It’s a question tossed by d-list celebrities trying to get into a club, and by media types trying to get preferential treatment.
In the case of the d-listers, if you have to ask the question they probably don’t know who you are, and most likely don’t care.
In the case of media, we’re usually somewhat anonymous, being in print or on radio, so we try to flip the phrase. Sometimes, just like having Olsen On Your Side, being a guy from the radio can get you what you need.
I’ve been having a problem with Future Shop since Christmas. I bought something online and it hasn’t arrived yet. The problem is most likely Canada Post’s fault, but I gave my money to FS, so they’re the ones I’ve picked a fight with.
For 7 weeks I have been calling the 1800 number, each time re-explaining my situation to a different phone operator, each time being told it will take a couple days. The couple days pass, I get no update, then a couple more days pass before I remember to follow up, and the frustration levels have built.
Then this week I got a note from the FS Media Relations person inviting me to an event they were having. I took the opportunity to fill her in on my little drama. Without a word of a lie, I received an email from the head of Customer Service within 90 minutes promising my items would be shipped immediately, at his expense, and I would be receiving a gift card for my troubles.
Why? Well, he obviously knows who I think I am. A blogger, a radio host, and a technology columnist. But should it really matter?
I told a friend, who said, “The fact they solved it so quickly proves they could have solved it all along.”
It’s true, but I was dealing with 1800 operators, not the head of Customer Service. The phone ops have a mandate, a list of procedures, which work in most cases to get things solved as customers get tossed around in the wheel. It’s the managers who have the ability to really solve things quickly. They have the authority to hand out promo cards and put missed orders on their corporate account to get things solved – the phone ops don’t.
You can squeak all you want on that phone to that operator, but they’re going to read you a response straight out of their operations manual.
Next time you have a problem, ask for a manager and drop a “Do you know who I am?”
It just might work.
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While fully supporting your right to fix your problem this way, you may have found a solution that will only work for you (or at least a relatively small number of yous who are important enough to be on the Media Relations mailing list).
The basic issue is that solving the problem for you is an easy no-brainer for the PR person. But in bulk, the goal of Future Shop is to minimize the support costs. Because of that, the solution not only won’t work for people who aren’t Buzz, it almost certainly won’t scale without putting Future Shop out of business.
I was being sarcastic with my advice. I lean more to what my friend had to say. My problem was easily solvable, those on the front lines aren’t given the tools to solve them.
I didnt want to “play the media card,” I was just letting someone I know in the company of my situation to see if they could help. You know, “put a good word in for me.”
In my case, it worked, but it shouldnt have had to come to that.
It’s called turboing: http://www.macwhiz.com/articles/art-of-turboing.html
(that’s “turbo-ing” not “tur-boing”)
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