As regular readers to the Neptune Bar Hire Co blog will know, we are all about customer service. We like to get to know our customers, so that we can figure out exactly what people need, ahead of their event. We value that trait in other companies too; when Neptune Bars deal with suppliers, we like to receive a certain level of service, it makes us happy! We believe that it shouldn’t be hard to treat customers with loyalty and respect at all times.
But what have we done?!
Imagine, then, the surprise and shock of our director Mat waking up one morning to a message purporting to be from a certain social media provider - we shall call them Facebeak - advising that he had breached their community guidelines! Now, anyone who knows Mat will know that he’s not one to mince his words, but breaching community guidelines? This was somewhat puzzling, especially as he wasn’t told
how he had broken the rules. He wracked his brains to come up with anything that he posted that could possibly be offensive to anyone, but he has come up short.
Mat found himself appealing against the decision, an easy enough process, however within one minute of clicking the appeal button, a message came through telling him that the action was upheld and his personal FB account, along with his business Instagram accounts, would be deleted after 30 days and he had no further right of appeal.
We find this somewhat shocking, particularly as Mat’s business FB page and personal Insta accounts were still up and running. We fear that this may have been the action of a bot, or an overzealous moderator who got it wrong, but alas, there is absolutely no recourse open to him. Not only had months of hard work on the business Insta account gone up in smoke, but the really upsetting thing is that Mat had many photos of his children and indeed, his life over the last ten years on his personal profile. All gone, just like that – so many memories that are not held elsewhere. It’s been quite upsetting!
Keep your photos and data safe elsewhere
Mat has learned some hard lessons from this episode, particularly the need to keep precious photos not on his phone or on social media, but to use iCloud storage or an external hard drive to store memories. However, it has also highlighted how
not to treat customers. Facebeak does not allow you direct contact with an actual person; Mat and his team wasted hours trying to send messages and emails and looking for a phone number or any way to further appeal against the decision. At the end of the day, work accounts can be rebuilt, although obviously it takes time and money to do, but personal memories can never be replaced.
Some top tips to stop this from happening to you
- Don’t put all of your eggs into one basket; use more than one platform and spread your content across different social channels.
- Get a decent business website that you, or a trusted company or associate can maintain and manage. That is your asset and you control the content and access.
- Make sure you have alternative contact methods; at the very least, ensure you have a landline, mobile number and email address. A ‘chat’ function on your website is also a good idea, if you have the time or staff to manage it.
- Invest in a decent CRM (Customer Relationship Management) system, so that your contact with customers is safely stored and backed up. Mat lost some valuable client data when he could no longer access Messenger.
We are not knocking Facebeak; at the end of the day, they’re such a huge corporation and they have a job to do. Keeping such a huge corporation functioning from day to day is a tough job. However, the customer service element of running social media accounts is so important! To not be able to appeal a decision like this to an actual person, well, that’s pretty shocking. It’s certainly not the way we would want to treat our customers.
There we have it; please bear with us when contacting Neptune Bars, obviously it is a busy time of year for us with wedding season in full swing. The best way to reach Mat is by email, on
info@neptunebars.co.uk
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