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I have seen a lot of negative stuff about GoDaddy’s service on the blogs but I sense that they are aggressively trying to change that, and what I have experienced so far is a great case study for how businesses can use Twitter and other social media. Here’s the story:
1. I set up a Wordpress blog on GoDaddy and screwed up the plugin installation like a dope
2. I called GD tech support and was told they don’t support Wordpress (even though they feature it in their Auto Install applications center)
3. They sent me a survey re the call and I mentioned that they should support simple Wordpress issues
4. I posted on Twitter to see if anyone could help with the issue
5. I got a tweet from @GoDaddyGuy (Hi Alon) saying he had emailed the solution to the problem. He had also left a message on my office phone!
6. I got a follow up email from Warren Adelman, President of GoDaddy, that did not seem like it was canned. It mentioned my comments re Wordpress and how they were addressing them.
So what can you learn from this as a business?
People are using social media to get help. Here are the latest tweets on plumbing alone. Smart businesses could monitor searches for relevant questions on Twitter Search and come to the rescue. It’s no different than Yahoo Answers in that way. GoDaddy was actively scanning Twitter (and many other social media sites I bet) for people having issues and providing help where needed. Way to go…daddy.
Update: More about GoDaddy’s phone call strategy
8 responses so far ↓
1 Tad Miller // Jul 18, 2008 at 2:05 pm
Andrew, your example is what they should have been doing yesterday when they had all the problems. Amazingly, I don’t think their has been a press release or apology yet.
http://www.search-mojo.com/wordpress/?p=206
2 Andrew Shotland // Jul 18, 2008 at 2:36 pm
Tad, they contacted me yesterday
3 Bob C. // Jul 18, 2008 at 3:22 pm
While this reflects positively on GoDaddy, for scouring social media for opportunities to help customers, that function itself seems to be more necessary since GoDaddy created the problem in the first place by not being able to handle the technical support question on the front-end. I don’t think this is a net positive for GoDaddy’s brand as a result, at best it’s a wash.
4 Andrew Shotland // Jul 18, 2008 at 4:24 pm
Bob,
My current impression of them is positive. I feel like they listened and adjusted. This may not be the last problem I have with them (can’t stand the UI on their site) but I think they scored a point - unless of course you are the grouchy, glass half-empty type who is looking for the bad side of every company they deal with. Today I am trying to look at the glass as half-full.
5 Andy Beard // Jul 18, 2008 at 5:51 pm
Do they still have a horrendous way of treating domains that receive spam reports through no fault of the domain owner, such as an affiliate spamming an affiliate link?
Last I heard you have to pay a fee to join their spam prevention group and in some way sign that you will never be a bad boy again.
Effectively never use Godaddy for anything that might be related to email, hell even comment subscriptions on a blog could get you in trouble.
I hate the interface as well
6 Andrew Shotland // Jul 18, 2008 at 6:40 pm
Well if my mentor Andy Beard can’t stand them then perhaps I am being played for a sap.
7 Bob Chandra // Jul 18, 2008 at 8:52 pm
>My current impression of them is positive. I feel like they listened and adjusted. This may not be the last problem I have with them (can’t stand the UI on their site) but I think they scored a point - unless of course you are the grouchy, glass half-empty type who is looking for the bad side of every company they deal with. Today I am trying to look at the glass as half-full.
Andrew, I’m sure you do feel better about them; you said as much in your blog. But the fact remains that were the question handled appropriately in the first place, you wouldn’t have to fish for an answer on Twitter.
8 Jamie // Jul 22, 2008 at 12:05 pm
Can’t say that I have had a lot of trouble with GoDaddy. I have worked on many sites hosted through them and the customer service, while pretty bad little while back, is getting better.
To be honest, the worst thing about GoDaddy is Bob Parsons, that guy is obnoxious.
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