Sometimes being an Evil Genius has its problems. One is when you have computer issues that you can’t solve with trying to power it using one of your minions. This does mean that you have to ask the manufacturer. I had to do that a few weeks ago as my laptop’s battery had finally decided to give up the ghost…
So I went on twitter to ask HP what battery I should buy. They came back, almost immediately, with a couple of questions about what machine I had. A couple of tweets later the nice person at the other end came back with a great tweet:
@confusedCoyote No problem. Good luck catching that road runner! 🙂
— HP Support (@HPSupport) January 13, 2015
That just got me laughing and I had to follow up with a comment about trying to catch my prey, the dastardly, Road Runner. Unfortunately, HP couldn’t even help me with the pursuit…. The excuse given is that the company isn’t in the hunting business! Poor them as they could make a large amount of money supplying the budding Evil Genius out there. They did it with the film industry after SGI folded in the late 2000s.
@confusedCoyote Not really in the hunting business. Have you tried ACME? I hear they make some pretty sweet rockets and laser guns.
— HP Support (@HPSupport) January 13, 2015
Their ultimate advice as I had to tell them about my problems with my current supplier, ACME. They only gave me scant advice that involved writing a strongly worded complaint and getting getter air-fresheners to get the smell of burnt fur out of my lair.
@confusedCoyote I would be writing them a strongly worded letter! And maybe get your scented candles or air freshener spray.
— HP Support (@HPSupport) January 13, 2015
That was one of the best interactions I’ve had with a large company on twitter. They are normally very corporate or ignore your pleas. Lenovo is one that is in second camp. I’ve been waiting weeks for them to come back with an answer! I think that they want you to call their 0845 number and make them money instead of helping over the internet. That maybe because they only have a PR team on twitter who won’t know what to do…
All in all, HP are doing social media right. They are great at answering your question as well as being human. Having a bit of fun at the end of a, quite, dull help request about what battery is needed for a laptop. All in all, a great end to a technical query about one of their products. Please HP never change this policy. Let your social media team[s] have fun. It may waste a couple of minutes but the people who purchase your products will remember the human touch. Not only that, they will talk about the experience to friends and colleagues about how good you are.
To finish off, and change the subject slightly. There is another good social media team out there. One that I use quite a lot of the time as I commute by train. That being the Northern Rail and Trans Pennine Express. They re-tweeted comments I made when there was a massive disruption of the British rail network due to storms. That post is somewhere on this blog [ including disparaging comments about UKIP ].
