An Open Letter To Pizza Hut
Dear Pizza Hut,
I like Pizza. My 5 kids like Pizza. Pizza is good. Getting the right experience is good. That being said, you have really let me and my kids down recently.
Let me back up and tell you the story.
Recently, my twins had their 5th birthday party. We had about a dozen 5 year olds over for a party with a bounce house. Oh how they loved the bounce house. Per my kids request I ordered Pizza Hut, not my choice of Domino’s ,because they like the stuffed crust. (Hey I like the crust to, but feel loyal to Dominos, plus they have a great social marking)
Being the tech savvy guy I am, I ordered my pies via your website, it was a very easy experience. So, far so good right? Well then the pizzas arrived. They were wrong., well 2 of them were. The other 4 were fine. We quickly adapted to the problem and moved on.
Then the following week my family wanted more Pizza Hut. One look from those kids and I gave in. Ordering pizza again via your Iphone app. I went to pick up the pizzas and again, they were wrong. I worked it out with the person at the counter.
Now, being the calm cool guy I am I posted this:
To your credit your responded with:
and this:
I was impressed! I had thought, wow you really care! You listen! You monitor conversations on twitter. Also, I figured you must of saw these tweets:
So, I quickly sent you a direct message as you requested. Yes, I follow directions well. So that is where I think you really dropped the ball with the @pizzahut. See, I have not heard back from you in 2 days. Are you done with me? What was the point in having me contact you directly? I am just wondering. I would think you would want to respond to me, have me write a blog post about how you hit a home run with your use of social media. I would tweet about it and others would Retweet it. There would be great buzz on twitter about it.
Sincerely,
Dave (the guy whose family likes stuffed crust)
Dave,
I can see where your concern is, but this seems to be a case of a business that wants to handle support on Twitter, and leave it at that. They asked you to DM them the issue so that they could send it along to their Support team. That seems to be what happened. Now granted, a smart business would have then replied back to you with a DM (if you are also following them) with an attached coupon -above and beyond service, which is probably what other, smarter businesses are doing.
This just seems to be a case of a business that does not get it, but simply has a presence to answer questions adn garter feedback, but not finish the cycle, learning, engaging and satisfying.
Mike P
@mikepascucci
Mike.. I did follow them so they could DM me back. You nailed it though, they need to finish the cycle.
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Dave Peck, i palindrome i, Sherry M Caudill, Antonio Martínez V., Makenna and others. Makenna said: An Open Letter To Pizza Hut http://bit.ly/98uhvO [...]
I guess that this brings up another issue though. Would you have the same feelings against them if they had not replied to you at all? Or would your concerns just be different (not having a presence vs. not closing the loop?) Just curious as we all (hate to make a blanket statement) expect major businesses to have a presence on Social Networks like Twitter, Facebook…..but would the situation pass by if they were to never reply to you?
If it were me, I probably would have forgotten about it until the next time that I were to order pizza. I may have tweeted about it, but I would not have drafted a post specific to the situation. I am just curious as to what you would have done, or what your feelings would have been.
Mike P
@mikepascucci
You really should just order from a real pizza place with real pizza and Italian pros working there and not a conveyor belt pizza place with teens working part time. . Also…
"Also, I figured you must of saw these tweets:" should really be "must HAVE SEEN" these tweets. Not must OF SAW. Tell your kids good pizza is better and show them grammar is important.
Hi Dave,
Alexa here, better known as @PizzaHut on Twitter.
As I said via DM, I am extremely sorry that during your last two visits you did not receive the level of service that we aim to give every Pizza Hut customer. We appreciate your business tremendously, and know that a bad experience carries a lot of weight when deciding where to order from next time.
I give my sincere apologies for not responding immediately when you answered my @reply on Monday. I try to respond to all of the complaints and issues that customers have in a timely manner, and this was not the case on Monday.
Everyday we are working to improve how we approach customer service on Twitter and other social networks, and your experience is no exception. We are constantly learning from every social interaction and trying to make good on the promise that we make to our customers – great pizza, exceptional service and an overall great experience.
Like I promised via DM, I have passed on your experience to the franchisee, and will follow up with you as soon as possible. I hope that we will be able to serve you again soon and make it up to you, from one stuffed crust lover to another.
Hmmm, I had one response and then scrolled down to the @pizzahut response. You see, I had a stint at a Pizza Hut in Eugene, Oregon during college. Putting that together with your experience and the response, I would say this—more than the management of their social media, Pizza Hut needs to work harder to ensure that the company standards and actions are carried out through each franchise. It does no good to build a brand and then allow the stewards of that brand to operate completely without contact, check in or consequence. Conduct, response time, and quality are fundamentals of a service and I think at the end of the day they seem diluted here.
The problem is that a lot of companies that are listening on twitter and/or responding aren't directly tied in to the customer service center. The person that responded to your tweet (and this blog) from @pizzahut should be empowered, but it seems that they are only passing on the information to others. I've had this problem with other brands were they are doing the right things by listening, but they aren't truly tied into the customer service system and so there is no continuity. Sure, it makes a person feel good when their question is responded to on Twitter, but if they call customer service and there is no record of that conversation, then what good is it?
An Open Letter To Pizza Hut…
Kudos for a great SEO article – Trackback from SEOKudos…
I had an experience similar to this though it was almost creepy. I made a tweet about having issues properly mapping my domain through GoDaddy. I did not receive an @ reply (initially). The first thing I got was a phone call, from "@GoDaddyGuy". He was helpful, polite, and helped me solve my issues but it's still a bit…. creepy.
If at all possible I would stay away from the national chains. They are mediocre pizza at best. I understand the convenience of ordering online and that children do not comprehend actual taste and are mostly influenced by the pretty colors they see in advertising but I'm guessing that if there is a locally owned pizza place nearby that their pizza is so much better that it will be worth the inconvenience. Plus only a small portion of money spent with national chains stays in your community where with local establishments the majority stays at home. Also the guy with one restaurant cares a lot more about your dining experience than the board of trusties that manage the brand name for 5000 locations.
In our country. the situation is reversed. Every pizza chain is better than dominos. They literally rip us off.
LOL….I was just commenting to my husband about how social media (TWITTER) can really influence business to take care of problems and fast! Today I commented about my AWESOME experience at the Nordstrom kids shoe department (I will easily pay $20 more for my kids shoes just for sanity sakes of shoe shopping). I did @Nordstrom and they immediately followed me – so I DM'ed them with the name of my sales associate (yes they give out business cards) because she ROCKED! Anyhow – that does not have to do with pizza – sorry. Back to Pizza Hut – they should follow through for sure…. If they don't you can let it be a good lesson to your kids, by letting them know you won't be going to Pizza Hut because of the customer service! They may not fully understand it now – but in the future they will be able to reflect and get it!
Pizza Hut is ridiculous. Check out my most recent interaction (or lack thereof) with them:
Pizza Hut actually █████████ to a █████ but then ███████ it.
I'm always amazed when companies use email contact forms, twitter, or other social media & ask you to call them. I don't want to talk to anyone. That's why I tweeted/emailed you!