Tophost.gr & Papaki.gr: Engagement wins from 2 Greek companies

Customer Service Hero
Originally uploaded by lepriveconcierge

And now for something completely different: Two companies that actually helped me online and engaged with me and responded to me via social media.

You know how we all nag ALL THE TIME about companies who don’t get it? It’s difficult to count how many times I’ve read/ written blog posts about things that we don’t like and companies with major fails in engagement and comms.

Well, here are two very good stories for you – good examples of why I was a happy bunny after talking with these people.

TOPHOST.GR

Tophost is a company offering hosting/ support/ registrar etc. services. They were running a clever promotion a few days ago via twitter. You basically had to RT them and follow them to get a free .eu domain (I got one). I thought it was a clever promo – they had 600 domains and they went pretty quickly.

I went to their website to set up the thing and discovered that they system would not accept my postcode. You see, in Greece postcodes are numbers only whereas in Britain they are alphanumeric. The system refused to accept that my postcode could have letters. “Major fail” I thought but then saw their little online support icon.

Let me be clear. I don’t trust these web based chat systems I had yet to find a company who actually responded in time through them. Not tophost.gr. They were quick, polite, realised exactly what the issue is and fixed it for me on the spot.

I was so pleasantly surprised that I sent out a tweet about it. They responded with their thanks via twitter. Our network Re-Tweeted. Happy all around.

PAPAKI.GR

Papaki is basically a registrar (I know, I agree, their website is a kinda allover the place) but I noticed that they had a good offer of free hosting with any .eu domain (I need it for a static website I’m planning, more on that another time). So I went and bought one, submitted my credit cards details and waited for the e-mail.

First I got one that said they would need to verify my order. It was after 15.00 on Saturday so I had to wait until Monday. I found that a bit redundant since I was paying by credit card but anyway. Second e-mail arrives first thing Monday morning asking me to call their customer services dept. to verify the order. Call. On the phone. On a Greek landline. “Ach, major fail” I thought but being the little nosy parker that I am I actually updated on friendfeed about it including @papaki. Fine, I accept that they might have internal processes that require verification for new customers (the lady on the phone was lovely by they way). But why do I call THEM? Why not give me a callback option?

Hey presto they come back to me via twitter, apologising for the inconvenience and reassuring me that they are already changing the process to include a callback. They even thanked me for the feedback and invited other users to make any suggestions they might have.

YOU GET THE POINT?

Both companies had some sort of process that I didn’t like or prevented me from using their services. Both companies were thinking too locally (Greek postcodes, Greek phonenumber) and papaki has the added complexity of a process that I just don’t understand.

But (and here is the good stuff)

1) Make it easy for me to complain/ ask for help
They both have online chat, visible e-mails, comment submit forms, they are on twitter. The more channels you offer me the higher the probability that I will ask you to resolve it instead of closing the browser and going to one of your competitors.

2) Come back to me yesterday
Yes, we are all spoiled, we want an answer as soon as possible. Both companies came back to me quickly, people took responsibility for my issue and resolved it. No forwarding, no holding for another department. On the spot.

3) Listen to comments, change when you need to, adapt when you can’t change.
Tophost changed and I completed my order with my UK postcode. Papaki probably can’t change their process but they are adapting – they are now adding the option of callback.

4) Be there as a person AND company, thank the user, involve the community.
Alkistis is on twitter for tophost. Marianna for papaki. They are identifieable people for their companies. We exchanged some tweets these days – isn’t it funny how I now view both companies in a very good light? Not only did they deal with my issues but they publicly engaged with me, thanking me, inviting more people to participate.

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By the way. A bit unconnected with the post but it needs to be said. What is up with Heraklion, Crete? Both companies are there. The Foundation for Research and Technology is there. Really worthwhile stuff is coming out of the place. I suspect it’s got something to do with the University of Crete having a campus there and nobody wanting to leave after but can please somebody go to Heraklion and study their innovation cluster?

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Following a database meltdown (long live the server move processes) this post and any comments were uploaded again manually.