In my last post, I used Nike+ support as an example of a company that really gets the nuance of service recovery. I finished my experience with them happy, even though they actually didn't even fix my initial problem. I guess I'm a sucker for the little things. Now let’s use LinkedIn as an example of a company that missed an opportunity to further cement my support (I remain an unabashed fan)....

For those not familiar, LinkedIn is the premier business online social networking site, with more than 20 million registered users. The site provides a technology conduit to leverage the Kevin Bacon “Six degrees of separation” mindset with professionals. I tend to recoil and gag a little with these sites, as they seem to multiply at a rate consistent with rats in Bangladesh, but I really like the LinkedIn site. Simple, intuitive and a great bit of technology. I didn’t hit a snag until I was trying to set up a LinkedIn Group for the Oregon Chapter of the American Marketing Association. The correspondence is as follows, (with my comments in italics, and parentheses):

Me: 2/1/2008 4:15 PM - (recreated from memory)

Hi, I am trying to set up a Group within LinkedIn for an association for which I am involved with. I am getting an error message when I try to prequalify members for inclusion into the group.

Can you help?
Thanks. Eric

LinkedIn: 2/1/2008 5:14 PM -

Dear Eric,
(good use of personalization - easy to do, but way better than the alternative) This is an automated response email, we don't mean to be impersonal but want you to know that we received your inquiry sent to LinkedIn Customer Support. (I actually like the fact that they poke fun at the impersonal aspect of an automated response).

We appreciate the time you have taken to contact us and we will get back to you as soon as possible.

Thanks,
The LinkedIn Customer Service Team

Me: 2/6/2008 8:19 PM -

Hi, I haven’t heard back from tech support (about 7 days ago) on an issue with the upload (gives an “unexpected error” message). Can someone please contact me at 503.977.6295 to help determine the problem and a solution?

I'm very frustrated with the customer service (or lack thereof), and hope that this email will spur some action, as I am trying to start a group that would increase LinkedIn users substantially. (In hindsight, a bit aggressive perhaps, but this really highlights the frustration that can happen when there is a problem and a lack of communication).

Thank you in advance.
Eric

LinkedIn: 2/7/2008 10:08 AM -

Dear Eric,
I sincerely apologize for the delay of our response. (Good start with a personal apology) We're currently experiencing a technical issue with group owners' ability to upload .csv files into their pre-approved members list. We are working to resolve this issue and hope to have it resolved soon.

We will notify all group mangers who are experiencing this error once it is resolved. I apologize for this error and thank you for your patience.

Thank you,
Matt K.
Customer Support Representative (All in all, not a bad message, but the key point here is that it should have been proactive, not reactive).

LinkedIn: 2/9/2008 11:17 AM -

Dear Eric,
We are pleased to announce that the issue you were experiencing while attempting to upload your pre-approved member list has been resolved.

Please re-attempt the upload and should you encounter any additional errors please do let us know.

Thank you,
Angela B.
Groups Lead, Customer Support

Me: 2/10/2008 8:53 PM -

Thank you Angela.
I appreciate the update.

Eric

Result: After getting a little snarky in my email, I finally did get some action, but that was after 4 days being in “no man’s land”. Your clients don’t know you are working on fixing something if you don’t tell them, and it is easy to feel abandoned as a consumer. Their process wasn’t bad, and the end result was a fix, but because I didn’t feel like they empathized with my situation and repeated attempts to utilize their site, my end impression was only so-so, when I started as an active ambassador.

Grading LinkedIn
Personalization: B+ (They actually did okay here.....not bad overall)
Responsiveness: C- (This should not have taken as long as it did, and certainly there should have been proactive communication of progress, or lack thereof).
Empathy: C+ (I never really felt like they empathized with my frustration. You just can't fake empathy)
Result: A+ (The end result was a fix. It is working well and I couldn't be happier with this aspect)
Overall Experience: C+ (I never really got past the feeling of abandonment early on. I was excited about this group, and the time it took really slowed us up)