more of your searches to ChimpIt even when you’re at home.

Okay, let’s take a closer look at those strange faces trailing down the right side of the screen.  Those are supposed to be “strangers nearby” but when you click on them, they seem to be from random places.  The ChimpIt team says that as more people use ChimpIt the list will become more accurate, but in the meantime, they are casting as wide a net as is necessary to fill the list.  But that begs the question–why would I want to meet strangers?  Well, if I’m at a conference or an airport lounge, that could come in handy.  After all, aren’t we the socially mobile jetset because nearly every opportunity is a networking opportunity, the never-ending mobile mixer?  Interestingly (and not surprisingly), it’s apparent that some of these strangers have already begun the process of mixing because you can see their public shout outs.  You don’t need to be a nun to know that there’s some adult friend finding going on.  This aspect gives the act of “chimping” a whole new meaning…
  
So let’s wrap up this walk-through up. ChimpIt is a notebook app, not a smartphone app, although it’s clear that it seems to bring together some of the best features of the smartphone apps and bulks them up with meatier content. You can get just about everything ChimpIt does without ChimpIt, but it’s awfully damn convenient to have the little monkey pull everything together for you automagically.  The local deals are way cool provided they’re accurate.  The optimized Google map is exactly what it should be.  The strange faces make me feel funny on the inside (I’m married) because it feels naughty even though I can tell myself I’m simply networking for business.
 
The ChimpIt folks call their new toy the best “here you are” app for notebooks.  It might well be the best update to “here you are” technology since someone stuck an arrow on a map for the very first time.  Take ChimpIt with you when you travel.  You’ll know what I mean.

ChimpIt launches at SXSW 2011

Tuesday, March 8th, 2011
ChimpIt. You are here.  Here's what's near.

ChimpIt. You are here. Here's what's near.

ChimpIt, the social location-based app  (aka “Here you are” app) for notebooks launches at this year’s SXSW in Austin, TX.  Users of ChimpIt will enjoy the benefit  ”no check-in required” as they use WiFi hotspots–ChimpIt will automatically detect their location and check-in for them.  They can optionally share their location or their experience at a location with their Facebook friends.  The benefits of checking-in or “Chimping” include:

  • Accurate nearby search results (find the nearest tacos, atm, or beer)
  • See local deals nearby (cheap eats and drinks that only locals know about)
  • Handy nearby Yelp reviews
  • Weather, news, gossip, movie listings
  • Discover and meet people nearby

Download ChimpIt and add smarts to notebook WiFi experience!

Watch the demo video here here:

http://www.chimpit.com

Twitter 360 App Gives Tweets Some Augmented Reality Love

Wednesday, December 2nd, 2009

Twitter 360

Twitter 360

Twitter 360 App Gives Tweets Some Augmented Reality Love

BY Kit EatonTue Dec 1, 2009 at 10:50 AM

I got all excited about Twitter’s geotagging feature before, and now it’s getting a new spin that wraps in another neat technology: Augmented reality. Enter Twitter 360, an AR iPhone App that puts Tweets in a global navigational context.

It’s a product from Presselite, the company that snuck the very first AR iPhone app into the App Store under Apple’s nose before the system had been officially enabled. It has a slightly familiar look and feel to those of you who’ve used the company’s Metro map apps. Essentially it superimposes Tweets from your Twitter feed onto a view of the world through your iPhone 3G S’s camera–each Tweep responsible for the Tweets gets a digital tag in the AR view that corresponds to their approximate location (if they’ve just used a generic location in their Twitter settings) or a precise location if they’ve switched on the new geotagging feature.

Read more…

[via Fast Company]

9 More Ways Restaurants Can Use Social Media

Monday, November 2nd, 2009

Facebook and Twitter

Facebook and Twitter

[Smart WiFi from Less Networks can take the hassle out of figuring out social media by automatically integrating it into your WiFi system!]

For foodservice operators who still aren’t sure how to work social-networking sites to their advantage, R&I shares a host of helpful ideas straight from the trenches.

Allison Perlik, Senior Editor — Restaurants and Institutions, 10/26/2009

Americans have nearly tripled the amount of time they spend at social-networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter, according recent research from The Nielsen Company. In August 2009, 17% of all time spent online was spent at social-networking sites, up from 6% in August 2008. Yet even as social media’s profile continues to rise, plenty of foodservice operators still aren’t quite sure how this trend can work to their advantage. R&I offers these nine industry-specific ideas…

Read more…

via R&I Restaurants & Institutions Magazine

New Loopt App Helps You With Random Hookups … Now

Wednesday, October 21st, 2009

Loopt Mix

Loopt Mix

New Loopt App Helps You With Random Hookups … Now

BY Chris DannenTue Oct 20, 2009 at 2:12 PM

The iPhone has been a dating tool for a while, but Loopt’s putting their technology to more… immediate uses with a new app called Loopt Mix. Warning: Finding love the Loopt way may involves waking at 7 a.m. in a strange bed, pulling on last night’s clothes and taking the proverbial walk of shame.

Read more…

via FastCompany