• by Ryan Deutsch , September 3, 2009

So I admit it: I am a huge iPhone geek. As my wife would attest, an unhealthy relationship has developed between me and my phone.  Music, email, applications, games, and now apparently Direct TV, what's not to love?   With that background, you should not be surprised when I tell you I was completely panicked when my Mophie Juice Pak Air rechargeable battery case stopped working while I was on the road last week.  Like any heavy iPhone user, without a viable battery backup, I am destined to have to plug in at some point during the day -- and that just won't do! 

 

I quickly jumped onto Mophie's Web site and searched for a FAQ that matched the error message I'd received. No luck.  Undaunted, I moved on to Google and searched the exact error message.  And what result should come up but a link to Mophie's Twitter page!  As some of you may know, my company has been spending quite a bit of time with clients working on Twitter and other social strategies.  So I was now doubly motivated.  I needed to solve my Juice Pak problem, and I was interested in how Mophie used Twitter for customer care. 

 

 Sure enough, once on the Twitter page, I was immersed in a DIALOGUE between Mophie personnel and other consumers, which featured the obligatory "We Love Mophie" tweets alongside troubleshooting tips being offered up by support.  One of the tips provided a link to a trouble ticket form, so I popped it open, filled it out and clicked submit. Then I. waited... and waited... for Mophie to respond.  The customer experience that followed got me thinking about the necessity for brands to finally integrate transactional email (also referred to as service or operational email) with the rest of the customer experience. In Mophie's case, I started with a true dialogue via the social Web and was left with, well, a less than collaborative experience.

 As with most customer service communication workflows, online requests trigger an email confirmation that a trouble ticket has been submitted.  Some of these confirmations happen in real time and some do not.  Mophie's was not real-time.  So when I received the confirmation the following day with "Tech Support" in the subject line, I almost deleted it.  To make matters worse, this particular transactional email had a subject line that read like a financial transaction summary:  RMA Authorization - Mophie Case# 0829-12113 [ ref:00D8KOWJ.50087QagF:ref ].  I still have not figured out what RMA stands for.

 Point number one: Transactional email (purchase confirmations, password resets, etc.) should be instantaneous.  Consumers now go to Twitter because they assume near real-time response.  Mature channels like email should offer the same immediacy, especially when a customer has a problem.

 Point two: I am a customer in trouble, so brands should use these transactional email communications to show empathy and continue the dialogue that was started on the social Web.  Dynamic content in subject lines and within the message body can make your consumer feel like your brand cares and is listening to the concerns at hand.  Mophie could have provided me the case number in the body of the transactional email.  The subject line should have been immediately recognizable and related to the problem I had, in words and terms I could understand.

 As I read the body of the email, I immediately freaked out.  The email started like this:

 "Dear Sidney Deutsch, (BTW...my first name is Sidney, middle name Ryan)

 We have received your information regarding the mStation mophie product you wish to return for repair and or replacement. In the enclosed email you will find your RMA # and shipping instructions..." 

What, RETURN?  Who said anything about returning something?  You mean I have to send this thing back?  Why? What's broken?  Can we troubleshoot it remotely?  AND WHAT THE HELL IS AN RMA#?

Think back to how I started this process, feeling like I was engaged in a dialogue with Mophie.  Two emails later, I am lost.  If indeed the only solution is to return the product, tell me why.  Provide a phone number to call so I can understand the process. At the very least, act like it is a big deal that I will be without a full day's charge for my iPhone for some period of time!   

Consumers are spending more time on the social Web with friends, family and yes, brands.  It is critical that marketers understand how this new behavior changes consumer expectations.  For years, we have been working with email marketers to enhance and integrate transactional email streams to drive better experiences and increase the opportunity for cross-selling.  Today, it is about more than that.  It is about integrating all digital channels to support online conversations with consumers. 

 No matter how well you've embraced Twitter and Facebook, you get nowhere if the handoff to email or other channels is sloppy and unsophisticated.  The social Web has introduced new channels for customer collaboration with and about brands.  This means you need to make your mature digital channels (email, mobile, etc.) more collaborative.  No channel is more critical to address than transactional email, as it sits at the core of almost all meaningful conversations with customers.

Putting a Fine Point on It

I have still not returned/dealt with the Mophie problem.  Frustrated with the experience, I will probably drop by an Apple store and buy an alternative. Too bad, I loved the Mophie product.  But from Mophie's standpoint, that's not the real problem.  Here I am writing a blog post about a less than spectacular experience I had with the company's services team when I could be tweeting about how fabulous they are and recommending the product to all of my friends on Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook and yes, even in my MediaPost column. And it's all because someone forgot to adjust transactional email streams to the new reality of social influence marketing.