Last Thursday the internet connection at my house died. My wife works from home and without an internet connection, she cannot get her work done. She called Time Warner Cable and the recording said there was an outage and crews were working on it. They did not give any estimate on how long the outage would last.

I did a quick search and found @TWCableHelp on Twitter. I sent them a tweet asking if they knew what happened and how long the outage would be. Within minutes I received the following tweet:

“@Cord Looks like there was a fiber cut. No ETA but we are in the field working on it. ^BP” – @TWCableHelp

I responded back thanking them for their quick response and asked if they had any kind of estimate on how long the internet would be down.  We were trying to determine if my wife needed to go elsewhere to get an internet connection.  Again, in minutes I received the following tweets:

“@Cord In many instances most fiber issues are resolved within 48 hours, many of those the same day. The ticket doesn’t reveal the extent of

@Cord the damage so I cannot accurately advise. ^BP

@Cord Will keep an eye on the ticket. However you’ll likely see services restored before it is closed. ^BP”

At times, I catch myself thinking about social media and potential marketing programs in these grand schemes.  I get caught up in my world and I forget that sometimes it is the little things that can make all the difference.  Time Warner Cable showed me that they have made a commitment to have employees listen and manage a Twitter account and they are empowering these employees to engage with their customers.  Just by engaging, Time Warner Cable has won the battle.  If you see  by the tweets I listed above, they did not know when the issue was going to be resolved, but instead of hiding and obfuscating, they were open and honest with the information they had and they offered to “keep an eye on the ticket” for me.

They took a customer, me who was once totally in the dark with no information and instead of having to call an 800 number, choose thirty-two different options in their voicemail tree and wait on hold for 30 minutes, I engaged quickly and easily online with a person who treated me like a real person and provided me real answers.  I cannot ask for anything more.  I would like to send my props to BP (rough initials) at @TWCableHelp for a job well done.

We have to keep reminding ourselves it is the little things that can make significant differences in people’s lives.  What is the low hanging fruit that we tend to skip right over that could make an impact on our customers?