iiNet asleep at the social media wheel

15 January 2010

Whilst engaging in social media is a great way for businesses to get feedback and to provide customer service, it's important to keep an eye on how things lest the trolls run rampant on your online properties.

Whilst iiNet has been busy fighting off its lawsuit against copyright agency AFACT they may have forgotten that they actually have a social media presence. There has been no updates to their Facebook page since Christmas eve, with their Twitter page silent since the 30th December.

The radio silence also happens to coincide with iiNet making a significant change to it's off peak quota times, reducing the hours from 2am-12pm to 2am-8am. Whilst some quotas were readjusted to compensate. Reactions were mixed and some customers expressed themselves oniiNet's Facebook Page wall including:

"Naked 6 plan customers have been ROBBED because of the change in off peak hours! Shame on you IINET, its' tarished your otherwise good record with me"

There were also a number customer service complaints from as far back as early December which have not even been acknowledged by the company.

For a company that often prides itself on customer service, you would expect a speedier response than this. In October CEO Michael Malone said:

"Delivering awesome customer service is a living, breathing value that all of us at iiNet are measured on and aspire to achieve, and this doesn’t just apply to staff taking customer’s calls – everyone in the business has to work together to get the best possible experience for every customer.”

It appears that whoever is in charge of their social media presence hadn't caught the memo.

To be fair there are also lot of positive comments on the Facebook wall, with some fans attempting to defend the company. However but it is surprising to see no response from iiNet to the negative, inflammatory and often rude comments. It's not the best look for an official Facebook presence.

If anything it is a timely reminder that engaging in social media requires regular attention.

iiNet had not responded to inquires at the time of posting, hat tip to @markpollard for pointing this one out.

Tags: Facebook | iinet | social media

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Add a comment4 Comments

at 11:33 AM on 18 January 2010, Gemma, iiNet Comms Manager wrote:
guyc you’re right on the mark, Whirlpool is one place our staff chat in forums as well as our 3FL gaming site, which sit alongside various blogs and sites such as Twitter and Facebook. Social Media IS a great way for businesses to get feedback. We also believe it provides people with a forum for discussion, rather than a desire for direct support – for example, whether you can provide effective support in under 140 characters is debateable, but it’s something we’ll continue to explore. We have enough faith in our existing customer service channels - phone, email and online (of which we’ve won a bag of awards for in ‘09) - to solve any customer issues. When we have something interesting to share with the world we do so, but not just for the sake of it – that’s basic social media etiquette.
at 06:05 PM on 15 January 2010, Joe wrote:
Agree with GuyC as well that they did a great job of going out to where the conversations are occurring, not just reacting to where the discussions are coming to them, but yes, both pools of discussions need attention.
at 04:48 PM on 15 January 2010, Clare Gordon wrote:
There are heaps of iiNet staff in whirlpool responding to queries every day. There are great forums in 3FL. I've received direct responses on Twitter from senior iiNet people when I've raised queries. They post new news on their own site, facebook, Twitter, newsgroups, discussion boards and lots of other places. Like the previous poster, I think you're just looking in the wrong places.
at 02:47 PM on 15 January 2010, guyc wrote:
iiNet are actually very active with social media, the digital strategy gurus are just looking the wrong place. See http://forums.whirlpool.net.au/forum/72 where there's a huge amount of engagement with customers at all levels of the company, from Michael Malone down.