05.Tweet tweet and opportunity knocks
When Bruce Mills, CEO of IT company 3W, received bad advice from a Vodafone customer service rep regarding his company fleet phones, he logged onto Twitter and tweeted about his Vodafone encounter. Another unhappy Vodafone business customer quickly tweeted he’d also had a similar experience and was thinking of breaking his contract to change carriers.
Despite several phone calls and the subsequent buzz created by his Twitter comments, Mills says he never received a call from Vodafone. However he
was contacted by Optus, who had seen his comments on Twitter and offered to help.
Mills explained he was committed to a plan with Vodafone for another 12 months and that breaking it would attract a $5500 exit fee. Optus assured Mills they would pay the fee and provide $5000 of free handsets if he agreed to a 24 month contract with Optus. Mills is now an Optus client and has referred another three corporate clients to Optus since. As Mills puts it, “such is the power of Twitter”.