Anna and Will from NixonMcInnes are working with T-Mobile UK to bring them into the 21st Century.
And it’s a good job they are.
For a long time, T-Mobile have been the proverbial arse-in-the-corner, ignoring the blogosphere because it’s, well, unknown.. and filled with.. er… the great unwashed…
For any organisation accustomed to broadcasting to customers and potential customers, the utter shock at being held accountable and having to — one way or another — respond to questions from the great unwashed, well, it’s understandable.
Most marketing and public relations folk in big companies such as T-Mobile are doing correct thing and reading a lot about it, attending conferences to get good case studies and constantly doing their best to put off the meeting with the Communications Strategy meeting with the Chief Executive. Most CEOs these days love the concept of communicating directly.
It scares the hell out of most public relations people who’re used to rules. And proper ways of doing things.
The key point with the blogosphere is that it’s populated by people. Real people who, in the case of T-Mobile UK particularly — are actual customers. Or wannabe customers. Or potentially interested.
And when you come across big lumbering giants like T-Mobile, of course, you know it’s going to take them fooking years to understand and get comfortable with the new medium.
There’s no excuse for it. There’s no need. They should be hot footing it right into the blogosphere hot tub rather than standing at the back wrapped in a towel shivering.
T-Mobile’s Marketing and PR chaps have dipped a toe. And that’s a good thing. But they’ve done it with a plausible deniability safety-net.
If Will or Anna screw up, the Marketing Director can hang them out to dry.
I’d like to see some bollocks on the line. Not for any particular reason other than I — and most of you reading — are actually interested and — if pushed — rather passionate about T-Mobile. I’d like to know what’s going on. I’d like to ask questions. I’d like to hear from their directors. I’d like to tell them how to take more cash off me.
So I say right-on to T-Mobile UK for taking tentative steps. Well done for hiring NixonMcInnes — one of the best agencies to handle this sort of thing — but I’d like to see more, soon.
If you’d like to follow T-Mobile UK on Twitter — you can — SHOCK HORROR. The username you want is TMobileSharing.
This is clearly all moving in the right direction. There was chronological serendipity when TMobileSharing appeared on Twitter and the email inviting me to place my order arrived in my inbox. Unfortunately the links in the web page were dead as they were not destined to work until 7am today. I picked up the phone and was quickly dealt with by very helpful T Mobile staff who pre credit vetted me and arranged to call me back at 7 this morning to complete the order. Alas the handset was invisible on their systems so they arranged to call me again on my office number at 9am. Which they duly have and I await a G1 before 1pm tomorrow.
In the course of this interaction I have fed back that the links were not active and also commended the first person who was very helpful to me on the phone yesterday evening. The great thing about this, is that the Twitter interaction makes me feel like someone is listening to what I think about the experience of joining T Mobile. My hope is that Nixon McInnes build up a large volume of feedback of all kinds and can actually get the T Mobile marketing chiefs to read it all and see the value of the interaction.
Now I await my first interaction with the billing system….
This is clearly all moving in the right direction. There was chronological serendipity when TMobileSharing appeared on Twitter and the email inviting me to place my order arrived in my inbox. Unfortunately the links in the web page were dead as they were not destined to work until 7am today. I picked up the phone and was quickly dealt with by very helpful T Mobile staff who pre credit vetted me and arranged to call me back at 7 this morning to complete the order. Alas the handset was invisible on their systems so they arranged to call me again on my office number at 9am. Which they duly have and I await a G1 before 1pm tomorrow.
In the course of this interaction I have fed back that the links were not active and also commended the first person who was very helpful to me on the phone yesterday evening. The great thing about this, is that the Twitter interaction makes me feel like someone is listening to what I think about the experience of joining T Mobile. My hope is that Nixon McInnes build up a large volume of feedback of all kinds and can actually get the T Mobile marketing chiefs to read it all and see the value of the interaction.
Now I await my first interaction with the billing system….
This is clearly all moving in the right direction. There was chronological serendipity when TMobileSharing appeared on Twitter and the email inviting me to place my order arrived in my inbox. Unfortunately the links in the web page were dead as they were not destined to work until 7am today. I picked up the phone and was quickly dealt with by very helpful T Mobile staff who pre credit vetted me and arranged to call me back at 7 this morning to complete the order. Alas the handset was invisible on their systems so they arranged to call me again on my office number at 9am. Which they duly have and I await a G1 before 1pm tomorrow.
In the course of this interaction I have fed back that the links were not active and also commended the first person who was very helpful to me on the phone yesterday evening. The great thing about this, is that the Twitter interaction makes me feel like someone is listening to what I think about the experience of joining T Mobile. My hope is that Nixon McInnes build up a large volume of feedback of all kinds and can actually get the T Mobile marketing chiefs to read it all and see the value of the interaction.
Now I await my first interaction with the billing system….